Master of Arts in Social Entrepreneurship

Description

The Centre for Social Entrepreneurship (CSE) was established in 2006. In the very next year, the Master of Arts in Social Entrepreneurship (MASE) programme was launched by the CSE in 2007, with the aim of creating a pool of ‘social entrepreneurs’ who can bring about the desired positive changes in society through innovation and entrepreneurial action. The vision is to develop entrepreneurial young talent and create a cadre of ‘change makers’ who can understand society and its needs, and design processes to address these in sustainable ways. The programme also envisions developing entrepreneurial mindsets among young students, who are equipped with entrepreneurial knowledge and skills, and aim to adopt an intrapreneurial approach in existing organisations for solving social and/or environmental problems.

Introduction and Background

Being the first master programme of its kind, the Programme has evolved over a period of time. Since 2010 the Programme structure and content have been subjected to substantial revision every fifth year to keep it relevant to the dynamism of the world outside.

A major step in social enterprise creation, was, set up ‘Incubation Centre’ (IC) at the CSE in 2012, with initial support from the University Grants Commission to provide hand holding and support to the graduates of MASE programme. More than 47 social enterprises have been set up with the support of CSE-IC till June, 2019. Many of them have received the national and international awards and recognition. Later in the year 2022, it became a separate entity, and registered as ‘TISS Incube Foundation’ (TIF), a Section 8 Company. Institute Innovation Council (IIC)– the initiative of MHRD, is also being facilitated by the CSE and TIF.

The MASE Programme covers an overview of economics, polity and sociology, innovative problem solving, venture creation, business and organisational management, and leadership linking, with benefits to stakeholders. The programme curriculum blends cutting edge theory with field based experiential learnings to develop appropriate efficient, effective and economically sustainable entrepreneurial activities.

The MASE Programme is primarily targeted toward developing entrepreneurial skills, with focus on solving social/environmental problem. The three major dimensions of MASE Programme are: (i) Social Context, (ii) Entrepreneurship Skills and Process, and (iii) Management Tools. The Programme design is based on the ‘life cycle approach’ of enterprise creation. i.e. creative phase, venture creation phase and growth phase. The core of the Programme is ‘social enterprise creation’ with balanced decision focus on ‘effectuation and causal’ considering the phases of the enterprise. The entrepreneurial domain is based on ‘effectual logic’, whereas managerial domain is ‘causal’.

The CSE maps the curriculum on skill building with hand-on experience for social enterprise design. A designed mix of all the three in each Semester meets the overall objectives of the programme. The semester-wise distribution is as follows:

The MASE programme focuses on ‘effectual logic’ during the initial period, and gradually exposes the students to ‘causal logic’ at a later stage. The students will be allowed to understand and experience both, and take a creative decision to decide to adopt one or a mix of both.

Distinctive features of the curriculum are inductive pedagogy, blending classroom teaching   and   experiential learning   through   fieldwork, problem-solving assignments on social problems at individual and group levels, meeting and interacting with social and business entrepreneurs.

Graduates from this programme are supported to initiate social ventures and become social entrepreneurs, and find employment in a range of organisations working with people in securing employment, wealth and human security.

Program Rationale and Context

The field of Social Entrepreneurship has already emerged as an alternate development paradigm, leveraging knowledge of business management and entrepreneurial skills to solve problems related to society and the environment. The major reasons for this evolution are failure or withdrawal of state, institutions and/or market to deliver the needed service to the citizen especially the poor and marginalized groups (Seelos & Mair, 2005). The gaps in the existing economic order are felt in the areas of extreme poverty and hunger, access to basic needs such as health, drinking water, sanitation, education and energy etc., which are also the subjects of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The need for contextually relevant models with higher level of efficiency is evident. Social Entrepreneurship as a discipline has provided new hope as well as developmental opportunity. Our Centre for Social Entrepreneurship (CSE) has already taken the lead role in the academic arena, which is also wide referred across the globe. CSE desires to play critical role in training professionals, who would either take leadership in solving social problems with the help of sustainable business models, or, play intrapreneurial role in the organisations to contribute towards solving social/environmental problems, and bringing positive social change. In this way, the Masters of Arts in Social Entrepreneurship (MASE) Programme has been developing young entrepreneurial talent pool to become ‘change agents.

Program Objectives

The specific objectives of the Master of Arts in (Social Entrepreneurship) programme are:

• to develop individuals as entrepreneurs with a focus on social entrepreneurship

• to develop intrapreneurs with a focus on social/environmental problem solving

• to enable budding and practicing social entrepreneurs to solve social problems

• to create an environment for dialogue and discussion, and create the research base, for developing the knowledge domain in the emerging field of social entrepreneurship

Graduate Attributes and Program Outcomes

• Understanding Social Problems, and Problem Mapping Skill: The students will be able to understand the deeper layers of the complex social problems. They will be skilled in doing problem mapping for better understanding of the social issues, and develop the ‘Problem Map’ to capture the complex social issues.

• Problem Solving Skill: The students will develop their capacity of social and environmental problem solving. They will be skilled in designing innovative business models of social problem solving, for providing sustainable solution.

• Entrepreneurship Knowledge and Skills: The students will gain entrepreneurship knowledge and develop its practice skills through practical experiences of lancing their own pilot ventures as part this programme. The students will learn to develop Business Plan.

• Entrepreneurial Venture Design: The students will be able to launch and operate their own entrepreneurial ventures for social problem solving.

• Management Knowledge and skills: They students will be able to apply the management tools in their venture operation.

• Inrapreneurial Knowledge and Skills: The students will be able to apply their entrepreneurship knowledge and skills as intrapreneurs in the existing organisations.

• Research-related Skills: They will develop their capability to ask appropriate research questions, find sutaiable research methodology, develop proposal, use relevant quantitative and qualitative research methods to collect and analyse data, and write research report. They will be able to apply the research related skills in the venture creation process.

• Leadership Qualities: The students will develop leadership qualities. They will be able to build team, and mange and inspire them to achieve the organisational vision of social/environmental problem solving.

• Critical thinking: The students will develop ability to critically analyse things. They will be able to apply their critical thinking for analysing and evaluating evidence/data/information. Thet will be able to make arguments, claims, beliefs, decisions based, evaluate existing literature, practices and policies, and give suggestions based on the critical analysis of the empirical evidences.

Distribution of Credit Hours:

Overall /Semester Credit Distribution

Semesterwise Courses:

Proposed Commencement Year of the Programme (For instance, 2024-26 or 2025-27 batch)

2025-27 Batch

Curriculum Structure – Semester Wise: A Suggestive Framework

* As all the core courses are required for developing entrepreneurial orientation and motivation, 28 credit core courses are included.

Semester-Wise Listing of Courses and Other components

List of Elective Courses offered by the CSE to MASE Students

Note: Elective courses will be offered for a minimum of five students or more.

Note:The curriculum structure is tentative and subject to change.

Fee Structure:

*Institute reserves the rights to revise the Fees Structure of programme if necessary.

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