According to the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM), nearly $29 billion of Greater Montreal’s GDP comes from the economic contribution of college graduates in the metropolis.
Posted at 4:00 p.m
Delphine Belzile The press
In 2016, the CCMM produced the report The Contribution of the Universities of Greater Montreal to the Quebec Economy. A recent data update reconfirms that the university sector is a “key driver” of Greater Montreal’s economic offshoots, Michel Leblanc, CCMM President and CEO, said at a news conference on Tuesday.
“The university sector is very much responsible for innovation in Quebec,” he says. According to the study, around 40% of research and development was carried out in higher education in 2020. Two-thirds were conducted in the greater Montreal area.
The economic benefits are not negligible: University activities catalyze $5.3 billion each year, according to Mr. Leblanc.
In the 2019-2020 academic year, the study found that the economic impact of university investments was $4.3 billion. The Chamber of Commerce estimates the economic contribution of sectors “closely linked to the presence of university graduates” at 60 billion.
Montreal, the country’s first student city
Last July, the city of Montreal was voted Canada’s best student city for the sixth time. Montreal welcomes nearly 173,000 graduate students each year, or 73% of all Quebec students.
In recent years, Montreal’s graduate share has grown, largely due to the growing number of international students, up 34% since 2014. confirms the CCMM study.
According to Michel Leblanc, a college degree is one of the “most profitable investments”. That’s an annual return of 16.1% over a working lifetime, the study said.
In addition, jobs that do not require post-secondary education are becoming increasingly rare, emphasizes Michel Leblanc. Jobs that only require a high school diploma are down 7%. According to the CCMM, there is a 63% growth in jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree and 108% in jobs requiring an advanced degree.