Students at the University of Oldenburg are well prepared to set up their own company. In the current start-up radar of the Stifterverband and the Heinz Nixdorf Foundation, the university is ranked first among medium-sized universities.
For the first time, the University of Oldenburg has topped the current start-up radar of the Stifterverband and the Heinz Nixdorf Foundation in the medium-sized university category. It had already taken second place in the previous ranking in 2016. Among the 54 medium-sized universities with between 5,000 and 15,000 students, the university scored 11.7 out of a possible 12 points in four categories, clearly outperforming the next-ranked universities. "Based on the indicators in the start-up radar, the University of Oldenburg is the top address for start-up support among medium-sized universities in Germany," says the recently published study.
"The University of Oldenburg has been known for many years for its holistic start-up culture in research and teaching. The current start-up radar confirms that we are on the right path and certifies our exemplary performance in all areas examined," says Prof Dr Meinhard Simon, Vice President for Research and Transfer.
Founders receive excellent support
The authors of the Germany-wide ranking, which is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, surveyed all state and state-recognised private universities for the fourth time about their performance in supporting start-ups. A maximum of three points was awarded in each of the four areas of start-up anchoring, start-up sensitisation, start-up support and start-up activities. The survey analysed, for example, the extent to which start-up support depends on third-party funding, how visible the topic is on the university website, whether there are student start-up initiatives and how well prospective founders are supported. The start-up radar attests the University of Oldenburg top performance particularly in the areas of start-up support and start-up activities.
The various support activities at the university are coordinated and organised by the Start-up and Innovation Centre (GIZ) of the Department for Research and Technology Transfer together with the Professorship for Entrepreneurship and the Junior Professorship for Female Entrepreneurship. Among the successful start-ups supported by GIZ in recent months were the Oldenburg start-ups Fan12, ProtectMii and CONLYT ICS. In 2018, they received EXIST start-up grants, one-year funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the European Social Fund.
Excellent start-up climate
The Start-up Radar 2018 certifies that German universities have an excellent start-up climate overall. More and more students and graduates managed to turn their ideas and knowledge into their own company. In total, students and graduates from the participating universities founded almost 1,800 companies in 2017, many of them in the promising fields of IT services, medical technology and environmental technology.