Higher Education Provider Data: Business and Community Interaction 2022/23
Data on universities' engagement in the economy shows 165 new spin-off companies and nearly 5,000 new student start-ups in 2022/23.
View Higher Education Provider Data: Business and Community Interaction
Data from the Higher Education - Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) survey reveal that 165 new spin-off companies were formed in the 2022/23 academic year to exploit intellectual property (IP) originating with UK higher education providers. HE providers retained at least some ownership in 145 of these. A further 20 new spin-offs were founded having bought out IP generated in HE providers.
Over the same period HE providers filed 1,938 patent applications. An additional 4,276 patents were filed by external parties naming HE providers as co-applicants or HE providers staff as named inventors.
The number of new businesses started by recent students with formal support from their HE provider stood at 4,908 in 2022/23 – a new record high.
Business and community services
The HE-BCI survey also reveals the value of HE providers’ contributions to the economy in the provision of services.
HE providers generated over £721 million in 2022/23 by delivering nearly 3.8 million learner days of continuing professional development and continuing education courses.
Income from contract research grew from £1.6 billion in 2021/22 to £1.7 billion in 2022/23, while income from collaborative research involving public funding fell from £1.9 billion to £1.8 billion.
HE-BCI review and consultation
The HE-BCI survey is currently undergoing a major review to ensure that knowledge exchange data in UK higher education meets the needs of researchers and policymakers.
A consultation released today, Thursday 4 April 2024, includes a proposal to compile a national list of university spin-outs.
Notes
- Full results of the HE-BCI survey are published as open data on the HESA website. Most data tables include nine years of data, with older data available through HESA’s publications archive.
- See Definitions: HE - Business and Community Interaction for full definitions of terms used in the release and explanation of the coverage of statistics.
- See Upcoming data releases for a schedule of HESA Official Statistics releases.
- HESA is part of Jisc. Jisc is the data controller of personal data previously controlled by HESA. Privacy information on the HESA website has been updated.
- Jisc cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.
