The Caribbean does not lack entrepreneurs, but regional development would accelerate if more of them were tertiary-educated innovators who chose the path rather than being pushed onto it. Between September 23 and 25, 2026, The University of the West Indies, through the Office of the Board for Undergraduate Studies, hosted its Inaugural Undergraduate Student Leadership Conference and Entrepreneurial Expo (IUSLCEE).  The conference, held under the theme “Today’s Students, Tomorrow’s Leaders, towards 2050: Imagining Roles, Rights, Responsibilities, and Relationships”, drew participants from twelve countries and eleven higher education institutions.

The conference was significant and instructive for several reasons, chief of which were that it:

(1)   Highlighted the important role of undergraduate students in contributing to research outputs of universities

(2)   Expanded the scope of the discussion on the place of entrepreneurship as part of university education.

Entrepreneurship and economic development

One of the characteristics of the entrepreneurial landscape in most developing societies, and indeed of the Caribbean, is that many young entrepreneurs undertake business activity, which in some cases involves building on their innovative ideas, based on necessity (faced with difficulty finding a job) rather than strategy (driven by the vision and intellectual conviction to create a job).  A related, somewhat consequential feature is that most entrepreneurial undertakings fall in the Micro, Small, and Medium-sized enterprise (MSME) sector.  Data from the Caribbean Development Bank indicate that in the Caribbean these account for 70% to 85% of businesses.  These MSMEs contribute about 60% to 70% of GDP and employ an average of 50% of the workforce, rising to 80% in Jamaica.

It is, therefore, no surprise that wages in the Caribbean are generally low, given that many workers are employed by MSMEs, many of which are struggling.  This is not to suggest, however, that all large enterprises pay high wages.  Given that MSMEs contribute up to 70% of the region’s GDP, it is inevitable that the region’s GDP will be low compared to other regions.

A cursory comparison of the GDP of three randomly selected Caribbean countries against three non-Caribbean countries of similar populations, relative to the percentage of businesses in their MSME sector, innovation indices, and tertiary participation, plus two other large countries, both non-Caribbean with about the same percentage of their businesses in the MSME sector, is revealing. (See attached table).

It is generally accepted that entrepreneurship drives economic growth through job creation and stimulating economic activity in communities. However, several case studies show that economic growth can occur without development.  A 2026 study by Easterly and colleagues, building on work from 2001, showed that Pakistan, while seeing growth in gross domestic product (GDP), continued to perform poorly on human, social, and institutional indicators.  Between 2001 and 2010, Pakistan's GDP growth averaged 4.47% per annum. Between 2011 and 2019, it averaged 4.17%, and with 2026 growth projected at 3.7%, the average over the last three years will be 3.49%.  Yet with that kind of growth, per capita income is among the lowest in the world; so too is tertiary participation.  Its innovation index is also relatively low.  Compared with a slightly larger country, Indonesia, with about the same percentage of MSMEs, GDP, tertiary participation, and per capita income are all almost four times higher.

Entrepreneurship and higher education

The data presented (Table 1) tells several stories, and while it is to be readily acknowledged that there is no absolute “like-for-like” comparison among the countries, some insights can be inferred.  I offer four such:

(1)  The MSME sector accounts for a substantial share of business enterprises in most (if not all) countries.

(2)  Despite the percentage of businesses in the economy being in the MSME sector, and their contribution to economic or GDP growth, such growth does not necessarily translate into improved quality of life for a country’s population. 

(3)  The rate of unemployment is not a primary indicator of the overall health of an economy, nor is there a correlation between low rates of unemployment and GDP per capita.

(4)  There is generally a strong relationship between high levels of tertiary participation, a country’s innovation indices and per capita income.

Based on the foregoing, mindful of apparent outliers such as The Bahamas, and given the reliance of economies on MSMEs a strategic pathway is emerging.  To increase the economic impact of MSMEs, more of these businesses must be driven by entrepreneurs who innovate and create higher-value products and services. The key to achieving this lies in increased tertiary participation and promoting entrepreneurship among tertiary graduates. By doing so, a country will experience economic development, not just growth. The capacity of MSMEs to contribute to economic development lies in the quality of research that informs innovation.  Thus, a tripod for real social transformation consists of research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.  The university has a key role in providing the context and capacity-building for research, the inspiration and infrastructure that drive innovation, and the cultural shift in expectations that encourages students to think about job creation rather than getting a job someone else has created.  At The UWI, we have certainly moved the needle in the right direction with our pioneering Undergraduate Student Leadership Conference and Entrepreneurial Exhibition.  While the university must assume responsibility for building this tripod, sustaining and supporting it will require partnerships with parents, students, industry leaders, and the State.