Making the Grade: The Economic Impact of Attracting and Retaining International Students in Ohio

“Making the Grade: The Economic Impact of Attracting and Retaining International Students in Ohio” draws on data from the U.S. Department of Education, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, to find that:

Increasing the share of international students at universities in Ohio would generate hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact and support thousands of new jobs.

• Raising the number of international students by two percentage points (from today’s 4.1 percent to 6 percent) of all college students in Ohio would increase their economic contributions by $420 million and create 5,751 new jobs for Ohio workers.
• If the international student population were to grow to make up 8 percent of all college students in the state, each year, the economic contribution of the group would grow by $835 million and 11,500 new jobs would be created.

Retaining international students in Ohio after graduation would create thousands of additional jobs, boost state GDP, and increase population growth.

• If the state succeeded in retaining 50 percent of its international student population for four years, instead of the annual roughly 30 percent it retains now, the students would have a powerful impact on the state’s economy in the long term.
• According to projected patterns, additional students would create as many as 8,864 new jobs within six years, increase GDP by as much as $1.4 billion over 30 years, and grow the state’s population by approximately 84,000 over 50 years.

Increasing the number of international students studying at Ohio universities is expected to benefit the overall academic environment and boost their global competitiveness.

• If the number of international students increased by roughly 15,000 people (the 6 percent scenario) or 30,000 people (the 8 percent scenario), the number of patents awarded at universities statewide would grow by 28.3 and 56.9 percent, respectively.

Read the full report here.

NAE is also releasing a three-page brief that looks at how Ohio’s policies of attracting and retaining international students could be applied to states across the country:

• There are 20 states that experienced a decline in the number of individuals living in their state with at least a bachelor’s degree between 2009 and 2013.
• Nine states in the country would have experienced a brain drain if they had not seen an influx of educated, foreign-born individuals in recent years.

Read the three-page brief here.