Startups founded by students are of key economic and social relevance – in general, but especially in challenging times like these. The GUESSS project has studied the entrepreneurial intentions and activities of more than 267,000 students in 58 countries.

Since 2003, the GUESSS project (Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students‘ Survey), organized by the Universities of Bern and St.Gallen, has been dedicated to global research on student entrepreneurship. In the ninth wave of the GUESS survey in spring 2021, 17.8 percent of all students stated that they would like to work as entrepreneurs in their own companies immediately after graduation.

At 16.1 percent, Switzerland is at the back of the pack in a country comparison, but is at a similar level to the other highly developed industrialized countries. Nigeria and Indonesia are at the top, followed by several South American countries. The higher values in emerging countries were already evident in previous surveys and are due to less developed labor markets.

In general, it is confirmed that many students first want to gain professional experience before embarking on an entrepreneurial career path. In Switzerland, one in six students would like to work as an entrepreneur in the medium term, which is very positive. Interestingly, entrepreneurial intentions in 2021 globally are at a similar level as in previous GUESSS surveys. Since 2013, the percentage of students who intend to work in their own business 5 years after graduation has hovered around 30 percent. In Switzerland, the corresponding percentage is around 20 percent.

28.4 percent of all students and 9 percent of Swiss students stated that they had already started the start-up process. Around one-third of these projects originated in the university environment and in teams. Just under half of these students are certain that they want to pursue this entrepreneurial activity full-time after graduation. 22.1 percent of all students in the startup process said that they founded the startup mainly because of the Corona pandemic; in Switzerland, this figure is 10.6 percent.

10.8 percent of all students and 3.2 percent of Swiss:ins have already founded their own company, although most startups are still very young and small. The proportion of „corona entrepreneurs“ is surprisingly high: 33.7 percent globally and 9.3 percent in Switzerland.

Overall, it can be seen that the entrepreneurial intentions of students are relatively stable despite Corona. In a global comparison, Switzerland – like other industrialized nations – has rather low values, which, however, are not unpleasant in absolute terms. A „corona effect“ is clearly visible among companies that are in the process of being founded or have already been founded. How this will develop further will be exciting to observe.