| Practice area: | Education and Labour Markets |
|---|---|
| Client: | Universities Wales |
| Published: | October, 2024 |
| Keywords: | economics of education higher education 2024 Public Policy |
London Economics were commissioned to assess the impact of Welsh universities’ teaching, research, and innovation activities on the UK economy, focusing on the 2021-22 academic year. This report follows our recent analysis of the impact of the teaching, research and innovation activities of the UK higher education (HE) sector as a whole (here), and also builds upon our previous analyses of the economic impact of the UK HE sector in 2021-22, in relation to the sector’s institutional expenditures (here) and educational exports (here). Utilising these previous analyses allows us to provide an estimate of the combined total economic impact across all of Welsh universities’ core activities, all for 2021-22.
Key findings
- The combined economic impact across all of Welsh universities’ core activities in 2021-22 amounts to £10.97 billion. Compared to the total public funding associated with these activities in 2021-22 (estimated at £838 million), this corresponds to a total benefit-to-public-cost ratio of Welsh universities’ activities of approximately 1.
- The economic impact generated by teaching and learning activities stood at approximately £5.27 billion, which is split almost evenly between the Exchequer (£2.59 billion) and students/graduates (£2.68 billion).
- The average net graduate premium achieved by a UK domiciled student completing a full-time first degree at a Welsh university was estimated at £77,000 (in 2021-22 money terms), with the corresponding net Exchequer benefit associated with these students also estimated at £77,000.
- The economic impact associated with Welsh universities’ research and knowledge exchange activities in 2021-22 was estimated at £1.98 billion, consisting of £1.80 billion of impact in relation to Welsh universities’ research activities and £176 million of impact generated by knowledge exchange activities.
The report can be found here.