Engines of Growth: Colleges Animate New England's Economy

New England Journal of Higher Education, The, Winter 2005 by Harney, John O

In a typical year, Greater Boston's eight research universities secure more than 250 patents and spawn 40 startup companies. The University of Connecticut generates $3.1 billion in economic activity and, among other things, brings a half million basketball and football fans to Greater Hartford. New Hampshire college students and faculty perform $6 million in volunteer work. The University of Rhode Island employs 2,437 staff and generates nearly $5 for every $1 it gets in state support. Despite its exemption from property taxes, Smith College can claim to be the largest taxpayer in the city of Northampton, Mass.

If New England campuses are prone to boasting about their economic impact these days, it's for good reason. They spent about $20 billion last year on day-to-day operations including instruction, research, building maintenance and student services. That spending, along with endless construction projects and considerable local purchasing by the region's 850,000 students and their visitors, reverberates through the economy creating a potent "multiplier" effect-one that an industry of economic consulting firms is ready Io calculate and package for legislators, regulators and anyone else who needs hard data to know that higher education is an economic goldmine.

In reality, however, those are just surface impacts. Colleges and universities power New England's economy much more profoundly by nurturing technology transfer in cutting-edge fields from fuel cells to genetics, by educating an enlightened, tolerant citizenry, by developing the skilled workforce sought after by high-wage employers and by rejuvenating urban and rural communities.

To be sure, those benefits also have a way of "boomeranging" as college towns occasionally become victims of their own success.

Following are some diverse perspectives on higher education institutions as economic engines ...

-J.O.H.