The University of Florida’s Office of Community Relations held its monthly Eye Opener Discovery Breakfast on Wednesday, with this month’s topic focusing on the economic contributions of UF. 

Dr. Christa Court, associate professor of Regional Economics and the director of the Economic Impact Analysis Program in the Food and Resource Economics Department at UF, served as the guest speaker for the event, which took place inside Shula’s private dining room at the UF Hilton Conference Center in Gainesville. 

Before getting to the main topic of her presentation, Court provided those in attendance with background on the program she heads up. 

“We are an integrated research and extension program…with areas of expertise in regional economic modeling, economic impact analysis, economic contribution studies – which is what I’ll talk about today – and then disaster impact analysis,” Court said. “We do a little bit of everything related to size, scope and structure of the economy, and then how external factors influence that.” 

The focal point of Court’s presentation was the economic contributions of UF and related entities for the fiscal year 2023-24, which she described as an update to a previous study in 2017-18 conducted after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Our project scope and objectives were first to compile information related to university operations,” Court said. “Things like student enrollment and spending and visitor incentives for that fiscal year 2023-24, and then to use that information to drive our regional economic model so that we can estimate total economic contributions in the state of Florida, as well as Alachua County.” 

Court explained that the results from the study are preliminary, but they “were at the stage where they felt comfortable” discussing those total economic contributions at Wednesday’s event. She added that there is ongoing analysis still for earnings differentials and lifetime earnings, noting these would be included in the final report. 

Based on the initial results from the study, UF’s operating revenue for FY 2023-24 was $2.695 billion.  

“A lot of that is coming from those non-governmental grants and contracts that we get for things like research, as well as federal, state and local contracts and student tuition fees,” Court said. 

Meanwhile, UF’s non-operating revenue for the 2023-24 fiscal year was $1.731 billion, with most of those funds coming from state non-capital appropriations.  

For FY 2023-24, the report showed that UF’s expenses were $4.278 billion, with 70% of those expenses going toward employee compensation and benefits.  

 A pie chart provided in Court’s presentation showed that UF’s next biggest expense was services and supplies, which made up 19% of the total $4.278 billion. 

Court said something that was also key to consider is the spending associated with students at UF. 

According to Court’s presentation, the average cost of attendance for an on-campus student during the 2023-24 academic year was $23,150. For an off-campus student, the cost averaged around $15,780. 

A pie chart showed that room and board made up much of the on-campus living cost, while tuition and fees made up a chunk of the off-campus living expenses. 

Visitor spending at UF venues was also included in the initial study results, with a total attendance of more than 6.8 million people in fiscal year 2023-24. 

A doughnut chart showed that 60% of that total attendance was health and medical, with people coming for an outpatient visit at a UF Health facility.  

Athletic events, like football, basketball or volleyball games, and cultural events, such as the Philips Center and University Auditorium, made up roughly 40% of the total attendance. 

 “I think the important thing to keep in mind is that the activities of the University of Florida and its related entities support additional economic activity throughout the state’s economy,” Court said.  

Court concluded her presentation by going over the total economic contributions of UF and related entities to the state and Alachua County for fiscal year 2023-24. 

Based on the preliminary results, UF and related entities supported 134,000 jobs in Florida, with 60% of that number being direct support.  

Court described direct effect as “activity occurring within the University of Florida or within those related entities.” 

The total economic contributions also included $12.6 billion in value-added and $19.568 billion in industry output. 

For Alachua County, the initial results showed that UF and related entities supported 100,169 jobs for the 2023-24 fiscal year.  

Court said these jobs generated $9.4 to $9.5 billion in value-added, $14.066 billion in industry output, $6.569 billion in labor output and $278 million in indirect business taxes. 

After Court concluded her presentation, there was time for a brief question and answer session with the audience. 

“A lot of what I would like to learn through the questions is sort of what else we’re interested in, because we have a lot more data, and we need to figure out how to present it in the final report,” she said.  

Nick Anschultz is a Report for America corps member and writes about education for Mainstreet Daily News. This position is supported by local donations through the Community Catalyst for Local Journalism Fund at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.