Measuring the Impact of Student and Graduate Entrepreneurship

Dr Kelly Smith

Setting the scene

What is enterprise?

Some Working definitions

Enterprise skills– The ability to ‘be enterprising’– E.g. idea creation; innovative thinking, opportunity spotting, problem

solving; identifying, sourcing and collecting resources; communicating; enthusing others; project management; costing and managing a budget…

Entrepreneurship skills– Business and new venture start-up– E.g. enterprise skills above plus strategic business planning; financial

planning; intellectual property use and protection, knowledge of legal issues relating to starting and running a business…

QAA Guidelines 2012

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/Publications/InformationAndGuidance/Pages/enterprise-entrepreneurship-guidance.aspx

QAA Learning Opportunities

Discussion

Where does student or graduate entrepreneurship sit in your institution?

Are we failing students?

"A key consensus reached by this report is that, in Britain, we lack the kind of education that stimulates entrepreneurship and innovation."

"University does not provide the know-how to launch or work in small, high growth business skills would be really beneficial to many young people.”

Smith & Williamson report ‘Unleashing British Business’

“Research produced by a forum organised by Smith & Williamson, the business group, along with Cubitt Consulting and The Centre for Entrepreneurs, argues that schools and universities are failing to provide education to stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation.

The Telegraph “UK schools are failing entrepreneurs” Sept 2014

Impact of Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education

“Enterprise and entrepreneurship education generally has positive benefits that should be expected to lead to some students starting new businesses and making contributions to the growth of existing businesses … the evidence does not conclusively show the attribution of this to enterprise and entrepreneurship education”

BIS (2013). Enterprise education impact in higher education and further education (p7)

Some argue that for new business creation courses, objectives should be primarily economic and include measures such as businesses started or saved, revenue generation and growth, job creation and retention, financing obtained and profitability

e.g. Storey, 2000; McMullan et al., 2001; c.f. Henry, Hill, and Leitch, 2004)

Higher Education Business and Community Interaction SurveyHE-BCI

• Annual survey that collects information on a range of university-led knowledge exchange activities between August and July.

• Data returned to HESA in December• Collects information on graduate start-ups (also called graduate spin-outs)

defined by HE-BCI as all new business started by recent graduates (within two years) regardless of where any IP resides.

• Undergraduate start-ups can be included where there has been formal business/enterprise support from the HEI.

• Can have any enterprise structure (e.g. not for profit, partnership or sole trader) but there must be some form of registration (e.g. with HMRC) before they can be included in the survey (required from 2011/2012).

Higher Education Business and Community Interaction SurveyHE-BCI

1. Number created2. Number still active which have survived at least 3 years3. Number of active firms - The total number of companies that are active, including those entered under 1 and 2 above, plus those companies which have been active for between one and three years.4. Estimated current employment of all active firms (FTE)5. Estimated current turnover of all active firms6. Estimated external investment received - excluding any investment from HEFCE/BIS third stream funds (such as Higher Education Innovation Fund)

HEBCI Statistics - Totals

Year Number created

Number still active which

have survived at least three

years

Number of active firms

Estimated current

employment of all active firms (FTE)

Estimated current

turnover of all active

firms (£000s)

Estimated external

investment received (£000s)

2008-2009 2048 1657 4008 7952 136,205 50,692

2009-2010 2357 1948 5064 9704 225,175 8,437

2010-2011 2848 2602 6413 11914 272,655 88,782

2011-2012 2726 2824 7036 13617 345,997 31,627

2012-2013 3502 3270 8127 15588 376,407 28,544

Totals for the six graduate start-up measures returned by universities by year

HEBCI Statistics – Number of Returns

Year Number created

Number still active which have

survived at least three years

Number of active firms

Estimated current

employment of all active

firms

Estimated current

turnover of all active

firms

Estimated external

investment received

Total number of

Universities in survey

population 2008-2009 74 65 78 74 64 32 1632009-2010 87 75 87 81 69 37 1642010-2011 97 78 93 82 75 43 1632011-2012 94 83 95 85 76 41 1632012-2013 98 87 98 86 80 42 161

Number of HEIs returning data by year and graduate start-up measure

0 54 73 62 70 75 1001 year 13 12 11 12 14 232 years 9 6 5 6 8 83 years 16 9 9 8 10 164 years 19 13 12 10 11 75 years 59 57 71 64 52 16

Number of years that a return was made by HEIs

HEBCI – Means

Year Number created

Number still active which

have survived at least three

years

Number of active firms

Estimated current

employment of all active firms (FTE)

Estimated current

turnover of all active

firms (£000s)

Estimated external

investment received (£00s)

2008-2009 28 25 51 107 2,128 1,584

2009-2010 27 26 58 120 3,263 228

2010-2011 29 33 69 145 3,635 2,065

2011-2012 29 34 74 160 4,553 771

2012-2013 36 38 83 181 4,705 680

Mean values for the six graduate start-up measures for data returning HEIs by year.

DLHE – Institutional Level

Self-Employment Business Start-Up Combined Number of RespondentsYear N % N % N %

2008-2009 70 2.8 - - 70 2.8 25372009-2010 129 4.6 - - 129 4.6 28122010-2011 165 5.1 - - 165 5.1 32042011-2012* 161 4.8 24 0.7 185 5.5 33722012-2013 179 5.4 35 1.1 214 6.5 3285

University of Huddersfield self-employment and business start-up returns for DHLE Question 5

2011-2012 2012-2013Question 30 Response N % N %Very well 545 16.20 666 18.20Well 749 22.30 812 22.20Not very well 451 13.40 463 12.70Not at all 511 15.20 495 13.50Can't tell 1104 32.90 1224 33.40Total respondents 3360 3660

Number and percentage of responses to Question 30 referring to how well the University prepared gradates for self-employment

* National average = 3.1 and 0.5%

HEAR

Experience of linking enterprise skills to the HEAR?

Lord Young’s Enterprise For AllHE Specific

1. Universities to have an elective enterprise module available to all students.

2. An active and supported enterprise society in every university 3. A ‘start-up programme’ in all universities that have business

schools holding Small Business Charter status. This should include specific provision for starting and funding social entrepreneurship.

4. Create an incentive and reward structure for enterprise activity at universities by developing an enterprise “E-Star” award, under the patronage of the Duke of York, to distinguish the universities that are delivering the strongest enterprise ethos and outcomes for their students.

Lord Young’s Enterprise For AllWider Recommendations

1. The publication of a Future Employment and Earnings Record after leaving education.

“Publishing this information through league tables would also promote competition and improvement amongst educators in their response to raising academic standards and their relevance to work and business.”

2. Developing an Enterprise Passport“For young people to record and demonstrate their enterprise learning and work experience throughout their education. This will be held digitally and offer a pool of accredited enterprise schemes and resources to educators, a differentiator for employers looking for proven employability skills alongside educational qualifications in a young person’s CV, and an accessible tool for Ofsted to assess the quality and level of a school’s enterprise commitment.”

Final Thoughts

• Universities help seed a substantial number of student and graduate businesses

• Routinely collected data is likely to be an underestimate• How do we better showcase and evidence what we do?• How can we / should we be doing more?

Comments and questions?