The Boston area’s eight large research universities, including Boston University, contribute $7.4 billion, thousands of skilled workers and numerous new technologies to the area economy every year, according to a report commissioned by the universities and released last week.
The report, released at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast Mar. 11, says BU, Boston College, Brandeis University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, Tufts University and University of Massachusetts Boston will help the region stay afloat during tough economic times and eventually help it recover.
The universities employ more than 50,000 people and bring more than 100,000 students to the area every year, according to the report. Economic byproducts of various university construction projects, research and ‘new business development,’ and other purchases make up the $7.4 billion in annual economic stimulus, the report claims.
The schools’ research efforts, totaling more than $1.5 billion per year, also help develop new technologies and businesses, according to the report.
Chancellor John Silber called the report ‘conservative’ because, he said, many economists believe the universities’ job-creation power has a much larger economic impact than the report estimates.
Silber said the report is important to show area politicians, who he said sometimes ‘take a hostile attitude toward universities.’ He said he hopes the report will ‘change their attitude.’
‘These eight universities are the engine that drives the economy of Boston, just as Boston is the engine that drives the economy of Massachusetts,’ Silber said.
Ed Pignone, vice president of Communication for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, said though everyone knows the universities’ involvement in bettering the Boston area’s quality of life, the report brings their economic involvement to the forefront, an aspect he said business leaders rarely think about.
Pignone said the chamber has recognized higher education as one of the Boston area’s five leading industries, but the report confirms that they have a much broader impact on the area. The other four industries – financial services, health care, high technology and tourism – are knowledge-based industries and rely on the ideas and workers universities churn out yearly, he said.
But Silber said although universities are continuing to help the area economy in tough national economic times, politicians should pay attention to and do more to address several area problems to encourage even more growth. The high cost of housing and Boston’s under-performing public education system are two main issues, according to Silber.
‘The high cost of housing increases the salaries and the benefits we have to provide for faculty,’ Silber said. ‘Sometimes the kind of housing allowance that we have to provide is greater than the amount of money we have to spend to set up a laboratory for a scientist when he comes.’
He also said business leaders should help Boston Mayor Thomas Menino in negotiations with teachers, whose contracts’ lack of flexibility have tied his hands in attempting to improve the schools’ performances, which he said the business community has failed at in recent years.
Pignone said Boston business leaders have supported education reform efforts, mainly by encouraging the use of MCAS tests as a high school graduation requirement.
Officials in both Menino and City Councilor Mike Ross’ offices did not return calls about the report last week.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
