We commissioned London Economics to assess the impact of the UK higher education sector’s teaching, research and innovation activities on the UK economy, focusing on the 2021–22 academic year.
This builds on previous work for UUK looking at the economic impact of international students and of university spending.
Overall economic impact
For every £1 of public money invested in the higher education sector across the UK, £14 is put back into the economy.
The total economic impact of the UK higher education sector on the UK economy is more than £265 billion.
This includes the impact of:
Research and knowledge exchange: £63 billion
Impact of teaching and learning: £95 billion
Impact of educational exports: £37 billion
Impact of higher education provider (university) expenditure: £70 billion
Benefits to the UK government from higher education teaching and learning
On average, each UK graduate who does their first full-time degree generates an extra £75,000 for the exchequer; including public funding to support teaching, compared to someone who could have gone to university but chose not to.
Total impact of the UK higher education sector sector across all activities in 2021-22, by location of institution
Impact of research and knowledge exchange
For every £1 of public funding for research, the UK higher education sector generates £9.90 through its research and knowledge exchange
Research
The total economic impact of higher education research is more than £54 billion.
This includes £40 billion from improved private sector productivity, and £14 billion from the impact of higher education sector spending on research.
Spending on research by the higher education sector also supports 121,500 jobs across the UK, in addition to jobs created by knowledge generated through research.
Knowledge exchange
Knowledge exchange refers to the sharing of knowledge, expertise and ideas between universities and their non-academic partners.
The total economic impact of spending by the higher education sector on knowledge exchange activities is £9 billion.
Knowledge exchange spending by the higher education sector also supports 39,600 jobs (full-time equivalent) across the UK.
