Entrepreneurial graduates and their contribution to the creative and cultural economies Paul Coyle Abstract Even today in the UK it is acknowledged that it is difficult to capture the full extent of activity in the creative sector, in comparison to other parts of the economy, given for example that the small scale of activity undertaken by many creative businesses is not recorded by UK government standard business surveys. The subjects enterprise and entrepreneurship have grown as a focus for national policy across the UK. The role of the university education and the contribution towards innovation is discussed here. The author supports the concept of "the Entrepreneurial University: He states that entrepreneurship can be learned. Yet it should be noted that students may exhibit entrepreneurial behaviours' without recognising such terminology. He puts forward a plea for entrepreneurial creative graduates. The creative Industries: definitions and measurements A variety of published reports have cited the important role of the creative industries in terms of economic and cultural impacts in the UK, EU and worldwide. However, there are a number of keys questions associated with the definitions of the term “creative industries” and measurements of their contribution to economic prosperity. In the UK, the creative industries were first defined by the Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport in a Creative Industries Mapping Document in November 1998. The document defined a number of creative sectors (advertising, antiques, architecture, crafts, design, fashion, film, leisure software, music, performing arts, publishing, software, and TV & radio). For each sector figures were presented for industry revenues, market size, imports, exports and employment, together with indications of potential for growth and the criteria upon which this growth might be dependent. Roodhouse notes that “These sub- sectors would not necessarily recognise themselves as creative industries, for example architecture has much more in common with construction than it does with the arts and antiques trade” “(Roodhouse, p. 1); the point being that the “creative industries” is a policy construct. A second mapping document was published three years later and maintained the original definition of the creative industries given in 1998 as: "...those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent which have a potential for job and wealth creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property" (DCMS, 2001, p. 5). The 2001 document also maintained the thirteen creative sectors that had been determined in 1998 but recognised “close economic relationships with other sectors such as tourism, hospitality, museums and galleries, heritage and sport” (DCMS, 2001, p. 5). Jarvis et al. noted in 2008 at the Regional Studies Association Annual International Conference in Prague that “much creative industries literature and commentary finds itself struggling for clarity as a result of the implicit acceptance of creative industries as a coherent single sector.” (Jarvis et al, 2008, p. 1). Clews reports that the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts evolved a “refined model of the creative industries focusing on how commercial value is created...The model organises the creative industries based on four characteristics: creative service providers, creative content producers, creative experience providers and creative originals producers” (Clews, p. 20). Coyle, P. (2012) 'Entrepreneurial graduates and their contribution to the creative and cultural economies', in Kooyman, R. (ed.) Pioneering Minds: on the entrepreneurial principles of the cultural and creatives industries. Utrecht: Eburon Academic Press, Delft, pp. 152-157.