UTHSC economic heft tops $4B in state
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center gave the state a $4 billion shot of economic juice last year, a new study estimates.
University officials ordered the study to give taxpayers and legislators a new look at UTHSC’s impact beyond training the professionals who staff scores of health facilities. The study suggests tuition paid by students, grants and other sources of revenue exceed state support.
UTHSC is the state’s main taxpayersupported educator of dentists, pharmacists, physicians and other health professionals.
UTHSC campuses in Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville employ about 3,830 people, including 1,783 faculty members, primarily in Memphis. UTHSC’s flagship medical school and health education complex is located in the Memphis Medical District.
State appropriations to UTHSC totaled $146.8 million, or 28.6 percent of UTHSC’s operating budget last year. Other sources of money include grants and donations. For example, the National Institutes of Health awarded UTHSC researchers grants last year worth $33.7 million, while philanthropic support for the medical college was reported at $38.2 million in 2016.
“When compared to the total estimated economic impact of $4 billion, the economic contributions of Tennessee’s flagship public medical school to the state economy exceeded state appropriations for university operation by a factor of 27 to 1,” the report says.
According to the study, the four campuses’ direct economic impact was $2.2 billion, while vendors supplied another $719.3 million in products and services. Spending by UTHSC employees generated an additional $1.1 billion in business throughout the state.
The study, released Thursday, updates a companion report from 2011 that estimated the UTHSC economic impact surpassed $2.3 billion statewide. The latest report, prepared by University of Memphis economist Cyril Chang, arrives at its figures using a different computer model widely employed by universities and philanthropies to gauge their economic footprint.
According to the new study, UTHSC supported 32,333 jobs statewide.
Memphis’ campus generated the greatest economic impact – about $3 billion. Knoxville’s campus accounted for $668 million, Chattanooga $368 million, and Nashville $1.8 million.
Of the total jobs generated, Memphis accounted for 23,914, while 5,420 were in Knoxville, 2,984 in Chattanooga and 15 in Nashville.
The Memphis campus includes six colleges: dentistry, graduate health sciences, health professions, medicine, nursing and pharmacy.
Industries most affected by UTHSC’s economic footprint include other colleges, real estate, hospitals, physician offices, restaurants, wholesalers and lo-
cal government.
The $4 billion economic impact is comparable to the annual payrolls of a dozen manufacturing plants on the scale of General Motors’ 4,000-employee assembly complex at Spring Hill southwest of Nashville. Overall, the value of all goods and services produced by every shop, store, office, plant and enterprise in the state totaled $345.2 billion last year.
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center provided a $4 billion jolt to the state’s economy last year, a new study estimates.
UTHSC is the state’s main taxpayersupported educator of dentists, pharmacists, physicians and other health professionals. Campuses in Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville employ about 3,830 people, including 1,783 faculty members. UTHSC’s flagship medical school and education complex is located in the Memphis Medical District.