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WHO BENEFITS?
Beginning with the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990, and continuing with the higher education reform of 1997 (House Bill 1), our economic leaders have realized that our social, cultural, political and economic future depends on the improvement of education, and educational attainment, at every level.
These legislative initiatives were historic and courageous.
But the goals they establish cannot be reached without both the public and private sectors of higher education.
The vision of Bellarmine as the Premier Independent Catholic University in the South and the Leading Private University in the Commonwealth and Region will benefit Bellarmine University, its students and alumni, of course.
But it will also help the region make great strides in addressing its desperate need for 25,000 more college graduates a year to serve as the necessary, well-educated talent pool to attract, retain and advance business in the knowledge-based industries that create the economic development opportunity and the future.
Existing corporations in Louisville and the region will benefit immediately and increasingly as this vision is realized – and so will their employees, and their employees’ families.
The economic impact of private universities is significant. Nationwide, they employ three-quarters of a million people and had estimated revenues in 2001 of $120 billion – dollars with a cumulative economic impact of nearly $300 billion. Notre Dame’s economic impact on the South Bend area is $833M. Duke’s impact on its service area is $2.6B. Vanderbilt’s impact for Nashville and middle Tennessee is $3.4B. And Emory’s impact on Atlanta is also estimated at $3.4B. In fact, for every $1 Emory spends, $1.24 is generated indirectly in Atlanta’s economy.
This is what a premier independent university can mean to a local economy, just in the economic impact of its presence.
Add to that the production of more and more graduate and professional degrees to spur further economic development, sustain vital communities and provide professional services.
Bellarmine’s ascendancy will also benefit the public university sector, creating a more competitive, productive and stimulating higher education environment throughout the region.
Private universities need public universities to grow and succeed because we want to send our undergraduates to competitive grad-uate schools, and because we need to hire faculty from their graduate ranks, among others.
Public universities need private universities to grow and succeed because private universities, who depend on private money in order to operate, must be responsive, innovative, experimental, resilient and open to change – and thus can move to markets and to matters of high academic quality with greater facility, ease and speed. This serves to create a truly competitive environment that stimulates greater productivity among the public sector universities.