Cambridge produces most business founders of UK universities

The University has produced the highest number of business founders in the UK both historically, and amongst its recent graduates

The University ranked ninth in comparison to US universities N CHADWICK/GEOGRAPH

by Clare Walsh

This article is 4 years old

Tuesday July 13 2021, 12:07pm

Cambridge University produces the most business founders of all UK universities, according to recent research.

Cambridge alumni account for 25,366 business founders, ranked above Oxford and University of the Arts London, in second and third place respectively. The rankings were assigned using the LinkedIn alumni search function to identify the educational background of business founders.

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Cambridge ranked top in the UK not only in total founders produced, but also in terms of both historic track record of alumni and recent graduates- those who have set up businesses after graduating within the last three years. In that category of new founders, 4,226 had graduated from Cambridge.

The University also ranked fourth in the UK according to the proportion of alumni who have founded businesses, at 8.8%.

The same research also looked at US universities, with Cambridge ranking ninth in a combined ranking of higher education institutions in the US and the UK. Overall, the top university is the University of California, Berkeley, with 44,139 of their alumni founding businesses.

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