Politics, enterprise and innovation
We’re serious about success at Hertford, something which our societies and initiatives reflect.
Hertford Politics and Economics Society
Our Politics and Economics Society promotes intellectual and pragmatic reasoning and questions debates on contemporary global issues in relation to business, politics and economics. It promotes a closer interaction and collaboration between students, academics and practitioners, and offers networking opportunities within the college environment. They host a number of events, from round table debates and careers discussions to speaker and dining events.
Recent highlights include the MPs Ed Balls and David Lammy, journalists Owen Jones and Carole Cadwalladr, former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King and former Number 10 strategist Alistair Campbell, all of whom spoke at college and had dinner with a group of HPES students. For those more economically minded, HPES have facilitated a number of economics based projects with notable companies such as Barclays.
All-Innovate
The Oxford Foundry All-Innovate Idea Competition was launched as ‘Tri-innovate’ in 2015 as a joint initiative between Hertford, Pembroke and Wolfson Colleges. The three colleges joined together to champion innovation, and today All-Innovate encourages students to create teams that will build innovative commercial or social enterprises around the best ideas. The challenge is to develop these ideas – which may come out of academic work or other interests – by pitching them to a panel of judges, in front of an audience, for a prize and future mentoring.
Even if your idea doesn’t win a prize, All-Innovate can be a great learning experience. It’s not easy to put an idea across in a few words or a video, but if you can learn to do it, it can be a great help in life. Ideas selected for the pitch event receive feedback from the judges – people with experience of innovation – and a chance for mentoring support, as well as cash prizes of up to £10,000.