An op-ed by Mark Zupan, Alfred University president, which appears today (Thursday, Aug. 28) in U.S. New & World Report, discusses the important role higher education plays in the United States economy.
An op-ed by Mark Zupan, Alfred University president, which appears today (Thursday, Aug. 28) in U.S. New & World Report, discusses the important role higher education plays in the United States economy.
In the piece, titled “Why Hurting Universities Hurts America’s Bottom Line,” Zupan questions the wisdom of investing in the manufacturing sector at the expense of the knowledge-based services which currently drive the U.S. economy.
“Universities do far more than educate future leaders, create knowledge and drive scientific, medical and technological research and innovation,” Zupan writes. “They also power local and national economies by employing, training and investing in their communities and purchasing local goods and services.”
Zupan notes that of the 100 U.S. counties with the highest productivity, nearly half are home to at least one research university. “These 44 communities represent less than 1.5 percent of the counties in America, yet they generate 35 percent of the nation’s economic output,” he writes.
He also points out that American institutions of higher education bring in more money to the nation’s economy than the combined exports of natural gas, coal, soybeans, and corn. “It is universities that anchor the vibrant economic and technological hubs of greater Boston, northern California’s Silicon Valley, North Carolina’s Research Triangle and Austin, Texas.”
