Start-ups and innovation-based ventures are essential for developing economies and young minds are usually keen on taking new avenues without hesitating about the risks associated. Equally important is to see these with the lens of social entrepreneurship. Therefore, universities are ideal places for nurturing these talents and developing nascent entrepreneurial abilities and intentions inclined towards social entrepreneurship, which may lead to social innovations, through entrepreneurial education and ecosystem. The present research attempts to examine the role of academic institutions as enablers to nascent social entrepreneurship through a well-organized model and empirical investigation. The testing of this hypothesized model is done in a two-step process. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is carried out to do the regression path analysis of proposed model. The findings indicate that, perceived entrepreneurial ability and entrepreneurial confidence affects positively the social start-up intentions of nascent entrepreneurs. In addition, start-up ecosystem affects the entrepreneurial confidence of nascent entrepreneurs. Therefore, establishing and maintaining a robust ecosystem in campuses of higher educational institutes can be considered as a policy for nurturing the nascent entrepreneurs. The research combines research areas of social entrepreneurship intentions nascent entrepreneurs, start-up ecosystem, and entrepreneurship education.