More than 75% of the Entrepreneurship students aim to start their own business

This is the 7th year of the joint UvA & VU master Entrepreneurship (since 2014/2015). About 85 students on average per year were welcomed. This academic year, 2020/2021, between 90 and 100 students were welcomed. This number is slightly higher than last year.

Origin per knowledge institute
49% of the students obtained their bachelor’s degree at the VU or the UvA, 30% at other Dutch universities, 15% at other EU universities and 6% at universities outside the EU. This is a major shift compared to last year, when only 22% of our students came from the VU or the UvA, 50% from other Dutch universities, 17% from other EU universities and 11% from universities outside the EU. Apparently the joint master makes better use of the potential of the VU and the UvA than before. It could also be that students make more safe choices for themselves. The drop in the number of non EU students can easily be explained by the COVID-19 crisis.

Demographics
40% of the students have another background than business or economics (like Psychology, Information Science, Future Planet Studies, Science Business and Innovation, and Communication Science). This is a bit lower than last year (48%), but it still strongly shows the diverse backgrounds of our students. 30% of the students come from business or economics at VU and UvA (15% last year). 28% of the students are female versus 72% male (last year: 42% female and 58% male). The average age of the students is 24 years. 18% of the students currently have their own business (last year 13%).

Entrepreneurship
On the long term, 79% of the students want to run their own business (versus 6% want to work at a corporate; 3% want to work at start-up or scale-up; 12% have another preference).
On the short term, only 28% want to run their own business (versus 12% want to work at a corporate; 28% want work at a start-up or scale-up; 32% mixed answers). Apparently, a significant number of students want to gain experience first, before they start their own business.

The long term figures are more or less in line with last year (70% own business; 6% corporate; 6% start-up or scale-up; 18% mixed). The main difference within the short term is that last year more students wanted to run their own business (43%) . Apparently the students are more cautious to start their own business at the short term.