Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerburg, Jack Dorsey and Daniel Ek all have one thing in common, aside from being multi-billionaires. They all dropped out of their respective college courses before going on to become hugely successful entrepreneurs.

But from the world-famous founders of Apple, Facebook, Twitter and Spotify, how many students fail to hit the dizzy heights of start-up stardom after deciding that college or university simply isn’t for them?

According to an article in the Atlantic, college dropouts over the age of 25 are 71 percent more likely to be unemployed and, on average, they earn 32 percent less than their contemporaries with college degrees.

That is where the American University of Bahrain (AUBH) is hoping to bridge the gap.

William Hurt, COO of AUBH, told Arabian Business: “How many stories have you heard about a founder dropping out of university? We hear them all the time. It’s a very common story. We hear about those who were successful, but what about those who were unsuccessful and now they’re left without formal education and a degree and without a business that might be viable.

Hurt revealed that plans are in place to launch an entrepreneurial incubator for the campus, which opened its doors in September 2019, aimed at supporting the start-up spirit among students within the educational environment.

“We’re trying to take these skills and work them into these electives, but also create resources for our students so that hopefully they can find one, two, three, maybe four concepts, while they’re students at the university, and while they’re getting their Bachelor’s degree, with access to the great resources the university has – professors, library resources, external organisations like the accelerators and incubators and possibly access to capital when they move towards graduation,” he said.

“We want to try to have that entrepreneurial process actually happen at the university, that’s the objective,” he added.

William Hurt, COO of American University of Bahrain (AUBH)

Over the past few years, several universities across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have introduced entrepreneurship and innovation into their curricula through credit courses and degree programmes.

However, Hurt insisted the employment market has changed considerably over the years – accelerated no doubt by the Covid-19 pandemic – and he acknowledged that higher education institutions must also change.

He said: “We have to make sure that the students coming out of universities can be employed. It’s no longer just checking a box and having a Bachelor’s degree, that doesn’t make you unique any more. Even in some cases having a Masters degree, doesn’t make you really unique. Now it’s about where is that degree coming from and what skills do you have upon graduation.”

Hurt revealed that of the hundreds of millions of young people due to enter the MENA labour market in the next decade, more than one in ten will be unemployed.

“What we’re trying to do is make sure we’re teaching the skills that are in demand today, but also those lifelong skills that will make people successful in the future,” he said.

He added that currently there is no model in place in terms of the university investing in potential start-ups as a business partner, but he insisted the work would “help us achieve our mission”.

He explained: “When students graduate from AUBH and become entrepreneurs with a fantastic company and when that company is looking for employees, they’re going to come back to the University to find likeminded students. This will create employment opportunities for our future graduates and will build an alumni association for our University that might become second-to-none as far as the start-up space is concerned.

“It’s part of a whole cycle to benefit the University’s community and hopefully at the same time provide opportunities to students that otherwise they wouldn’t have had.”