Studentships
Business School
Research Studentship in Rural Enterprise
Professor David Deakins
david.deakins@uws.ac.uk
Located at the Dumfries Campus, the studentship’s research area will be focused on issues in rural entrepreneurship. This is a developing area of study and will provide an opportunity to take forward one of a number of themes: finance for small firms in rural environments, ethnic minority enterprise in rural areas, marketing of rural SMEs, or rural women’s enterprise. The precise nature of the research will be dependent on the expertise and qualities of the candidate.
The studentship will involve work with an established focus of expertise in rural enterprise as part of the Paisley Enterprise Research Centre (PERC). PERC has an established reputation with policy makers such as the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise. A number of projects have been developed in rural enterprise at the Dumfries Campus. PERC has successfully run a Rural Entrepreneurship Conference (REC) which will be held for the 6th time this year at Dumfries. The REC has established an extensive network of international contacts which are expected to lead to international collaborative research.
Recent PERC research projects have included ethnic minority entrepreneurship and access to finance for the Scottish Government. These studies have included a rural entrepreneurship dimension.
The Dumfries campus is an ideal locality for a studentship in rural enterprise. An existing excellent database and contact network can be drawn upon to develop the proposed area of research. There is an expanding academic community, which will provide a supportive environment for the studentship. As part of the development of the campus, new investment of £1.5 million by the Scottish Government will enable UWS to take over provision of services and management of an enlarged campus. With the expansion of Business programmes on the campus, the studentship will offer an opportunity to supplement the award through teaching on our entrepreneurship programmes.
Supervisory Team:
Professor David Deakins, Campus Director
Anne Hill, Lecturer in HRM
David Moyes, Lecturer in Marketing