Every Student is a Potential Founder
The prevailing narrative is that ‘redbricks’ are good for research and ‘former polytechnics’ are good for more vocational and work-based outcomes. This narrative is so oft repeated and largely unchallenged that my instincts tell me that this is where there is a breakdown in functionality and an opportunity for value creation. I contend that there is a big gap for a reformed enterprise and entrepreneurship agenda in higher education, driven particularly by post-92/former polytechnic universities. Whether businesses are dorm room-based or laboratory-based, there is an opportunity to better embed business into the functionality, experience and finances of these institutions.
Post 92 universities educate more than half of England’s undergraduates, and a disproportionately high share of first in family, commuter and mature students. These individuals bring life-tested perspectives on everything from social care to sustainable freight logistics. These are perspectives that London based venture funds often remark that they struggle to find in the usual Russell Group to Soho pipeline.
Simultaneously, regulatory and funding pressures are squeezing teaching led institutions harder than ever. The £9,250 cap, frozen since 2017, is now worth only £5,924 in 2012–13 money. That missing £3,326 is carved straight out of staff budgets, lab upgrades and hardship funds. Government teaching grants have collapsed by 78% in real terms over the past decade. Many post 92s are running structural deficits whilst compliance costs keep rising, but the pots of gold at the end of each acronymic rainbow keep shrinking. Add this all up and you have a perfect storm - universities need diversified income quickly; students need new career pathways that remain local and regional economies need engines of inclusive growth. Student-led and staff led ventures address all three pain points, but only if the cultural frame expands from "some students" to "every student."
The Higher Education Business & Community Interaction survey recorded a record 4908 new student led businesses last year, yet less than one third were founded by women and only 17 % by students from Black or Asian backgrounds. Opportunity clearly exists; access does not. Yet, there are outstanding case studies of the positive outcomes that can happen when things are done right; Hertfordshire’s Flare competition, run on a small budget, helped launch 71 active ventures in three years more than some research powerhouses achieve with million pound TTO budgets.
When institutions signal that entrepreneurship is for everyone, participation snowballs and venture pipelines diversify.
At many universities, “enterprise” still lives in the twilight zone of Friday-evening workshops that earn no credit. Scheduling it outside the standard timetable signals that venture-building is optional, perhaps even frivolous. Why not embed entrepreneurship inside mainstream assessment? Swap a traditional essay for a business model canvas accompanied by real customer interview transcripts? Surely it isn’t beyond reach for institutions to let students earn exactly the same credits for proving market insight as they would for analysing theory? Space-wise, many enterprise centres are hidden behind swipe card doors in the business school’s most polished wing can feel as exclusive as a private members’ club. Repurpose a disused common room instead: bring in workbenches, cheap 3-D printers, and a kettle; leave the doors (and blinds) open. Line the windowsills with prototypes triumphs and flops alike to normalise iteration. Visibility is an invitation; transparency is a permission slip to start. In an age where young people cite loneliness as the norm, why not create a digital bulletin board (built cheaply in Notion or Airtable - please no public procurement processes for custom built CRMs…) where students list projects they’re proud of but can’t continue, inviting their peers to pick up and iterate. There is so much “low hanging fruit” (and I absolutely hate that phrase, but find myself using it a lot…) for so many institutions to grasp. This is a two-way street, by the way – has a student union ever put forward a campaign about spinout equity?
