Results of the 2012/13 HE Business and Community Interaction Survey
The HE Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) Survey is completed by all publicly funded UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the results show the extent to which HEIs are embedded in the economy and communities of the UK. The HE-BCI publication, released by HESA today, displays the full survey results for every UK HEI. This release provides the headline results for the UK and for each devolved administration.
The survey results show the number of new and on-going spin-off companies associated with UK HEIs. 126 spin-offs were started with some HEI ownership in 2012/13 and over 3,500 graduate start-up companies were formed. In 2012/13 active spin-off companies employed nearly 39,000 people (FTE).
Number of new spin-off companies 2011/12 and 2012/13
The HE-BCI survey covers various types of interaction with businesses and communities. The results include the income earned by HEIs from activities such as contract research, consultancy, hire of facilities and intellectual property.
The table below shows the income earned by HEIs from business and community sources in 2011/12 and 2012/13:
Business and community income sources of UK HEIs 2011/12 and 2012/13 (£ thousands)
Source
2011/12
2012/13
Collaborative research involving public funding
874,068
951,149
Contract research
1,093,806
1,166,817
Consultancy contracts
397,787
400,403
Facilities and equipment related services
138,345
141,514
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and Continuing Education courses
640,834
653,337
Regeneration and development programmes
172,841
172,069
Intellectual Property (including sale of shares in spin-offs)
HE Business and Community Interaction Survey 2012/13 contains the full results of the 2012/13 survey for every HE institution. The publication includes the qualitative responses from Part A of the survey, as well as quantitative data from Part B (from which the above tables are drawn). HE Business and Community Interaction Survey 2012/13 is available to purchase now.
The annual analysis of the HE-BCI data by HEFCE will be published at the end of May.
The next scheduled release from HESA will be the Performance Indicators for Widening Participation and Non-continuation Rates on 27 March. A full schedule of HESA releases for 2014 can be found here.
HESA data is collected from all publicly funded Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the UK, plus the University of Buckingham, which is a non-publicly-funded institution, but excluding The University of Wales (central functions). The 2012/13 HE-BCI data covers 161 HEIs (130 in England, 9 in Wales, 18 in Scotland and 4 in Northern Ireland).
The Higher Education Business and Community Interaction Survey (HE-BCI) is the main vehicle for measuring the volume and direction of interactions between UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and business and the wider community. The survey collects information on the infrastructure, capacity and strategy of HEIs, and also numeric and financial data regarding third stream activity (that is, activities concerned with the generation, use, application and exploitation of knowledge and other university capabilities outside academic environments, and distinct from core activities of teaching and research).
In tables where comparisons are made between HESA HE-BCI survey figures for the latest financial year 2012/13 and the previous financial year 2011/12, the figures for the previous financial year are those reported in the 2012/13 HE-BCI return.
Some variations in the data between years may be due to availability of information from independent spin-off and start-up companies, and changes in HEIs’ reporting practices.
The survey has collected data for each academic year from 1999/2000, with HESA undertaking the survey since 2008/09. From 1999/2000 to 2007/08 the survey was undertaken, and its results published, by HEFCE: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/kess/hebci/
The data in this release relates to all UK HE institutions. Figures for the individual nations of the UK are available in the Annex below: England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland.