New report shows universities crucial to ACT economy
FollowA new report by Deloitte Access Economics, commissioned by The Australian National University (ANU) and the University of Canberra (UC), found the two leading institutions contributed more than $1.7 billion of activity to the ACT economy.
The report underlines Canberra’s strength as a university town and demonstrates the importance of the higher education sector to the economy.
It found that in 2012 around 38,000 students were enrolled at the two universities, accounting for 92 per cent of the tertiary students in the ACT and pushing down the ACT median age to 35 years, lower than every other state except the Northern Territory.
The report also found every dollar of expenditure on the universities returned 80 cents of value to the local economy, and one in nine people in the ACT were university staff or students.“Canberra is Australia’s top university town, and this comprehensive report shows the benefits to the economy and society of having two great universities in the national capital,