Employing some 5,500 tax-paying Oregonians, these institutions add a combined annual budget of more than $500 million to the state's economy. They keep thousands of Oregonians from leaving the state for specialized college experiences elsewhere, and also attract an additional 12,200 out-of-state students, making Oregon a net importer of high-quality college students.

Oregon's independent higher education institutions produced nearly 8,500 graduates in the 2004-05 school year. This represented 26 percent of all bachelor's degrees awarded in the state, 30 percent of all master's degrees, and 62 percent of all first professional degrees.

Oregon's independent institutions:

*Attract a mix of low- middle- and high-income Oregonian students virtually identical to the income profile of families utilizing our state universities.

*Convert annually $60 million of gifts from private capital to the public purpose of educating students.

*Attract more than $20 million per year from government contracts for research.

*Teach classes with experienced professors, not graduate students.

*Sustain a four-year graduation rate more than twice that of public four-year institutions, saving families money in tuition and fees and giving students a head start on a career.

*Offer talented volunteer faculty and students to enrich our communities in government, schools, businesses, social services, religion, and the arts.

In today's tax environment it is also important to note that educating the 30,000 students attending Oregon's independent colleges and universities at our public colleges and universities would require at least $350 million more in state tax dollars per biennium.  State taxpayers invest over 30 times more funds per year on an average public college student (in tuition subsidies) than they do on an average independent college student (in state student aid).