I attended both UCSD (undergrad) and UTCS (PhD), and UT Austin is light years ahead in terms of fostering entrepreneurship at the academic level. Examples: UT had one of the very first business plan competitions in the world 30 years ago (MootCorp) and it created the very first tech commercialization competition 10 years ago (Idea2Product). My personal experience is that the university administration (president, VP of research, Austin Technology Incubator, deans) is very encouraging in regards to any and all entrepreneurship efforts - the major obstructions have come from tenure-track professors. Most research professors consider exploring startups a waste of time, since it does not directly lead to publications.
Another example is that as recently as five years ago, UT's business school (McCombs) discouraged their graduating MBAs from diving into startups. Reason: their rankings were heavily influenced by the salary their alumni rake in immediately after graduation. So the official party line was to encourage them to go into big business with a cushy salary. Luckily that's changing now.
Another example is that as recently as five years ago, UT's business school (McCombs) discouraged their graduating MBAs from diving into startups. Reason: their rankings were heavily influenced by the salary their alumni rake in immediately after graduation. So the official party line was to encourage them to go into big business with a cushy salary. Luckily that's changing now.