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Background: Public universities in South Africa play an extremely important role in preparing students for productive and fulfilling careers. Universities also, directly and indirectly, benefit the economy through high levels of operational and capital expenditure and by providing employment to both academic and administrative staff. Aim: The aim of this article is to quantify the economic benefits of one of South Africa’s largest universities, and to determine what strategic view the university should take to maximise the benefit for the economy. Setting: The Potchefstroom campus of the North-West University in South Africa is used for the analysis. Methods: The primary method to determine is a social accounting matrix of the North West province, while data collected through a staff and student survey are used to refine and apply the analysis for the university campus. Results: The economic benefits of a university are much more significant than might initially be assumed. Among the findings is that North-West University should absorb relatively higher numbers of contact, rather than distance learning, students if it is to make a sustainable contribution to the provincial economy. Conclusion: Student spending has a direct and significant impact on the economy and helps to promote national income and employment creation within the province. The results of the study provide valuable insights for cities and provinces that have established new public universities.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview and comparison of three related methods for modelling the short-run economic impact of events, namely the partial Input-Output (I-O), Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) and Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models. An analysis of strengths and limitations of these different methods suggests that it may be considerations such as the underlying assumptions specific to each model, data collection, expected output, research objectives, and costs involved that determine the choice of modelling framework. Data from surveys conducted at the Aardklop National Arts Festival during 2010 were used in the comparative analyses, which were executed by means of two regional (i.e. provincial-level) models and one small-region (i.e. place-specific) model constructed for the small town.

The core of South Africa tourism industry is based on wildlife tourism. Private game reserves and game farms which forms part of wildlife tourism constitute most of the wildlife products in South Africa. On these private reserves and game farms, hunting is one of the major income generators for product owners. The aim of this study is to analyse the economic impact of hunting on the regional economies of three of South Africa’s most important hunting provinces. The study used economic multipliers, input-output analysis, and related modelling processes through input-output (supply-use) tables and social accounting matrices (SAM). The results differed significantly for the three provinces, with Limpopo receiving the biggest impact (R2.6 billion) and the Free State having the highest multiplier (2.08). The geographical location of the game farms, the number of farms per province and the species available all influenced the magnitude of the economic impact of hunters over and above the traditional determinants of economic impact analysis. The implication of the research is that it will help product owners in the development of game farms or hunting products, contribute to policy formulation, especially for government decisions on what products to offer where, and how to create more jobs.