Last year, graduates founded 3,500 new companies, up from just over 2,000 four years previously, according to the results of the 2012/13 Higher Education Business and Community Interaction Survey. University leavers in England established the vast majority of the companies – more than 3,100 of the 2012-13 total. In Wales, the number was 240, and in Scotland about 150. The data, published on 20 March, suggest that no graduates founded start-ups in Northern Ireland that year.
Overall, university spin-off companies employed almost 39,000 people in 2012-13, up by 11,000 on 2008-09.
