Study: University of Missouri system has $5.4 billion impact on state economy

For each dollar that Missouri lawmakers choose to spend on the University of Missouri's four campuses, the state economy nets $13 more, according to a new report out Tuesday.

At a press conference in Jefferson City, University of Missouri system officials, including system President Mun Choi, released an economic impact study conducted by a third party over the past six months.

The study had several key findings:

The University of Missouri system — an umbrella term for the campuses in Columbia, Kansas City, Rolla and St. Louis, plus MU Healthcare and the MU Extension system — had a $5.4 billion impact on Missouri's economy in fiscal 2017.

The university system supports more than 61,000 jobs, directly and indirectly.

Local and state tax revenues collected because of the university system total more than $244 million.

The report also detailed the massive role played by the university's Columbia campus, Mizzou, among Show-Me State institutions of public higher education.

Of the four campuses, Mizzou makes up $3.9 billion of the $5.4 billion UM system economic impact.

Mizzou is the cause of $117.4 million in state and local tax revenues collected, the report also said.

The report authors noted that Mizzou "is one of only six public universities nationwide with schools of law, journalism, medicine, veterinary medicine, business, engineering and a nuclear research reactor all on one campus."

The study said that 268,000 UM system alums live in Missouri, about half of all the university's alumni worldwide.

In 2016-2017, the UM system awarded 11,000 undergraduate degrees and 5,800 advanced degrees, the report said, estimating their future value over the next 40 years at $1.9 billion.

Since 1990, UM system graduates in the workforce, assumed to be about 70 percent of graduates, have supported $46 billion in additional income to Missouri's economy each year, the report said.

The report said that the median income gap between college graduates and people only holding a high school diploma is about $17,500 per year.

To document a variety of perspectives on how the University of Missouri system is performing, report authors interviewed internal and external stakeholders, including business leaders.

Those interviewees said "there would be a noticeable void of readied talent, especially in the fields of agriculture and healthcare," but for the University of Missouri, according to the report.

A section of the report titled "The Perception of the UM System Is Improving" appeared to address the damage that the university, notably Mizzou, suffered to its reputation when a 2015 outbreak of racially charged campus unrest in Columbia forced the resignations of the University of Missouri system president and the Mizzou chancellor who were serving at that time.

"Another recurring sentiment throughout the (stakeholder) interviews was the belief that the best days are ahead for the UM System," the report said.

"Specifically, respondents felt new leadership was 'righting the ship' and helping mend strained relationships."

Interviewees also told report authors that the UM system "holds a sense of 'Midwestern humbleness'" and that the university should "become more comfortable in sharing successes."

The new report was prepared by Tripp Umbach, a consultant firm based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that recently completed similar assessments for the universities of Vermont and Tennessee, as well as the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area.

The University of Missouri planned to post live video of its press conference promoting the report at Facebook.com/UMSystem.

How does the University of Missouri system's economic impact compare to that of Springfield's Missouri State University?

There's no comparable report available from MSU at this time, and MSU has not conducted a similar economic impact study for at least 10 years, the MSU communications office told the News-Leader Tuesday.

“Missouri State appreciates the UM system undertaking this analysis," MSU officials said in a statement emailed to the News-Leader Tuesday afternoon.

"While our current funding would not allow us to underwrite this type of study, we are pleased to see it demonstrates, yet again, the tremendous economic impact higher education has on the State of Missouri and the communities in which institutions are located. We would have expected a similar return had we conducted a study. Higher education is a good investment that produces high value of return.”

Missouri State has four campuses including the main Springfield campus; a campus in West Plains granting two-year associate degrees; a campus in Dalian, China in partnership with a Chinese university; and a fruit science and agriculture research campus located in Mountain Grove.

The MSU system had 26,216 enrolled students as of Sept. 20, 2017, the News-Leader reported.

The UM system had 65,812 enrolled students as of fall 2017, according to data collected by the four campuses reviewed by the News-Leader Tuesday.

A legislative guide published by the Missouri State University president's office notes that among the Show-Me State's nine public university systems, Missouri State received the least amount of money per student from Missouri lawmakers in the 2016-2017 budget.

Missouri State got $4,672 per student, while UM System students benefited from $7,765 per student.

Like its peers, the UM system's economic contribution interacts with the rest of Missouri's industries.

As a whole, the Show-Me State generated a gross domestic product of about $265 billion in 2016, according to data collected by the Missouri Economic Research & Information Center, an arm of state government based in Jefferson City.

The United States GDP was $18.57 trillion in 2016, according to the World Bank.

These are the top 10 industries supported by the University of Missouri system

Each industry is listed with the dollar figure for its economic impact. Source: Tripp Umbach.

Colleges and universities $1.9 billion

Real estate $457.8 million

Hospitals $298.2 million

Owner-occupied dwellings $137.7 million

Agriculture $87.2 million

Restaurants $84.7 million

Wholesale $67.4 million

Hotels and motels $58.9 million

Wired telecommunications carriers $43.4 million

Insurance carriers $43.6 million