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UUK launches campaign celebrating “staggering success” in startups, but highlights “incubator economy” concerns
The number of startups founded at UK universities has increased by 70 per cent in eight years, but more needs to be done to ensure the businesses that emerge remain in the UK, according to a report.
Between 2014-15 and 2022-23, an average of more than 4,300 active startup firms were created in UK universities each year, a Universities UK analysis of Higher Education Statistics Agency data found.
Over the same period, student startup turnover across the higher education sector increased by more than 750 per cent, UUK said, from just over £574 million to more than £4.9 billion.
The analysis suggests that some 27,000 new startups could have been created by students and staff at UK universities by 2028, with a predicted combined turnover of £10.8 billion.
But university leaders are concerned that the UK risks becoming an ‘incubator economy’ if successful startups continue to leave the country due to what UUK terms “a lack of funding available to scale up”. This follows similar concerns raised by the House of Lords communications and digital committee. UUK also says there is evidence that UK startups are gravitating towards London.
Vivienne Stern, chief executive of UUK said the growth in university-supported startups over the last decade had been “a staggering success”.
“We can do more—both to encourage and support new businesses born in our universities, and to ensure that they can remain in the UK and grow here,” she said.
“This is just one of the ways that our universities can put their shoulders to the wheel with government to achieve stronger growth. Of course, they need to be on a firm financial footing to do this.”
The analysis accompanies the launch of UUK’s Unis Start Up the UK campaign, an initiative to showcase successful student start-ups and the work universities are doing to support them.
“Universities provide a foundation for economic growth through the knowledge exchange they conduct, and the graduates they educate,” Stern added. “Few people know that they also work closely with businesses to help them grow too.”
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