Results of the 2013/14 HE Business and Community Interaction Survey.
The HE Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) Survey is completed by all publicly funded UK higher education providers and the results show the extent to which providers are embedded in the economy and communities of the UK. TheHE-BCI publication, released today, displays the full survey results for every UK HE institution. 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 HE providers. 130 spin-offs were started with some provider ownership in 2013/14 and over 4,600 graduate start-up companies were formed. For the first time in 2013/14, the HE-BCI survey collected data on Social enterprises, of which there were 229 identified as active, and 169 newly formed in the survey year. This is likely to be an under-count of the true figure since this data has not been collected by providers before now. In 2013/14 active spin-off companies employed over 36,000 people (FTE).
Number of new spin-off companies 2012/13 and 2013/14
The HE-BCI survey covers various types of interaction with businesses and communities. The results include the income earned by HE providers from activities such as contract research, consultancy, hire of facilities and intellectual property.
The table below shows the income earned by providers from business and community sources in 2012/13 and 2013/14:
Business and community income sources of UK HE providers 2012/13 and 2013/14 (£ thousands)
Source
2012/13
2013/14
Collaborative research involving public funding
963,027
1,143,879
Contract research
1,137,900
1,193,255
Consultancy contracts
408,155
441,858
Facilities and equipment related services
143,004
162,926
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and Continuing Education courses
653,401
679,076
Regeneration and development programmes
172,171
180,606
Intellectual Property (including sale of shares in spin-offs)
HE Business and Community Interaction Survey 2013/14 contains the full results of the 2013/14 survey for every HE provider. 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 2013/14 is available to purchase now from here
The annual analysis of the HE-BCI data by HEFCE will be published later in the year.
HESA data is collected from all publicly funded higher education providers in the UK, plus the University of Buckingham, which is a privately funded institution, but excluding The University of Wales (central functions). The 2013/14 HE-BCI data covers 161 HE providers (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 providers and business and the wider community. The survey collects information on the infrastructure, capacity and strategy of providers, 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 2013/14 and the previous financial year 2012/13, the figures for the previous financial year are those reported in the 2013/14 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 providers’ 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.
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.
Further headline survey results are published here.
HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.
For definitions of the terms used in this press release please see our Definitions page.
Annex - equivalent tables for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
