NJ University Generated $3B In Annual Revenue For State, Plans Continued Expansion: New Study

Projects such as Discovery Hall, the $46.7 million academic building that opened in 2021, support growth in the region and state, said the new study by Econsult Solutions Inc. (ESI) of Philadelphia.

The Glassboro-based university is planning another $1.5 billion in expansion projects in the next decade, campus officials said.

President Ali A. Houshmand, in a press statement, said: “Our economic impact is far-reaching. . . . We’ve doubled enrollment over the past decade and have expanded our operations to eight campuses. We’ve seen firsthand that serving more students and providing more access and educational opportunities benefits the entirety of New Jersey.”

Rowan anticipates an enrollment of 38,500 students by 2033 — up from 22,000 this year — with 6,000 employees and an operating budget of $1.4 billion annually. Projections call for increasing undergraduate enrollment to 26,000, graduate enrollment to 10,500 and professional enrollment to 2,000 – the majority of growth coming from online programs at all levels.

Building off its 2019 study that pegged the institution’s statewide yearly impact at $1.53 billion, ESI calculated Rowan’s nearly $3 billion impact in academic year 2023 based on "annual operations, research activity, capital investments, ancillary spending and alumni wage premium."

The study, "put into perspective why public higher education is critical to our society for creating opportunity through education. It also affirms the responsibility Rowan University fulfills as the innovation leader driving South Jersey’s—and increasingly, the state’s—economic growth," the university said on the cover page of the study.

"Put simply, for every $1 that Rowan spends, $12 in economic activity is generated in New Jersey," according to Lee Huang, president of ESI.

Billed as the fourth fastest-growing public doctoral institution in the nation, Rowan has 4,100 employees, but its day-to-day operation supports 14,700 full-time jobs, the study noted.

Rowan’s growth could lead to $4.9 billion in economic impact on New Jersey by 2033 with 25,000 total jobs supported, according to the report. That would translate into $4.4 billion in economic impact in South Jersey, the private Philadelphia research firm said.

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