THE UK’s leading research-focused universities are injecting nearly £87 billion into the national economy every year, a major new study has revealed.
The aggregate contribution to the nation’s economic wealth generated by the 24 Russell Group universities equates to eight months’ UK-wide expenditure on the NHS and shows the importance of their role post-Brexit.
The £86.8 billion figure is contained in a new study on the short, medium and longer-term impact of Russell Group universities by the respected economic research consultancy, London Economics.
Its authors have undertaken the most comprehensive and detailed analysis to date of the group’s combined net contribution by calculating the impact of their teaching and learning activities, their world-renowned research, their spending on goods, services and people, and their value as a major exporter through the income generated from overseas students.
The total economic impact calculations are based on a snapshot of a single academic year 2015/16.
Among the key findings in are that Russell Group universities support a total of 261,000 full-time equivalent jobs – more than the population of Aberdeen.
Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Principal of the University of Glasgow and Chair of the Russell Group, said: "This analysis provides compelling evidence that our research-intensive universities are critical to the future prosperity of the United Kingdom.
“As we continue to recover from the financial crisis and carve out our position in a post-Brexit world, it serves as a reminder that higher education represents a smart investment in the country’s future.
"This new study throws into sharp relief how Russell Group universities are engines of growth and drivers of innovation in their local and regional economies.
"They will have a central role to play in delivering the government’s industrial strategy ambitions."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here