BU makes positive impact on the economy

21 April 2008

A new report reveals the importance of BU’s impact on the local and regional economy.

A new study released today shows just how important BU is to the economy in the local Bournemouth area and across the whole of south west England.

The Bournemouth University Economic Impact Study (2007) reports that BU helped to increase local economic output in Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch by £172.5M in that year.

BU also helped to improve local income levels by more than £36.1M, while supporting the creation of some 1,055 full-time equivalent jobs throughout all sectors of the local economies.

According to the report, the total amount spent by BU and its students contributed £240.8 million to regional economic output.

BU students also make a major impact on the local and regional economies by the amount of money they spend – the report shows that in 2007 they spent over £100M. Of this total, £88.9M was in the local area, and just under £100M was in the south west region.

The report also estimates that graduates and postgraduates increased their lifetime earning potential by attending BU. The impact of the ‘BU experience’ on the earnings of graduates in 2006, for example, is estimated to be more than £680M.

Professor John Fletcher, Head of BU’s Graduate School and co-author of the report, said: “The University impacts on the economy and society in a variety of positive ways. It injects significant amounts of demand into the economies, supporting employment and creating wealth by increasing the lifetime earning potential of its graduates.”

Professor Fletcher has spent 30 years pioneering the methodology of economic impact models and has constructed models on behalf of national governments and international agencies in every region of the world.

Professor Fletcher and Dr Yeganeh Morakabati also analysed University accounting data available for the year ending July 2006.

Information on student and staff spending was obtained via online surveys.

> Download the full report (PDF 553KB)