In a recently published editorial, Provost and Chief Academic Officer J. Christopher Clemens made a compelling economic case for Carolina, pointing out the multiplier effect the University has on money coming from both the General Assembly and tuition.
“If I asked you for a dollar on the first of July,” he wrote, “and told you that I was going to use it to help cure diseases, develop new technologies for energy storage, advise county and city governments on storm water management, perform symphonies, produce works of art, teach first generation college students, promote the state of North Carolina to the nation and world, and give you the dollar back at the end of the next June along with some extra change, you would think that deal was too good to be true.”
For The Well’s occasional series about University finances, Behind the Numbers, we adapted the provost’s article into a Q&A.
The North Carolina legislature sends approximately $540 million dollars in appropriations to the University every year. How does the University’s research enterprise multiply that investment?
Our faculty and staff multiply the money by raising $1.16 billion more dollars in externally funded research, an amount that places Carolina in the top 10 federally funded research universities in the U.S. — higher than Harvard, MIT or UCLA. Carolina research develops new cancer therapies, supports highway safety, helps understand the effect of storm surges on the nation’s coastlines and even discovers new exoplanets.
Research money employs about 9,500 people in 90 counties of North Carolina and generates $90 million in purchases from 6,500 businesses in 95 of our counties.
Are there multiplier effects from the tuition dollars collected by Carolina?
UNC collects over $400 million dollars in tuition from almost 30,000 graduate, undergraduate and professional students. Much of this money comes from outside the state and contributes to our state gross domestic product; the rest keeps tuition dollars at home where they can work for the people of North Carolina, while providing the No. 1 best bargain in higher education for students from North Carolina.
This year, our students came from 98 North Carolina counties and 40% of them were from rural areas. Eighteen percent of these students will be the first in their families to graduate from college. They will become the physicians, lawyers, artists, historians, business executives, government leaders, engineers and teachers of tomorrow. They will emerge with a great education, a diploma from one of the top five ranked public universities and well-prepared to be the workforce of the future that will attract new industries to North Carolina.
What other benefits does North Carolina reap from investment in the University?
In addition to teaching and research, the University supports innovation. Ideas and inventions from Carolina researchers have led to the formation of 274 North Carolina companies. These companies employ over 9,000 North Carolina citizens and generate $14 billion in annual revenue in our state. Together with the University’s affiliated enterprise, UNC Health, itself a $4B enterprise, these companies and our campus research operations represent 2.9% of the state’s gross domestic product. The estimated tax revenue from this slice of our economy is more than the $540 million in appropriations allocated to us.
What key message do you hope readers will take away from the case you’re making?
Every dollar UNC-Chapel Hill receives from the state legislature comes back to the taxpayers with spare change.
Even though it sounds like a deal that is too good to be true, the public employees of the first and most public university in the U.S. deliver on this promise year after year, and I am grateful for the work they do.
It’s an investment the people of North Carolina can make with confidence.
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Carolina: a sound investment, year after year - The Well : The Well - The Well
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