I have finally spoken to Ian Robertson, chief executive of the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE), regarding figures for entrepreneurial graduates around the world, as promised in my previous blog.
After a game of telephone answer machine ping-pong, he told me that his organisation has a report due out next year that enlarges the NCGE’s report to China and South East Asia. A European report looking at 4,000 universities is also planned.
The UK’s 11 per cent figure of students in the survey engaged in enterprise and entrepreneurship related activities measure up well in Europe and Asia, Robertson told me as a sneak preview of next year’s report.
Robertson also suggested an explanation why the US is so far ahead – the Kauffman Foundation switched its funding from business schools to getting science, technology and engineering graduates more inclined to engage in entrepreneurial activites.
And in the UK, the picture is changing as universities have to compete for students now that fees are paid for by them, said Robertson.