The University Degree

The principles of Team Academy are deceptively simple. There are no classrooms, lecturers or academic ‘subjects’. All learning is self-directed and working for customers is the engine that drives the process of seeking out knowledge.

Each participant joins a team and has a financial stake in the limited company that the team sets up for the duration of the study programme. The task of the team is to find customers, devise products and services and deliver work that meets customer expectations, and generates profit. The team and its business provide the context for learning and developing a sophisticated set of team-working behaviours is just one of the challenges members face. Targets (financial and academic) and risks are shared; collaboration is essential and if one member fails to perform the impact is felt by the whole team. This encourages a strong sense of shared responsibility.

Beneath the surface is a robust theoretical framework based on a philosophy providing a matrix of processes and outputs that ensures rigour and quality in the assessment of students. 

The outcome is graduates who are:

  • Collaborative. Graduates who are able to work creatively and collaboratively with others, understanding and resolving uncertainties.
  • Generative.  Even though not the primary aim of the programme many graduates start during the programme the business they will continue to own and manage – this increase in economic activity is creates local employment locally and is additive to national GDP.
  • Practical. Many programmes teach business theory and process and leave student struggling in later life to work out how to understand the relevance of what they have learnt.  With Team Academy the practice and the theory are developed in partnership with the practical forming the basis for the academic understanding.

Watch the films and get first hand experiences from some of our undergraduates and graduates.