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Outstanding support for student entrepreneurs

11 September 2026
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A panel of entrepreneurs addressing an audience. Behind them is a screen with the Alumni Entrepreneur Network on.

Students at Durham benefit from outstanding entrepreneurial support to help them turn their great ideas into successful businesses. The quality of the support available at Durham has been recognised in the National Enterprise Educator Awards, where we won the Enterprise for Good award, and the Times Higher Education Awards, where we have been shortlisted for Outstanding Entrepreneurial University of the Year.

Skills to succeed

With the world of work changing fast, it’s more important than ever that graduates enter the job market with relevant skills and experience to succeed.

At Durham, our offer for students includes the purpose-built Hazan Venture Lab, where students and graduates get support to develop ideas into businesses. Our Research and Innovation Services team brings huge business experience. Students across the University benefit from Durham being home to a world-leading Business School. And we embed enterprise into teaching and learning across the curriculum.

Double awards honour

Two people holding an award standing in front of a winner's slide.The National Enterprise Educator Awards judges praised our integrated pathway for helping students and graduates use entrepreneurship to address social and environmental challenges.

Initiatives including Game Changer, the Summer Innovation Fellowship, Enactus Durham, the Social Impact Fund, the Blueprint Startup Challenge, and Durham Venture School connect to create a journey from students’ first experience of innovation through to launching and scaling impactful ventures.

The Times Higher Education Awards are the most prestigious awards in UK higher education. That we’re shortlisted for Outstanding Entrepreneurial University of the Year recognises our overall approach to entrepreneurship, including how our alumni support our students as mentors, advisors, and investors. The winners will be announced on Thursday 26 November.

Student success stories

Great examples of our students launching successful businesses include:

  • Hey! Food is Ready, an online catering marketplace, which was a finalist in the Great British Entrepreneur Awards.
  • Charter Space, which builds specialised programme management software, and was the first British space company accepted into the prestigious Techstars Space Accelerator programme in Los Angeles.
  • Choppity, an AI-powered video editing platform, that featured on BBC TV’s Dragons’ Den.

Our Game Changer programme has been recognised as best practice by the United Nations, the Scottish Government and Times Higher Education, and its toolkit has been adopted by more than 50 universities worldwide.

 

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