The UK¡¯s business secretary is facing a backlash after claiming British students lack ¡°drive¡± compared to their American counterparts.

Speaking at an event in London hosted by the AI giant Nvidia on Thursday, Peter Kyle, who was recently promoted from secretary of state for science and technology, told investors that British students don¡¯t have the entrepreneurship and ¡°vigour¡± shown by American students.?

Speaking about his experience of meeting students at Stanford University and asking them why they had chosen to go to university, he said: ¡°Every single student in that group of 10 or 12 said because they want to set a company up ¨C there wasn¡¯t one that said they didn¡¯t.¡±

But in Britain, ¡°if you went to a group of undergraduates, how big would that group have to be before you found someone that said their choice of going to university, and that choice of going to that specific university, was because they wanted to become a founder?

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¡°The entrepreneurialism simply isn¡¯t there ¨C the drive, the vigour.¡±

Kyle continued: ¡°Too often, people go to university to ¡®explore research and knowledge¡¯. I want people to go to university¡­to start businesses in our country.¡±

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The comments have sparked a backlash on social media, with commenting, ¡°Heaven forbid that students go to university to learn something!¡±, while ?on Bluesky noted: ¡°Every year my students are driven and engaged, some studying despite dealing with unbelievably hard situations. And ministers like him spout nonsense without troubling to think about how insulting it is.¡±

Another?Bluesky user? ¡°out of touch¡±, while others highlighted the financial strain UK universities are under.

Kyle made?similar comments at a Universities UK conference earlier this month, where he questioned why such small numbers of UK students see university as a foundation for launching their own business or commercialising their ideas.

He said at the UK conference that the country¡¯s regions needed leaders ¡°with a clear vision and the ability to inspire organisations from all sectors and deep down into communities to achieve things that they didn¡¯t previously know or believe was possible¡±.

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¡°If your area lacks ambition, clarity of economic vision and leadership, then please ask yourself, what is stopping you from using the colossal resource of your university, combined with your leadership skills, to inspire the change that your region or area might need?¡± he questioned.?

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com