Student entrepreneurship on the rise

A report published recently by MyCOS, an education consultancy, shows that more university graduates have ventured into business in the past five years.

From 2012 to 2016, the proportion of graduates who started up their business half a year after graduation has risen from 1.2 percent to 2.2 percent for undergraduates and from 2.9 percent to 3.9 percent for junior college students, according to the survey. The consultancy polled at least 250,000 graduates each year from 2012 to 2016.

The report also says even more graduates started a business three years after graduation.

It shows 5.9 percent of college graduates－undergraduates plus junior college students－chose to found a business three years after graduation, compared with 2.3 percent for those who did so half a year after graduation.

In terms of survival rate, 46.2 percent of businesses founded by undergraduate entrepreneurs continued to operate three years after being established.

The report says more than 80 percent of the graduate entrepreneurs started a business because they saw good business opportunities, while less than 10 percent did so because they could not land a decent job.

Among the 2016 respondents, 74 percent said they started their business in their home province, while 6 percent chose to establish their business in the province where their university is located.

Education and retail industries attracted the most college entrepreneurs－21.1 percent of the 2016 undergraduate entrepreneurs pursued a career in education and 13.9 percent of the 2016 junior college graduates entered into the retail business.