In this age of fierce global competition, countries are investing in their youth by polishing their skills to make them active partners contributing towards the economic process.

A large chunk of this youth is studying in university campuses in order to acquire professional qualification.

A campus start-up is an emerging trend in universities across the world where ambitious young students develop new business ideas and establish small businesses.

Universities help these students by providing technical guidance, basic funding and infrastructural facilities; while campus start-ups provide the youth with an opportunity to be self-employed, utilise their skills, develop new products/solutions and benefit from the spill-over effects of knowledge creation.

According to The Economist, more than 7,000 campus start-ups have been created by the Stanford University campus alone. India has even developed a National Start-up Policy to help its technical institutes to encourage creativity and innovation among students.

A campus start-up is an emerging trend in universities across the world where ambitious young students develop new business ideas and establish small businesses

In Pakistan, entrepreneurship as a subject in universities is a new initiative that only a small number — like IBA, LUMS, SZABIST, LSE etc — have included in their syllabus.

Unfortunately, a large number of public sector universities have not incorporated the contents of innovation and creativity in their educational programmes. However, a positive step has been taken by the HEC through the establishment of the Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation (ORIC) in different public sector universities.

The campus start-up culture can be promoted in the country by adopting best practices of developed countries in utilising existing resources.

The first step for promotion of a campus start-up should be the provision of seed funding to interested students. The funding can be accessed by re-

designing the Prime Minister Youth Loan Scheme by allocating a fixed portion to ambitious students interested in developing new businesses and products.

The loan scheme was announced in 2015 to provide low-mark-up loans to youth for them to establish their own businesses. Out of 62, 000 loan applications, 15,790 of them — amounting to Rs7.12bn — have been approved.

A second way to help business start-ups is to provide them with shared office space or infrastructural facilities. The Arfa Kareem IT Tower is a step in right direction; however, sectors other than IT should also be encouraged by establishing similar physical infrastructure.

The third way to help campus start-ups is to provide a low-cost regulatory system so that students can incorporate their companies and register patents. A legal foundation helps a new business develop its brands and promote its products.

On the corporate side, there is a need to provide a supportive business environment for incubators, accelerators, venture capitalists, angel investors, promoters and scientists to facilitate campus start-ups.

The regulatory framework designed by the SECP for venture capital funds needs to be made more attractive by lowering capital requirements, operational restrictions and disclosure requirements.

Similarly, the Pakistan Stock Exchange should also encourage the listing of such start-ups for raising the necessary capital. They should be promoted by promising tax exemptions, tax credits and quick sales tax refunds.

Universities also need to encourage creativity, innovation and knowledge-creation by incorporating entrepreneurship in their courses, hiring market-focused faculty and providing academic support to guide students in designing business plans.

Lastly, it’s a combination of market responsive ORICs, reduced taxation, lower regulatory requirements, dynamic university departments, speedy registration and cost-effective access to capital that can unleash a culture of campus start-ups.

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, January 23rd, 2017