Key Factors for Student Startup Success: Insights from Higher Education Professors

The study aims to identify and analyse the key factors of student start-ups from the perspective of higher academic institution professors. Entrepreneurial students in higher education face challenges such as limited funding, scarce resources, lack of business experience and struggling to balance academic commitments with their start-up ventures. Additionally, they struggle with navigating complex business regulations and often lack access to proper networks or mentorship. This research contributes to a better understanding of how the entrepreneurial ecosystem in higher education institutions can support student start-up initiatives to succeed. For the research, a survey was conducted targeting ten experts from higher education institutions engaged with business or entrepreneurial study programmes. The research used the content validation method and descriptive statistical analysis to evaluate the responses, focusing on measures of central tendency and variability to determine the degree of consensus among respondents regarding the 36 statements provided. The study results revealed that while respondents agreed on the importance of student attitudes towards failure and self-confidence, there was strong disagreement among them regarding the belief that non-business students have a lesser chance of creating a successful startup. Also, experts suggested that entrepreneurship education should place more emphasis on the development of students' entrepreneurial mindset, which is considered to be an essential quality for the uncertain journey of entrepreneurship. Finally, the survey results indicated that networking and experiential learning are crucial for startup development. This underscores the importance of scientific debate not only on innovative funding models but also on non-financial support systems that surpass traditional educational methods in higher education environments.