UNC-Chapel Hill is trying to prove its worth. Here’s what that looks like
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- UNC alumni network contributed $18.3 billion to North Carolina's GDP last fiscal year.
- 537 UNC-affiliated startups in NC contributed $4.3 billion and employ over 33,600 people.
- UNC research supports 24,000 jobs and generates $5.5 billion in economic activity.
UNC-Chapel Hill is on a mission to prove its worth.
The effort comes “as North Carolina lawmakers continue to question the value of public higher education,” the university said in an email to press. That looks like cuts to academic centers in proposed state budgets and mandated studies on return on investment for NC’s college graduates. UNC System President Peter Hans told The News & Observer that “the big critique of higher education is it costs too much and delivers too little.”
UNC, in an attempt to answer those questions of value, used economic modeling to quantify exactly what it’s delivering. It estimated the economic impact of its alumni network, its employees, its research, and its affiliated startup companies.
“Our most generous contributor are the taxpayers in the state of North Carolina,” UNC’s chief strategic officer, Chris McClure, told The N&O. “The legislature appropriates millions upon millions of dollars every year to the university, and without their support, the university does not stand. We have to turn around and show the taxpayers what you are getting for your investment.”
Here’s what the university came up with.
Carolina’s alumni network contributed $18.3 billion to the state’s gross domestic product, or GDP, in the last fiscal year, the university said. That statewide network was 64,474 strong as of 2025, and supported more than 135,500 jobs statewide. As for total economic activity, the university said alumni generate $30 billion for the state economy. That number starts with alumni employment and traces its ripple effects through the supply chain and labor markets, attempting to capturing every transaction generated as a result of that money.
The work of those alumni can look very different from one another, McClure said. There are graduates who may work as the single health care provider in a rural North Carolina town, while others might be big-time lawyers in Raleigh or Charlotte who oversee major transactions.
One, though, is Becca Wright: the mastermind behind Piedmont Pennies, a gourmet cheese cracker brand based in Matthews. Wright, who attended Carolina for both her undergrad and her Master of Business Administration, told The N&O that her UNC connection is invaluable: from the mentors and advisers she met there, to the support of her alumni network, to the grant money she’s received through programs like Innovate Carolina and NC Idea.
Including Piedmont Pennies, there are 537 active UNC-affiliated startup companies based in North Carolina, which UNC says contributed $4.3 billion to the state GDP in the last fiscal year and employ more than 33,600 people.
UNC’s employees also added $4.3 billion to the state GDP, according to the university. The university says it supports 37,300 jobs, including 29,300 in Orange County, home to Chapel Hill. Those salaries amount to $8.3 billion in economic activity.
The study is also a chance to reaffirm the value of academic research in the face of federal attacks on research funding, according to Penny Gordon-Larsen, UNC’s vice chancellor for research.
UNC’s research arm supports 24,000 jobs in North Carolina. Gordon-Larsen says it turns $1.5 billion in funding into $5.5 billion in economic activity.
“The current federal funding environment is challenged,” Gordon-Larsen told The N&O. “But we’re still doing a lot of research. We are still generating a lot of value to our funders and a lot of impact for individuals and communities. The case for investing in Carolina research has never been stronger.”
“One of the challenges is that we’ve been modest with our accomplishments and our impacts,” she continued. “We need to tell our story a little bit better, to show how we create a benefit for the not only for the state, but really for society writ large.”
