Capturing the Economic & Social Value of Higher Education

A report from DCU is breaking new ground in terms of measuring the full economic, social and cultural value of the Irish university.  Capturing the Economic and Social Value of Higher Education:  A Pilot Study of Dublin City University will feed into national debates on the importance of engagement.  It will also inform the way the Higher Education Authority creates metrics to evaluate the performance of Ireland’s higher education institutions.

In welcoming attendants, DCU President Brian MacCraith said

“In a period of diminishing resources and increasing student numbers, we seek to capture the full economic and social value of higher education, something that needs to be more openly acknowledged and celebrated in public and political discourse. Dublin City University is proud to have facilitated this pilot study and we hope it will provide a benchmark and inspiration for further work in this area.”

Tom Boland, Chief Executive of the Higher Education Authority, stated that the report being launched “represents an approach to valuing a range of activities undertaken by higher education institutions on which the HEA can usefully draw as we develop the institutional profiles on an annual, iterative basis.  As the authors acknowledge, ‘there is […] the risk, especially in times of austerity, that things which are not priced will be undervalued’. There is also a risk of the emergence of a false dichotomy between enterprise and civic engagement which militates against the cultivation of the synergies between the two. The holistic approach to capturing the economic and social value of higher education, outlined in this report, provides a means of guarding against these risks that is transferable and scalable. We look forward to engaging further with the project team in relation to this.”

For his part Professor Ronnie Munck, Head of Civic Engagement at DCU and coordinator of the research project said

“If we are to have a fully rounded higher education system in Ireland we need a robust set of metrics to capture the full social and cultural value contributed by the sector. Working with the HEA we hope to contribute towards a fair and transparent allocation of resources as well as showing the public at large how significant the