Experts believe that more graduates will set up their own businesses this year in a bid to beat the growing queues of job hunters.
According to Andrew Burke, director of graduate programmes at Cranfield School of Management, the class of 2009 are not waiting to be rejected by employers but instead are looking to start their own companies to get ahead.
He said: "There's no question that this cohort of students is particularly interested in entrepreneurship; it's been increasing in the last few years and it predates the downturn."
Figures suggest that this year "between 12% and 15% are going it alone" instead of a typical 7% of graduates from Cranfield School of Management.
Mr Burke says that this increase is a result of a better network of support systems and a rise in the number of graduates who are budding entrepreneurs.
He said: "There's no question that the current downturn has brought a lot of this to the surface and accelerated the students' ambition, because there are fewer job opportunities around."
And according to research, entrepreneurs that set up a business in a downturn tend to do better than those who start in a boom.
