Emerging as an economic engine

DId you know that UMass Boston is one of the region’s major employers, a stable economic engine in the community? It educates more Massachusetts residents than any other higher education institution in the region. Each year its graduates provide to the region’s leading industries a steady stream of highly talented, well-educated workers. With their fingers on the pulse of the region and its needs, UMass Boston's researchers create the new knowledge that helps drive the growth of the region’s quality of life and economy.

UMass Boston and the seven other research universities in the Boston area give Boston a special advantage: an enduring economic engine of future growth. Three of the Boston's universities are ranked as the most productive research universities in the entire nation: Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among large universities, and UMass Boston among small.

Beyond the bottom line, UMass Boston strengthens the social fabric of the region by supporting neighborhoods and providing arts and cultural activities for thousands of people.

Stable foundation
While companies in the private sector come and go, UMass Boston remains a stable base in the community. UMass Boston employs just over 1,500 people (excluding students) — more than the number employed in Boston in engineering. It purchases goods and services from Boston area vendors. And the campus renovates its current facilities through the employment of local contractors and construction workers.

In 2007, UMass Boston spent $259 million on payroll, purchasing, and construction. The multiplier effect of UMass Boston’s spending within the region is $558 million in regional economic output – 8% of the $7 billion total of all eight research universities - and more than 4,159 full-time-equivalent jobs.

Talent generator
UMass Boston is developing Boston’s number one resource – talent. With just over 13,400 students, and over 80,000 alumni, more than 60 percent of its graduates choose to live and work in the state. As the pace of economic change increasingly demands that workers become lifelong learners, UMass Boston has emerged as a major provider of continuing education. UMass Boston generates talent in areas that have traditionally seen shortages in the region such as information technology, nursing, education, and business management.

UMass Boston is a gateway to the world. It serves the most diverse student population in New England with 36% of its students indicating that they are non-white and graduates regularly reporting that they speak over 90 different languages at home.

Research
UMass Boston offers doctoral programs in approximately 15 fields of study. It has a wide range of research partnerships that address the gaps in translating innovation between basic university research and the more applied needs of the economy. Student participation in research turns university graduates into the most efficient of all instruments for transferring new knowledge and new technologies from the region’s campuses to its employers. This participation also leads to new funding and partnership opportunities for our faculty and staff that in turn impact the regional economy.

Growing at a double-digit rate, in fiscal year 2007, research spending at UMass Boston reached nearly $35 million. Approximately $80 million was contributed to region’s economy as a result of the multiplier effect of research and development on underlying economic productivity.

Federal funding sources outside the Boston area account for 51% of all research spending at UMass Boston. 21% of extramural funding was awarded by state and local sources. As a result, UMass Boston generates a significant amount of revenue coming into the region.

New business development
Technologies first developed at a university have become an increasingly important source for the development of new products and new businesses. UMass Boston provides extensive support to faculty members, students and others that want to start new businesses based on innovations developed at the university. Through its Venture Development Center, opening in early 2009, reasonably priced lab and office space will help accommodate the growth of companies generated by (or attracted to) the university.

Formal programs aimed at educating student entrepreneurs have also been organized in an effort to enhance the student learning experience at UMass Boston. Budding entrepreneurs in the College of Management compete in the most prestigious regional case competition, the B-School Beanpot, held each spring at Boston University. This year, eighteen teams participated, with one of the two teams from UMass Boston placing fourth overall.

Community partner
UMass Boston is the only university in the region that is classified Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as both a Doctoral/Research and Community Engagement university. It is helping communities meet challenges resulting from the continued growth of a knowledge-based economy. In the area that most analysts believe is the best opportunity for the region’s urban core, life science research and development, UMass Boston is leading the way.

UMass Boston provides a pipeline of diverse talent for the life sciences industry that contributes to novel and innovative science and adds to the robustness of solutions. With Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, UMass Boston will launch a $10 million personalized cancer therapy center within the Venture Development Center’s state-of-the-art facility.

UMass Boston is also engaged in numerous efforts aimed at improving the quality of elementary and secondary education in communities throughout the Boston area. Its $12.5 million Boston Science Partnership award from the National Science Foundation supports science teachers in the public schools. And it provides important cultural resources for the Boston area, myriad concerts, exhibits and lectures open to the public.

Looking to the future

UMass Boston has an ambitious 25-year master plan that calls for rebuilding its infrastructure to serve the needs of the 21st century. Included is an integrated science building that provides space for scientists from the university and industry to develop new products and new businesses. Imagine Dorchester as a high tech hub, a continuous engine of knowledge, culture and economic growth for the future of the region.