UK university spin-out rates continue to drop as startups take off.

UK universities are seeing more of their students set up businesses as their ownership stakes in the startups has been falling.

All 160 publicly-funded UK higher education institutions (HEI), plus the University of Buckingham, complete an annual survey, called HE Business and Community Interaction, and the results for the 2012-13 academic year showed 126 spin-offs with some HEI ownership, down about a third from 158 in 2011-12. After share sales and business closures, HEIs owned part of 1,069 spin-offs, compared…