Report Finds Michigan’s University Research Corridor an Asset to Economy

Public universities in most states compete with other state priorities for appropriations each year or two-year budget cycle. With the state’s fiscal year ending Sept. 30, no new budget passed by the legislature and a projected state revenue deficit of more than $1.5 billion for 2008, universities in Michigan may feel greater pressure to assert their importance to the state’s economy. The recent release of an independent analysis of the economic impact of the state’s three research universities, collectively known as the University Research Corridor (URC), may provide timely support for the argument to sustain or increase state investments in its higher education establishment.

 

Findings of the analysis indicate the URC is a major asset to the state’s economy, with contributions of $12.8 billion in 2006. The URC helped create 68,803 jobs in the state and produced 54 percent of the state’s science and engineering degrees, according to the analysis.

 

Released last week by Anderson Economic Group, the analysis is the first in a series of annual reports that measures the Research Corridor universities against six comparable university research cluster regions in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Comparisons are measured within student enrollment, academic R&D spending and technology transfer.

 

The URC ranks first among the university clusters for total number of degrees, both undergraduate and graduate. In 2004, the URC had the third-highest R&D spending of the seven university clusters at $1.32 billion, topped only by two California clusters, according to the report. North Carolina surpassed URC’s spending in 2005 by $5 million. In terms of technology transfer, the URC ranks fourth in average annual number of invention disclosures and patents and sixth in number of licenses granted. It lags the North California and Massachusetts' clusters in invention disclosures, licensing revenue and patent grants and the Southern California cluster in every measure except licensing revenue.

 

Conducted over a four-month period, the assessment is intended to benchmark the contributions of the URC universities to the state’s economy. Additional findings include:

• The URC employs 46,398 full-time equivalent employees and enrolls 133,331 students per year -- an enrollment total that exceeds those of all competing clusters.
• In 2006, there were 556,338 alums of a URC university living in Michigan, comprising 7.3 percent of the state’s population over the age of 18.
• URC alums earned an estimated $25 billion in salary and wages in 2006, or 13.4 percent of all wage and salary income in the state.
• The three research universities accounted for 94 percent of federal academic research dollars brought into Michigan, and all three are among the top 75 of more than 600 U.S. research universities.

The full report, Michigan’s University Research Corridor, is available at: www.urcmich.org/economic/AEG_URC_FinalReport_Sept07.pdf