Revealed: £6.6bn impact of top Northern Powerhouse universities

Eight of the Northern Powerhouse’s most research-intensive universities are collectively worth billions to the region’s economy, according to a new report.

The institutions making up the N8 Research Partnership contribute £6.6bn of GVA (gross value added) each year to the economy of the North, a reported titled The Power of 8: Knowledge, Innovation and Growth for the North has claimed.

The figure is nearly double the economic value of the entire Premier League.

Elsewhere, the report found that the universities of Liverpool, Manchester, Lancaster, York, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle and Durham together generated 119,000 full-time equivalent jobs, which is the number typically found in a city the size of Salford.

N8 universities were also found to attract a combined £1.26bn annually in research funding.

European Union funding was highlighted as particularly important to the region’s universities, with around 13% (£127m) of competitive research funding for the N8 universities coming from the EU.

The research, carried out by the Manchester-headquartered N8 Research Partnership and higher education analysis firm Viewforth Consulting, launches today (September 16) at an event in Leeds.

The findings have prompted Prof. Koen Lamberts, the vice-chancellor of the University of York and chair of N8, to call for new Prime Minister Theresa May to increase investment in infrastructure and innovation across the North.

Prof. Lamberts commented: “This research paints a compelling and comprehensive picture of the contribution our universities make to the Northern economy, creating jobs and prosperity for people from all walks of life.

“It makes abundantly clear that N8 universities are not just world-class research institutions, but also major economic enterprises, generating significant revenue and economic activity and driving inward investment.”

He continued: “The Government’s Northern Powerhouse agenda can and should play a major role in creating an environment that enables our universities to generate even more benefit to the Northern and wider UK economy.

“Such benefit can only come, however, if there is further investment in innovation in the North: in inward investment, in transport and infrastructure.”