Global Entrepreneurship Week: University of South Wales tops league table for graduate entrepreneurs in Wales

Startup Stiwdio

The University of South Wales (USW) has been ranked first in Wales in graduate entrepreneurship according to data released by the Higher Education Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) survey. 

There was an increase of 345% in the number of new new firms started by USW graduates in 2019-2020 when compared to 2016-17, when only 20 such businesses were spun-out of the institution. 

This achievement is the result of the increased focus on enterprise and entrepreneurship at USW over the past four years, which has led to a range of different activities and developments to boost the numbers which are not only taking an interest in this area but are starting their own firms with the support of the university.

For example, the first dedicated graduate incubator in Wales - the Startup Stiwdio - was developed at the University’s Cardiff Campus, from an old Students Union building, to support those graduates from the Faculty of Creative Industries that were taking their first  steps into entrepreneurship. 

Two further Stiwdios - at the Newport and Treforest campuses - are planned over the next six months as a result of increased interest in starting new businesses from the student population at both sites.

Professor Dylan Jones-Evans, who, as Assistant Pro-Vice Chancellor for Enterprise, holds responsibility for this area at USW, was delighted at the improvement in entrepreneurial activity at the university but believed this was only the beginning of the journey to get more graduates to start up new firms. 

“Despite the challenges of the Covid 19 pandemic, we saw more new firms being established in Wales than ever before and, more importantly, increasing numbers of young people are looking to start businesses as they reconsider their future careers,” Professor Jones-Evans said.

“USW is totally committed to help all of those graduates who are looking to take the first step into developing their ideas into new businesses and, whilst we have achieved some success to date, we are looking to develop better ways of integrating enterprise and entrepreneurship into everything we do at the University and ensuring that more graduates are encouraged and supported into starting a new business”.

To build upon a range of different programmes already being run across the institution, a new programme was recently initiated to install an entrepreneurship champion into all 10 academic schools at USW. This is the first time this has happened within a Welsh university and is being supported by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW).

These posts will be the first point of contact for those students and graduates within the school who are planning to start a business. They will also support new programmes in enterprise and help to develop of community of entrepreneurs and supporters.

One of the newly-appointed champions is Adam Williams, director of the school of Design and Digital. 

“Enterprise education and the development of enterprising attitudes in individuals and teams is a core attribute delivered across all courses within the school of Design and Digital at USW,” he said. 

“As a result, we feel that our students will be well placed to add significant social, cultural, and economic value to society throughout their careers due to the embedded nature of the challenge-based curriculum we design for them.”

Within the School of Care Sciences, entrepreneurship champion Owain Jones has developed an Innovation Challenge for students, based on BBC Radio 4’s The Fix programme, which has helped to develop enterprising mindsets amongst final-year students from Health and Social Care Management and Community Health and Wellbeing degree schemes. 

“The USW Innovation Challenge has been a great way of bringing practitioners and students  together to focus on challenges within the NHS,” he said,

“By creating high-intensity creative problem-solving exercises, we have been able to encourage individuals to step outside their comfort zones and increase levels of confidence and communication amongst the students participating. 

“Thanks to the success of the programme, we are now intending to replicate this across the University and bring together students from a range of disciplines to look at real economic and social problems in an enterprising way.”