Graduates of Scottish universities see starting a business as a bigger risk than other UK graduates
New figures have showed that Scottish universities are producing fewer graduate start-ups than their English and Welsh counterparts.
A report by the
Higher Education Statistics Authority showed that per capita, graduates of Scottish universities are forming fewer start-up companies than graduates in other areas in the UK.
Scottish graduates have been forming more new companies recently. In 2009 – 2010, 129 new businesses were started by Scottish graduates compared to just 74 the year before. There were 227 new companies formed by graduates of Welsh universities and 2337 by those from English universities.
Liam Burns, president of
NUS Scotland, said: “Students often tell us that taking what is a massive leap of faith to start up their own company is just too risky when they have been forced into high levels of commercial debt during their degree.
“If we want to be comparable with the rest of the UK then the amount of money students have in their pocket has to increase. It would also be exciting to recognise students who focus their research into helping community organisations, social enterprises, local authorities or building Scotland’s economy.”
Alastair Sim, director of
Universities Scotland, said: “In the middle of a recession graduate start-ups in Scotland have almost doubled in the last academic year.
“Scotland’s universities work hard to develop learners’ entrepreneurship in many ways including mentoring, growth and development of business ideas, enterprise training and links with businesses.”