The value of colleges and universities in Rochester – and beyond

Listen to this article

What is a university for? Today, that age-old question is being posed with renewed urgency, and sometimes hostility, as colleges and universities in the U.S. face rising costs, cuts to grant funding, and obstructions to international students and researchers, among other challenges. Higher education appears threatened as never before.

These developments are of particular concern in Rochester, where higher education and health care — the so-called “eds and meds” sector — represent our area’s largest employers. Colleges and universities, along with their associated hospitals and medical centers, drive the Rochester economy.

While there is some apprehension about how universities will continue to lead the way in bringing the best minds and ideas here, Rochester remains well positioned as an entrepreneurial ecosystem closely allied with its institutions of higher learning.

Universities are like beating hearts at the core of local and national economies. They draw in energy in the form of intellectual talent and then pump out knowledge as well as skilled and highly trained workers and entrepreneurs to promising careers, fueling innovation and progress.

Close to home, for instance, consider Datto, Inc., a cybersecurity and data backup company founded by RIT alumnus Austin McChord.  Within a decade, Datto had grown to become a billion-dollar enterprise with more than 300 employees in Rochester.

This is but one example among many success stories growing out of local colleges and universities. These accomplishments come from entrepreneurs like McChord as well as students and faculty researchers that come from many different countries.

“The U.S. has long been a magnet for attracting the best talent from all over the world to our universities,” says Amit Batabyal, Arthur J Gosnell Professor in Economics at RIT. “This has benefited the U.S. very well in the post-World War II era.”

International students are drawn to Rochester’s schools, consistent with national trends. According to College Factual, in 2020 approximately 1.2 million international students came to the U.S. to study at American colleges and universities. In 2024, my own institution, RIT, enrolled 1,826 international students from 100 countries, comprising about 12% of the student body.

After they graduate, many international students remain in the U.S. to forge impactful careers. An American Immigration Council report, New American Fortune 500 in 2023: The Largest American Companies and Their Immigrant Roots (August 29, 2023) reveals that “an impressive 44.8% of Fortune 500 companies in 2023, equating to 224 companies, were founded by immigrants or their children.”

Consider such industry leaders as Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe. All three came to the U.S. from India as graduate students.

“But the competition for talent is now global,” says Batabyal. “You’re already seeing a decline in the number of applications to American universities. Students are going to competitor countries such as Canada, Australia, England, New Zealand, Singapore, and China.”

These troubling developments serve as disincentives not only to international students but also, and significantly, researchers who have looked to the U.S. as a home base rich in opportunities to advance their careers and establish new business ventures on our shores. As China and Europe offer researchers money and stability, many of them are responding positively.

These changes notwithstanding, Rochester remains a promising destination for bright minds and entrepreneurs, as I’ve written previously in RBJ: “Rochester’s entrepreneurial ecosystem continues to expand” (June 24, 2019). Many companies, such as Datto, mentioned earlier, have established themselves here. Their success often is attributable to a “talent access from our local colleges and universities, as well as a disproportionate number of highly skilled workers in Rochester” as well as “an ‘infectious’ innovative spirit and appreciation for a favorable combination of commercial cost structure, standard of living and cost of living that cannot be found in bigger city centers.”

In their book, Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth (2019), MIT economists Jonathan Gruber and Simon Johnson point to technology hubs throughout the U.S. that can support economic growth. These cities have prerequisites for success: a large pool of educated workers, high-quality universities, and a low cost of living. And their top-ranked metropolitan area was–Rochester! Little wonder, then, that such companies as Amazon and T-Mobile consider our city as a top choice for their expansion plans.

A recent article in Business Facilities (05/08/2025), “Greater Rochester, New York: Innovations Felt Everywhere,” underscores how local universities drive our economy:

Rochester, NY is one of the country’s top five patent-producing major metros. This patent activity is bolstered by world-class R&D resources at the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology and more than 1,500 manufacturers in the Greater Rochester, NY region, employing more than 60,000 people. The local workforce is creating innovations that are making an impact well beyond this major metro area of 1.2 million people.

Now, we are seeing a move toward making the Buffalo-Rochester-Syracuse area a high-tech corridor where there will be substantial production of high-end products such as chips. That corridor includes a host of universities, including the University of Buffalo, the University of Rochester, RIT, Syracuse, Cornell and more.

Our institutions of higher learning have historically drawn talent from throughout the U.S. and around the world and then sent skilled and highly trained workers and entrepreneurs back out to promising careers, including in the Rochester area. We hope to remain a beacon of opportunity!

Jacqueline Mozrall, is dean of the RIT Saunders College of Business