It’s nice to know how much economic impact an institution of higher learning can have on a community and a region.

What Northern Lakes College said in its April 27th news release was that in 2015/16, the college, its students and its alumni “added $104.7 million to the NLC service region’s economy.”

It’s broken down a bit. In that period, students made $26 million in ‘educational investments.’ The release goes on to note that the skills gained by these students will help them earn more through their working lives.

From the executive summary, the $104 million is broken down like this. The college spends $33.1 million on operations across all its service area. Students spend $1.7 million. College alumni (former students, in other words), add another almost $70 million to the equation. The claim here is that figure is how much more they earn than they would have had they not upgraded their qualifications via NLC courses or programs, plus the less easily-understood improvement to profitability of the places they work, due to that education. Included in this calculation is something called the ‘multiplier effect,’ taking into account the increased spending by them and their employers.