| Practice area: | Education and Labour Markets |
|---|---|
| Client: | Universities UK |
| Published: | 05 September, 2024 |
| Keywords: | economics of education higher education 2024 Public Policy |
London Economics were commissioned to assess the impact of the UK higher education sector’s
teaching, research, and innovation activities on the UK economy, focusing on the 2021-22 academic year. This analysis
builds upon our previous analyses of the economic impact of the UK higher education sector in 2021-22, in relation to the
sector’s institutional expenditures (here) as well as educational exports (here). This allows us to provide, for the first time, an estimate of the
combined total economic impact across all of UK HE providers’ core activities, all for 2021-22.
Key findings
- The combined economic impact across all of the UK HE sector’s core activities in 2021-22 amounts to £265.35 billion. Compared to the total public funding associated with these activities in 2021-22 (estimated at £18.54 billion), this corresponds to a total benefit-to-public-cost ratio of the UK HE sector’s activities of approximately 14.3.
- The economic impact generated by teaching and learning activities stood at approximately £94.78 billion, which is split almost evenly between the Exchequer (£47.34 billion) and students/graduates (£47.44 billion).
- The average net graduate premium achieved by a student completing a full-time first degree was estimated at £77,000 (in 2021-22 money terms), with the corresponding net Exchequer benefit associated with these students of £75,000.
- The economic impact associated with the higher education sector’s research and knowledge exchange activities in 2021-22 was estimated at £62.84 billion, consisting of £54.11 billion of impact in relation to HEPs’ research activities and £8.73 billion of impact generated by knowledge exchange activities.
The report can be found here.