Students are becoming more entrepreneurial

It’s not often that students are the cause of a positive news headline, but it feels good to break with convention. A survey of English universities has discovered record levels of student engagement in enterprise and entrepreneurship thanks in part to funding from businesses.

The survey was undertaken by the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) and drew comparisons with the same research carried out in 2007:

Higher Education Institutions are showing greater engagement with the ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ which is being reflected in their mission statements.
Students engaging in enterprise and entrepreneurship has risen by almost 50 per cent.
The number of start-ups has increased to an average of 28 per institution which represents an increase of 27 per cent.

These increases may be driven by two main factors: a tough jobs market requiring a different approach to finding employment and the NCGE’s success in sourcing private funding (from HSBC, Santander and Serco) for enterprise initiatives.

The survey followed the recent Times Higher Education Award 2010 for The Entrepreneurial University of the Year which was won by the University of Hertfordshire.

It’s certainly good to hear that education institutions are waking up to the reality of a tough jobs market, and the opportunities that lie within self-employment. Sure, starting up your own business may seem like a scary prospect when studying text books at university or college, but if students are made aware of how starting up a company or embarking on a freelance career can be an achievable dream, then perhaps graduate employment statistics won’t make such depressing reading.

And on that subject… The most recent research has shown that graduate unemployment is at a 17-year high. A study of the graduate class of 2009 found that 8.9% were out of work in January 2010. Surprisingly, IT graduates fared the worst with an unemployment rate of 16%.

Clearly not everyone’s cut out for self-employment, but by developing a greater awareness and understanding of how it works, perhaps on-campus entrepreneurial spirit can be boosted further.