College Is An Economic Engine In Southwestern Ontario

Wed, March 29, 2023

St. Clair, its employees, its students and its graduates continue to provide enormous economic benefits to the school’s base communities of Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent, according to an annual update presented to the college’s Board of Governors during its March 28th meeting.

The report, tabled by President Patti France and Chief Financial Officer Marc Jones, explained:

The college engaged EMSI (a data analytics company) in 2018 to perform an economic value study.

The study assessed the impact of the college on the regional economy and the benefits generated by the college for its main stakeholders: students, taxpayers, and society.

The study reports on two main measures: economic impact, and return on investment.

The results of the 2018 study showed that the college has a significant positive impact on the business community in the regional economy, and generates benefits in return for the investments made by students, taxpayers, and society.

The college had EMSI refreshed the economic value study in 2019. This was done in response to the initial parameters outlined in the Strategic Management Agreement 3 (SMA3, with the provincial Ministry of Colleges and Universities), as one of the ten metrics that would be included in performance/outcome-based funding envelope. As the SMA3 process progressed, the college determined that using the economic value study as a metric could present challenges when trying to minimize the risk of reduced performance/outcome-based funding. This is due to the lack of economic value data beyond two years, external data changes (i.e. census) that make year-over-year comparisons difficult and leads to a problematic allowable performance target set by the ministry. That being said, the EMSI report provided supporting documentation for our Economic Impact of International Students metric.

The 2019 economic value study was presented to the Board of Governors on January 25, 2020. It showed strong improvement from the 2018 study on the economic impact and return on investment metrics. The college indicated it was committed to continuing with the study on an annual basis for the next five years (until n2024-25). An additional benefit of the study is that it allows the college to utilize the data when collaborating with community partners, as it assesses the college’s impact on the regional economy and the benefits generated by our main stakeholder groups.

In following through with its five-year commitment, the college had EMSI refresh the economic value study for 2020, 2021 and 2022. The 2020 and 2021 studies were given to the Board of Governors.

The accompanying chart shows the trends of some of the calculations:

The improvement from 2021 to 2022 in three metrics is due to a recovery from COVID-19:

• Operations Spending: The College increased its part-time staffing resources and discretionary expenditures to continue its excellence in student service and support.

• Student Spending: International students taught online from their home country reduced significantly as they returned to studying in our region.

• Total Jobs Supported: Due to the increase in the operations and student spending, the college’s total economic impact to the region improved, which inherently increased the number of jobs supported.

The college continues to promote economic growth and impact to the Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent regions. The results of these studies were shared with our local municipal leaders.

Below are the fact sheets included in the most recent EMSI report: