Academics lacking entrepreneurship

Sir, It was with a growing sense of déjà vu that I read your report “Universities have no head for business” (August 18).

Having co-ordinated a major European study into university spin-off activities during the 1990s, it would seem that very little has subsequently been learnt. As in the current study from Nottingham University, our findings were that “many academics have no desire to establish a new organisation and to learn the new competences required to successfully manage an entrepreneurial venture”.

With various studies reaching the same conclusions, we should accept the fact that only a very small number of academics have any interest in establishing a new business.

Given this, our universities should switch their efforts to developing the entrepreneurial skills of postgraduate science and technology students, making entrepreneurship a compulsory postgraduate module on all courses and including commercialisation as an essential part of the dissertation.