This month University Alliance will hold its inaugural student enterprise competition Innovating Future Business, showcasing and supporting forward-thinking business ideas.
Budding entrepreneurs representing 11 Alliance universities will pitch to a panel of investors for a chance to win cash prizes from a prize pool of £5,000. The competition, run in partnership with hosts the University of Salford, takes place at MediaCityUK on Wednesday 10 May 2017 in front of a live audience.
On the panel of investors, who will also give feedback and helpful tips and advice on the proposals, are representatives from: ANS Group, Cariocca Enterprises, Marketing Signals, Wakelet and Web Applications UK.
The range of submissions include an award-winning prescription medication app, a Ugandan travel company, a child-friendly nail art bar, and a renewable energy company.
University Alliance equips students with an ethos of entrepreneurship to face the challenges of a global labour market. Statistics published last month by HESA show that 40% of UK graduate start-ups still active after three years are from Alliance graduates. Overall, Alliance graduate start-ups employ over 9,000 people and turnover more than £300m each year.
Commenting, University Alliance Chief Executive Maddalaine Ansell said:
“Entrepreneurship is core to the student experience at Alliance universities. It is one of the ways we equip graduates with the blend of academic, technical and professional skills they need to succeed in the fast-changing modern world.
“Alliance universities also provide a lot of support for students with ideas for business ventures and social enterprises. Alliance graduates account for 40% of the UK’s successful graduate start-ups.
“We hope that this competition will help a few more of our enterprising graduates take the next step with their business and social enterprises.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- For more information on Innovating Future Business 2017, visit our website. Click here to read more about the students’ business proposals, and more details on the investors can be found on our blog.
- Data on graduate start-ups taken from HE Business and Community Interaction Survey 2015/16 by HESA: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/publications/hebci-2015-16
- For press enquiries please contact Joshua Hastings, Communications Officer: joshua@www.unialliance.ac.uk / 020 7839 2757
