America’s Urban Campus (AUC) is a consortium of all major colleges and universities in the city of Chicago, including at the time of this report 22 institutions spanning from City Colleges to the School of the Art Institute to the University of Chicago. AUC retained Anderson Economic Group to analyze and provide a report on the economic and social benefits of Chicago’s colleges and universities, as well as their alumni and students. We collected data from all of the AUC members and from IPEDS.
We estimated the total economic footprint of the AUC member institutions in Chicago. To do this, we used aggregate operating and construction expenditure data to determine employment, earnings, and output in Chicago that is associated with AUC member institutions. In addition, we estimated the share of Chicago’s college-educated population that had graduated from an AUC member institution; and used maps to show the spread of Chicago university graduates across the state, the country, and the world.