Universities have been urged to measure their full value to society rather than simply what they spend in order to convince the public and policymakers of their worth.

A report commissioned by the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement suggests an approach for identifying a university's "socially modified economic valuation" (Smev), which includes a measure of services such as public lectures.

Through a Glass, Darkly: Measuring the Social Value of Universities is co-authored by Iain McNicoll, emeritus professor of the University of Strathclyde, and Ursula Kelly, an independent consultant.

They have previously worked on a number of reports for Universities UK that have investigated the economic impact of higher education institutions.

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"We began to get somewhat frustrated because [expressions of value always] look at the expenditure," Ms Kelly said.

"But they don't look at what universities actually do."

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Universities have long measured their financial value, for example the spending power of their staff or their total turnover, she explained. But the report recommends finding an economic price for all university "outputs", including those not captured by financial analysis.

These could include "time spent or saved, quality of life and environmental improvements", and might also encompass more "intangible" things such as the worth of political stability, the report argues.

A "social weight" could then be applied to this economic value to reflect social priorities, for example by counting an activity as more valuable if it delivers to the poor rather than the rich.

As an example, the report notes, a one-hour public lecture attended by 80 people would not generate any financial value in conventional measures because no entrance fee is charged. But if, as the Department for Transport estimates, the value of an hour of leisure time is ?4.46, the economic value of the lecture could be put at ?356.80.

However, as the hypothetical lecture is delivered to poorer people, an "equity social weighting" revises the Smev to between ?405 and ?442.

With universities being asked to prove their public worth more than ever before, Ms Kelly said, "the time has come that we really need to look at this".

Socially weighted value is already used by the Treasury, she said.

"Policymakers want information to make the decisions they have to make," she continued, but much of what universities produce to justify their work and the investment made in them, such as "glossy brochures", is just "white noise" and not useful.

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The next step for the sector is to define university outputs and then find whatever extra data are needed to make the necessary calculations, the report states.

Ms Kelly said that she thought most of the data were already collected and that it was "perfectly feasible" to define all outputs.

david.matthews@tsleducation.com.