Beta: An Experiment in Funded Undergraduate Start-up

This paper reports on an evaluation of a funded undergraduate project designed to enable student business start-up. The programme, entitled ‘Beta’, provides undergraduate students with £1,500 of seed-corn funding. The key objective of the project is for the participants to exit it with a viable and legal business entity through which they can start trading on completion of the course. The study adopts a case study approach and evaluates all aspects of the Beta programme, the actors involved and its processes and practices. The authors examine the development of the project and the challenges and hurdles that were identified and overcome to realize the project's goals.