What Universities Are Doing to Keep the Next Mark Zuckerbergs from Dropping Out

What Universities Are Doing to Keep the Next Mark Zuckerbergs from Dropping Out

　　When Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook and dropped out of Harvard University, he inspired future generations of students to believe that they, too, might create successful businesses without getting a degree. One of Facebook's early investors, Peter Thiel, even went on to create a fellowship program which offers budding entrepreneurs up to US$100,000 to drop out of school for two years or skip further education entirely.

　　This is worrying for schools and universities. Earlier this year, for example, the Wall Street Journal reported that over a dozen students quit Stanford University to work on their startup that allows people to make payments on their mobile phones. Many students at Harvard have also taken breaks mid-course after receiving funding and mentoring from avenues such as the business accelerator, Y Combinator. Something similar is also happening at the University of California, Berkeley.

　　The latest attempt to counter this trend is the Experiment Fund at Harvard University, The Boston Globe reported. It is a seed-stage investment fund whose main goal is to give students at the university mentoring and guidance on their startup ideas while keeping them in school. If the fund accepts a project, the students get seed funding, but only after they have graduated. That gives them the freedom to concentrate on their studies, knowing that money will be available afterwards, and makes it easier for the university to ward off the predations of venture capitalists seeking to recruit its students. Co-founded by Hugo Van Vuuren and Patrick Chung, two venture capitalists who are both Harvard alumni, the Experiment Fund is a US$10 million investment pool. The university itself does not have a stake in the fund, but it gives the co-founders office space.

美国大学提供莘莘学子创业基金计划

　　当马克．祖克伯创立了脸书并从哈佛大学辍学时，他鼓舞了未来世代的学生，让他们相信自己也可以不用取得文凭就能开创成功的企业。脸书早期的其中一位投资者彼得．泰尔甚至接着创立了一项奖学金计划，提供初出茅庐的企业家高达十万美元来辍学两年或完全放弃升学。

　　这对学校和大学而言都相当令人担忧。举例来说，《华尔街日报》在今年年初报导十多位学生离开史丹佛大学去着手于他们新创立的公司，该公司让人们得以用手机付款。许多哈佛的学生也在接受类似 Y Combinator 公司这样加速创业途径的资金以及指导之后，选择休学。类似的情形也发生在加州大学柏克莱分校。

　　根据《波士顿环球报》报导，哈佛大学的『实验基金会』最近试图要扭转这项趋势。这是一个还在萌芽阶段的投资基金会，其主要目标是要针对大学生的创业点子给予辅导和指引，同时又能将他们留在学校。如果该基金会接受某个项目，学生便会获得种子基金，但这笔钱一定要在毕业之后才拿得到。此举给了学生们专注于学业上的自由，他们知道这笔钱之后就可以运用，这让大学比较容易抵挡投机的资本家想要招募该校学生的掠夺行为。这个资本额一千万美元的联合投资组织是由雨果．范．福伦和派翠克．锺共同创办的，这两位投机的资本家皆为哈佛校友。该大学本身在这个基金会并没有股份，但学校提供共同创办人办公的空间。