The Tokyo Consortium held the "University-Centered Ecosystem Center Strengthening Working Group" online on December 2022, 12. On the day of the event, universities, private companies, and local governments participated in discussions about collaboration between universities and private companies, its challenges, and future prospects.
The number of startups in Japan is small compared to major overseas countries, and there is a need to develop human resources who can create startups. The main reasons for the low number of entrepreneurs in Japan include ``fear of failure'' and ``lack of entrepreneurs nearby,'' which suggests the need for role models for people who are interested in starting a business. In particular, since startup creation from universities is limited, universities need to work on startup creation in collaboration with private companies, rather than nurturing entrepreneurs on their own. As a first step in promoting the creation of startups from universities, this working group discussed how to collaborate with private companies in entrepreneurship education, which serves as an entry point.
（1）大学のご意見
After the university explained the status of its efforts in entrepreneurship education, we received opinions on collaboration with private companies.
Regarding future collaboration with private companies, we received many comments that they would like to continue collaborating with private companies to promote entrepreneurship education. In addition, it was mentioned that in the future, there will be a need for consistent collaboration from entrepreneurship education to startup creation, and that there will be a need to deepen collaboration between universities and private companies like in other countries.
On the other hand, various issues were mentioned regarding collaboration. For example, there are cases where the university has not reached the stage of collaborating with private companies to develop programs due to a lack of human resources within the university, and cases where the university has not been able to develop a unified entrepreneurship education program and there are duplicate curricula among each faculty. The existing cases have been raised as an issue.
In building future collaboration as the Tokyo Consortium, we will create a forum for discussion while taking into account information sharing, creating points of contact between universities and private companies, and providing a forum for discussion and idea generation within the Tokyo Consortium. We received feedback that it is necessary.
（2）参加企業のご意見
We received examples of current collaborations with universities and opinions from companies regarding future collaborations. Examples of collaborative efforts with universities include joint development of entrepreneurship education programs and on-site lectures. Regarding the intention to collaborate with universities, we received opinions on collaboration through the implementation of business trips to universities and the provision of opportunities such as PoC for student entrepreneurs.
We also received a request to continue to have concrete discussions through university working groups and other forums in order to continue collaborating with universities in the future.
