Remember those college days and calling home to ask your parents to send a check or transfer some money to your checking account? The excitement of seeing the available balance increase felt like a win. The common belief was that college students were financially broke and had little discretionary spending.
Many colleges and universities no longer operate under that assumption.
New research from ELFi and Empower suggests students have more discretionary income than commonly assumed, averaging $260 to $410 per month, primarily spent on entertainment, food and beverage, and recreational experiences.
While capturing this data precisely is complex, the direction is clear and widely accepted across higher education . If you visit a campus today, it looks very different from those of the early technology boom. Beyond academic reputation and tuition, students now evaluate schools based on non-academic factors such as campus Wi-Fi , amenities, social experiences, and overall quality of life.
For today’s students, life outside the classroom is nearly as important as life inside it.
The Campus of Today and Tomorrow: The Modern Student Economy
Historically, the percentage of the U.S. population holding a college degree hovered between 20 and 30 percent, with advanced degrees representing a much smaller subset of undergraduate degree holders. As social and economic conditions continue to evolve, the pressure, relevance, and long-term earning potential associated with a college degree increasingly compel students to pursue education beyond high school.
In the post-COVID environment, many Division I and Division II institutions are experiencing year-over-year growth in on-campus populations. Those students arrive with discretionary spending that directly fuels the campus economy and shapes demand for services beyond academics.
At the same time, universities have seen a significant expansion of on-campus food, retail, and entertainment options designed specifically for today’s students. Traditional snack counters now resemble cafés offering coffee, pastries, and meals paired with comfortable seating and collaboration spaces. E-sports labs , both recreational and competitive, are becoming more common. National restaurant chains are opening campus-owned franchises, and campus convenience stores and bookstores increasingly resemble modern retail environments.
These experiences rely heavily on reliable campus Wi-Fi and modern network infrastructure to operate effectively. To understand why universities continue investing in these non-traditional academic environments, it is helpful to look more closely at the underlying economics.
How Campus Modernization Supports the Student Economy
Consider a fictional mid-sized university campus with approximately 25,000 students. If each student has an average monthly discretionary spend of $335, that equates to roughly $8.3 million in addressable spending per month from a largely captive population within the campus economy .
If the institution captures just 10 percent of that spend, it translates to approximately $800,000 in monthly enterprise revenue during the traditional fall and spring semesters. Unlike tuition revenue, this income is often not governed by legislative constraints, board approvals, or external financial controls. This flexibility allows campus leadership to reinvest funds more quickly into campus modernization , student services, and infrastructure improvements.
When managed responsibly, the student economy creates a mutually beneficial environment. Students benefit from enhanced services and experiences, while institutions gain additional resources to improve student satisfaction , quality of life, and the overall campus experience. Investment in modern amenities is increasingly supported by reliable campus Wi-Fi and scalable network infrastructure , which enable these services to operate efficiently.
How the Campus Experience Is Shifting to Meet Student Expectations
Traditionally, faculty and administration designed the campus, curriculum, and overall college experience. Students were expected to arrive on campus ready to learn and adapt to the environment as it was designed.
That dynamic has shifted.
Today, campus leadership teams recognize significant competition for a scarce resource: students. With this reality in mind, institutions are intentionally introducing differentiators designed to attract and retain students on campus. Many of these differentiators extend beyond academics and focus on student experience , quality of life, and the availability of modern amenities.
Students have responded by signaling their approval through enrollment and continued participation. Non-academic enhancements, including dining, retail, collaboration spaces, and entertainment venues, now play a meaningful role in how students evaluate modern university campuses.
This evolution has created a more symbiotic environment. Education remains the core function of the institution, while quality-of-life improvements support students, faculty, and staff alike. Behind the scenes, higher education IT teams enable these experiences through reliable campus Wi-Fi and scalable network infrastructure that supports learning, living, and engagement across campus.
Why Today’s Campus Operates Like a Small City
As campuses continue to expand services, spaces, and digital experiences, many institutions now operate much like small cities. Residence halls, classrooms, dining, retail, athletics, and shared spaces all place different demands on connectivity, capacity, and performance. When these environments are well supported, they directly shape student experience, satisfaction, and engagement across campus.
The Your Campus Is a Small City blog series builds on this reality by examining how higher education IT teams are designing and modernizing network infrastructure to support the full student journey, from learning and living to collaboration and campus life.
Read the Your Campus Is a Small City blog series to learn how institutions are supporting student experience across today’s connected campuses.
