The University of Cumbria has been named as one of the top institutions in the UK to have company founders among its alumni.
The research, by Novuna Business Cash Flow, combed data from social media platform LinkedIn of nearly 2.8 million alumni who founded companies between 2020 and 2023 from 121 universities across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The analysis was conducted using the ‘alumni’ segment on the official LinkedIn page for each university. The criteria filtered for alumni who held the job title ‘founder’ during the period 2017-2023.
While University of Cambridge topped the poll, University of Cumbria ranked sixth overall and is the only northern English university to feature in the top 10, alongside Russell Group institutions including Oxford University and University College London.
A comparative look between the periods of 2017-2019 and 2020-2022 reveals a decline in entrepreneurs across most regions.
However, nine universities defied this trend, including University of Cumbria, which increased its percentage of alumni entrepreneurs from 4.22 per cent to 5.10 per cent over the same periods.
Professor Brian Webster Henderson, deputy vice chancellor said: “Being named as one of the leading universities to produce company founders represents the importance and impact that the University of Cumbria is having in the region and beyond.
“Setting up a business can be challenging and so that’s why we are offering all new and returning students an enhanced support package that provides them with careers and employability support and guidance for up to three years after they graduate, further supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs.”
