The economic and political development of each society has passed through its universities, which have made great scientific and technological progress since they began to combine teaching and research in the nineteenth century. Some of these developments revolutionized economics, such as the invention of the Global Positioning System (GPS) or the discovery of atomic energy.
But a university’s economic impact is not limited to innovation: a 10% increase in universities in a region, for example, represents 0.4% growth in GDP per capita. These enterprises are also great providers of direct and indirect labour, and even more so in those cities where life and productive activity are the protagonists, such as Cambridge (UK), Salamanca (Spain) or Heidelberg (Germany). In the United States, up to 20% of the area’s population can work at the university or in related services.
In addition, higher education is necessary for the training of young people, which is closely related to the economic future of the state. Higher education is the key to development, as it enables people to develop highly efficient jobs, and increases their weight in today’s knowledge society…
