Experts from universities and human resource firms say that the trend of many young graduates starting their own businesses has been growing since 2009. SMU said that it has 174 students who started 58 ventures over the last three to four years. At NUS, more graduates from the NUS Overseas Colleges programmes are returning to start companies, said Dr Lily Chan, chief executive of NUS Enterprise. Associate Professor Hooi Den Huan, director of NTU’s Nanyang Technopreneurship Centre, estimated that the number of students striking out on their own after graduation has jumped "by about 50 per cent" from 2009 to last year, although the base figure remains small.