Purdue Calumet & NW Indiana economic development

Purdue University Calumet has a strategic goal to graduate more students. Our reasons have wide reaching implications that, ultimately, stand to advance our region.

Advancing the greater Northwest Indiana region, including its economic growth, is a role Purdue Calumet must play in a major way. Here's why.

• A university education produces knowledge and develops skills important for 21st century jobs.
• In our Purdue tradition, Purdue Calumet offers degree programs in academic disciplines considered vital-engineering, technologies, and professional programs, to name a few-to the economic future of our region, nation and world.
• Such degree programs are especially important to a region that is attempting to transition and diversify from dependence on jobs/careers in heavy manufacturing to those in high paying, high technology fields.
• Cutting edge employers are attracted to regions inhabited by a plentiful population of college graduates, from which a skilled and marketable employee base can be recruited.
• The more college graduates there are with knowledge and skills of demand, the more opportunities there are for a region-Northwest Indiana-to respond effectively to the economic challenges of our 21st century society.
• Nearly three-fourths of Purdue Calumet alumni traditionally remain in this region after they graduate to put their degrees to work. So the more graduates Purdue Calumet produces, the more individuals there are who are poised and prepared to enrich this region through their expertise.
• Beyond the employer benefit of an educated work force, we know from research and experience that a college education produces an improved quality of life for its graduates.
• Quality of life typically translates into greater earning and spending power, which, of course, helps stimulate economic development, as well as opportunities to enjoy and partake of more of the good things society-local and otherwise-has to offer.

In short, graduating from college transforms lives and is the foundation for social progress.

Sincerely,

Howard Cohen
Chancellor