What’s the best place to start a business if you’re a student in New Jersey? According to the rankings by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur, it’s NJIT. Again.
The school ranked No. 1 in the state for both undergraduate and graduate programs for the fifth consecutive year – and scored well on the global scale, too. This year, NJIT placed No. 19 for graduate-level study and 33 for undergraduates, out of 300 universities worldwide.
A major reason behind the improvement was the first full year in operation of two ambitious organizations — the Center for Student Entrepreneurship, which is a one-stop shop for undergraduates led by research professor Kathy Naasz, and Center for Translational Research, focusing on faculty.
“They have very different missions, but they both contribute to the entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Cesar Bandera, associate professor and Leir endowed chair of entrepreneurship at NJIT’s Martin Tuchman School of Management, said.
And these two organizations are not the only examples of how the next generation of entrepreneurs are being assisted on campus.
The NJII Venture Studio is one of the state’s dozen Strategic Innovation Centers, though NJII President Michael Johnson says it’s one of a kind.
The NJII Venture Studio works to turn breakthrough ideas into high-potential startups grounded in IP. Backed by an $11.6M fund and based at the Profeta Center in Newark, it works with inventors, researchers and corporate partners to launch companies from New Jersey’s most promising innovations.
“It’s different from anything we’ve ever done,” Johnson said. “It’s not about investing in startups, it’s not about mentoring, it’s not about trying to help people in a garage — it’s about trying to build companies with corporate partners, where we’re de-risking the entire experience of a startup.”
Johnson said corporate involvement — from the beginning — is a differentiator and a difference-maker at the NJII Venture Studio.
“It’s intentionally different,” he said. “We’re not investing in founders, we’re building a company from scratch and we’re finding talent for it. We’re finding companies that have a distinct problem but are not well adapted to build the solution — so we build a company for them.”
Here are some other top workforce initiatives in the state:
Rowan: A PATH for the neurodiverse
The Autism PATH (Preparation and Achievement in the Transition to Hire) Program at Rowan University is designed to support students and alumni in the transition to meaningful employment post-graduation.
The program was created to combat the under-employment and unemployment rate of individuals on the autism spectrum. PATH consists of three components: career readiness, social engagement, and resource networks. The career readiness component provides students with individualized career coaching, workshops, mock interviews, job coaching, and career exploration opportunities.
Stevens: Research to market
Stevens Institute of Technology announced this year the launch of two landmark programs aimed at dismantling the traditional barriers between academic research and commercial application.
The new initiatives—Stevens Express Startup License and Stevens Innovation Access — are designed to transform how faculty and students launch startups and collaborate with global industry partners.
The Stevens Express Startup License introduces a “turnkey” solution for university inventors. By providing a set of predefined, non-negotiable licensing terms, Stevens is effectively eliminating months of legal back-and-forth that often stifle early-stage ventures.
For corporate partners, the Stevens Innovation Access program provides upfront clarity on intellectual property rights for sponsored research. Historically, IP negotiations have been a bottleneck for industry-university partnerships; this new framework removes those hurdles before substantive technical discussions even begin.
Rider: Veteran assistance
Military veterans and their families looking to trade their uniforms for business suits have a unique opportunity in Mercer County this summer. For the 13th consecutive year, the school will host its Veteran Entrepreneurship Training program, a tuition-free, six-week intensive designed to turn raw business concepts into viable enterprises.
The program is open to veterans, their spouses and dependents. Hosted by Rider’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, the course provides the foundational tools necessary to launch a startup or scale an existing small business.
“As the program enters its 13th year, I am continually impressed by the veterans,” Dr. Ron Cook, professor of entrepreneurship and program instructor, said. “They are eager to learn, and I’ve seen some successful businesses develop as a result of their efforts. My goal is to show them a process to evaluate their ideas so they can make better business decisions.”
Rowan: Teacher apprenticeships
Rowan University’s College of Education was awarded a $900,365 grant from the N.J. Department of Labor to pioneer a new era of teacher training in South Jersey. The funding, provided through the Growing Apprenticeships in Nontraditional Sectors (GAINS) initiative, will create 76 “earn-while-you-learn” positions designed to tackle the regional educator shortage.
This landmark award represents the college’s first grant from the Department of Labor, marking a strategic shift toward work-based learning models in the academic sector.
