Seville, (EFE).- The public university of Andalusia contributes almost 3% to the regional gross domestic product (GDP), the highest rate in all of Spain, by returning up to 506 euros of turnover and around 100 euros of tax revenue.
With 2.96% of the Andalusian GDP, these institutions place Andalusia at the head of the country as a whole, as extracted from the “Study of the economic impact of the Spanish Public University System (SUPE)” for the year 2021 published by the Ministry of Universities.
This report, which analyzes the Ministry of University, Research and Innovation, measures the direct, indirect and induced economic contributions derived from the activity of these institutions.
Public higher education in the community is made up of ten universities, one in each province, except in Seville, where Pablo de Olavide also has its headquarters; in addition to those of the International University of Andalusia (UNIA), which is present in Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and Seville.
According to said analysis, Andalusia leads the classification ahead of Catalonia (2.72%), the Canary Islands (2.53%), the Valencian Community (2.26%) and the Community of Madrid (2.20%) and distances itself of the national average in almost eight tenths, taking into account that the Spanish public university presents a contribution to the national GDP of 2.19%.
High social return
Therefore, the relevance of the Andalusian public university system as a pole of growth in the region’s economy is extracted from this first data, regardless of the role they play in other fields such as teaching, the Board highlights.
Likewise, this position underlines the profitability and high social return of public spending obtained by the ten universities in Andalusia, in line with the average for Spanish academic institutions, which multiply by five each euro allocated to them.
In the case of Andalusia, the regional transfers in 2023 are quantified at around 1,660 million euros, an amount that allows the region to lead, together with the Valencian Community, the classification of the territories that spend the most in this chapter, exceeding 0 .9% of regional GDP.
Economic impact
As this work reveals, the total economic impact generated in the country is mainly concentrated, with 61%, in three communities, including Andalusia, with 18%, approaching Catalonia (22%) and the Community of Madrid (21%).
Taking into account the values used by the study to quantify the economic activity of higher education, the ten universities registered during 2021 in Andalusia a global turnover of 7,426 million euros.
At the provincial level, Seville, with 5% of the national total, Granada, with 4%, and Malaga, with 3%, are the most prominent provinces within Andalusia.
On the other hand, Granada is the province with the highest relative impact in Spain, with its university activity accounting for approximately 8% of GDP. EFE