Education
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Five things to know about UGA report on economic impact of black colleges

Morehouse College graduates walk to Morehouse’s 132nd commencement ceremony, Sunday, May 15, 2016, in Atlanta. BRANDEN CAMP/SPECIAL

Credit: Branden Camp

Credit: Branden Camp

Morehouse College graduates walk to Morehouse’s 132nd commencement ceremony, Sunday, May 15, 2016, in Atlanta. BRANDEN CAMP/SPECIAL
By
Nov 14, 2017

The United Negro College Fund, with research by the University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth, released a report Tuesday on the economic impact of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges & Universities.

The report was based on the country’s 101 accredited HBCUs. Nine of those institutions are in Georgia.

Here are five interesting pieces of data from the report:

  • HBCUs generate an estimated $14.8 billion of economic impact annually, which the report said would rank them among the top 200 corporations in the Fortune  500 list.
  • The institutions create 134,090 jobs for their local and regional economies, which the report said is equivalent to the number of jobs by the data company Oracle.
  • More than one-half of those jobs, about 76,000 of them, are off-campus.
  • a HBCU graduate earns about 56 percent more than someone without college credentials.
  • For each job created on an HBCU campus, another 1.3 public- and private-sector jobs are created off campus because of HBCU-related spending.

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About the Author

Eric Stirgus joined The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2001. He is the newsroom's education editor. Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Eric is active in the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists and the Education Writers Association and enjoys mentoring aspiring journalists.

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