Entrepreneurship encompasses the creation of new businesses and the development of new business
opportunities in existing organizations. This work intends to understand the perceptions and attitudes of
Portuguese students from a public institution of higher education regarding the creation of new businesses.
A survey was conducted in 2014 and 2015 using an accidental sample of 336 students. The
data were analysed using SPSS 22.0. The respondents believe that entrepreneurship contributes to the
creation and growth of employment, that an entrepreneur is someone who has aradically new idea for
creating a new business, and 46% of them could imagine themselves creating their own business. For
these students, the probability of being able to create a successful business is, on average, 47%, and
the right age to do it is 28 years old. Around 49% of the respondents are interested in creating a new
business from an idea, mostly because it allows personal independence. Furthermore, despite being very
optimistic as regards the start-up survival rate, students show little proactivity. Indeed, the majority of
the respondents consider that business creation would be encouraged if the teaching institution provided
ideas for students willing to create new businesses.
