At a time of unprecedented scrutiny and disruption for higher ed, colleges and universities face an urgent need to demonstrate their value with hard data.
Policymakers, students, and the public are demanding evidence of return on investment, both in terms of student career outcomes and broader economic contributions. To make the case for funding, boost enrollment, and guide strategic planning, institutions need data-rich insights that demonstrate impact in tangible ways.
A proven methodology to prove your impact
Lightcast’s Economic Impact Study (EIS) provides objective, third-party data that demonstrates your institution’s importance to the regional economy. Our proven methodology and unmatched expertise captures the value generated by your operations spending, your students’ spending, and the effect of your alumni’s increased productivity and higher earnings.
We also calculate return-on-investment (ROI) through the lens of students, taxpayers, and society at large, while accounting for counterfactuals (e.g. what would’ve happened if funds used to support your institution were spent elsewhere) that are often overlooked in less robust impact studies, but are essential to an accurate accounting of your institution’s unique impact.
Custom solutions for unique needs
We understand that every institution and situation is different. Based on your needs, our team of economists can help you:
Quantify the impact of a specific degree program
Capture the value of an entire system of colleges or universities
Project the future impact of constructing a new facility (i.e. a capital analysis)
Highlight the value of your non-credit workforce programs
Demonstrate the impact of your athletic or other non-academic programs
Whether your focus is narrow and precise or wide and comprehensive, our economists will help you capture the insight you need to tell your story. For example, see how other institutions are partnering with Lightcast to demonstrate their impact.
Demonstrating value through alumni career success
Going beyond economic impact, alumni career outcomes data is the most effective way to demonstrate how your programs equip individual students for long-term success. Alumni Pathways is Lightcast’s solution for making this data accessible, unlocking insight into the journeys your students take – including additional education as well as job changes – after graduation.
This data can enrich and inform the alumni-based aspects of your impact study, and offers powerful, complementary insights by illuminating specific employers where alumni work, job titles they hold, and even specific skills they report using in the role. Institutions use this data to:
Enhance Program Review – Track where alumni work, their job titles, and their key skills, to evaluate and demonstrate program effectiveness.
Build Industry Partnerships – Identify top employers hiring your graduates and identify key contacts to start collaborating.
Strengthen Marketing & Recruitment – Highlight alumni success stories in campaigns or find professionals who could benefit from your graduate programs.
Capturing alumni sentiment to enrich the picture
Surveys supplement labor market data by providing qualitative insight into alumni sentiment about their college experience and career-readiness. Lightcast helps institutions launch, collect, and analyze surveys with two turn-key solutions:
Embark First Destination Survey - A first-destination survey to capture immediate outcomes and alumni reflections on their college experience.
National Alumni Career Mobility survey (NACM) - A career mobility survey administered 5 and 10 years after graduation to analyze alumni’s professional growth over time and capture a longer-term perspective on how their education prepared them for career growth and success.
These surveys, combined with Alumni Pathways data, provide a 360º view of alumni success to help you prove value and impact.
Using Data to Show Value
Combining rigorous economic impact analysis with real-world alumni career insights equips you with the data you need to tell a compelling story. As a result, you can make the case for funding, strengthen employer partnerships, and demonstrate ROI to prospective students.
At a time when higher education is increasingly challenged to prove value, having the right data isn’t just helpful—it’s essential. With Lightcast, you can move beyond anecdotes to present a comprehensive, data-driven narrative that reinforces the vital role your institution plays in student career success and economic prosperity. Let’s work together to turn your impact into insight—and insight into action.
