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.
Research and innovation coming from the University makes a significant part of that return. As the only research-intensive university between Manchester and Glasgow it provides a research beacon for a population of 2.2M people in Lancashire and Cumbria and works alongside the major private sector employers in the region in nuclear power, defence and security as well as the burgeoning “Elec-Tech” sector of smaller and medium size enterprises. Lancaster University’s research strengths include its Management School which pioneered aspects of management science, its linguistics department which was recently ranked third in the world and – from low-temperature physics to cyber security – our science and technology is known around the world. From this powerful research base the University has created more than 140 spin-outs and startups, and their impact was part of the economic survey.
Unsurprisingly the contribution of our people into the economy makes a significant economic impact. The University attracts almost 17,000 students to study in Lancaster at any one time and being ranked consistently in the top dozen of UK universities in the domestic league tables, it is a magnet for talented students from all around the world.
The study revealed that UK students graduating for their first degree are typically £67,000 better off over a lifetime for having studied at Lancaster – and this takes into account the fees, loans, living costs and opportunity costs too. This figure rises considerably for students with higher degrees. Interestingly, the public purse is also better off, as too are the employers, all by a similar amount.
The final aspect of our economic impact is the direct expenditure of the University and its almost 4,000 staff. As a major business and employer, the University seeks to be a responsible with its duties, and a visit to the campus makes clear the commitment to sustainable living. With its wind turbine and soon to be opened solar farm, the University is well on its way to meeting its scope 1 and 2 carbon neutrality targets by 2030.
The survey only quantified the UK impact. Lancaster University has a further 12,000 students studying for Lancaster degrees in our four (soon to be five) teaching partnerships in Ghana, China, Malaysia, and Germany. The Indonesian partnership opens this year. It is a story of positive impact that ripples out globally from an historic city base, suggesting that Moynihan was only seeing part of the picture of a university’s significance. Happy Lancashire Day from Lancaster University.
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