The government is keen to encourage undergrads with big ideas. The Australian Technology Network universities are keen to help

The Commonwealth has 2000 HECS-style loans to fund a one year place for final year students in a university accelerator, to work on a project of their own and wants to know how the scheme can work.

To which ATN responds the first thing the feds should do is “support” its members (Uni Newcastle, UTS, RMIT, Deakin U, Uni SA, Curtin U) to “create and deliver” a micro-credential in entrepreneurship, based on an existing ATN product.

ATN also suggests giving the loan money to the students to spend on their project, rather “than funding their university to build its own capability and infrastructure.” And it proposes extra support for students from, “less financially well-off backgrounds.”

As to what should be started up, “social enterprise and impact should be at the heart of start up year.”