The Harvard academic and US senator, Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said: “If you want to build a great city, create a university and wait 200 years”. While its proud and great city location has a history stretching back to Roman times, Lancaster University was built just 60 years ago, yet the impact of the University on its city, the wider north west region and the UK has recently been quantified and is already bearing out Moynihan’s words. This is something that we have been celebrating as part of Lancashire Day which is marked on 27 November each year.
London Economics has recently published its analysis of the economic impact of Lancaster University and the findings are revealing. Based on an analysis of the academic year 2021-2022, the survey reveals that the University contributed £2B to the UK economy with almost two-thirds of that focused in the north west of England. Compared with its operating income of £308M this represents a 6.4 to 1 ratio of return on that income.
