Economic Impact
A back of the envelope analysis by Dr. Ben Martz, dean of the College of Business, of publicly available data from a 2016 report by the West Virginia University Bureau of Business and Economic Research and data from a 2017 story by MetroNews shows that Shepherd University has a return on investment (ROI) of $9.73 for every dollar invested by the state. According to this analysis, Shepherd’s ROI is better than Marshall ($8.94) and Fairmont State ($5.66). As a research intensive, R1 university, WVU leads the list with an ROI of $13.60 for each dollar invested.
ROI for State Universities
| University | Impact* | Investment (State Funds)** | ROI (Impact/Investment) |
| WVU | $1,400,000,000 | $102,931,727 | $13.60 |
| Marshall | $398,000,000 | $44,499,000 | $8.94 |
| Shepherd | $91,100,000 | $9,360,954 | $9.73 |
| Fairmont | $82,600,000 | $14,579,417 | $5.66 |
*Source Impact: http://wvmetronews.com/2016/08/08/report-finds-wvs-public-higher-education-institutions-have-2-7-billion-impact-on-state/
**Source Investment: http://wvmetronews.com/2017/06/25/231226/