A public forum addressing the role of postsecondary education in Wisconsin's economy brought noted experts in the field, business leaders and University of Wisconsin System chancellors to the Pyle Center Thursday.

"For the public to get back its investment in K-12 education strictly in dollar terms … requires some further investment in some kind of postsecondary training," UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said. "The break-even point is right around the level of a bachelor's degree, and the higher the degree, the bigger and faster the payoff."

Wiley used what he called "simple arithmetic" to calculate the average cost per student for 13 years of public education in Wisconsin: $8,000 per student per year — which exceeds the lifetime tax payoff from a citizen with solely a high school education.

UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Carlos Santiago, who has a degree in economics from Cornell University, said that strengthening of a second research institution in Wisconsin could offset the recent decline in state funding for higher education.

"Wisconsin, at this part of the evolution of higher education, needs to have a stronger second research university," Santiago said. "UWM is not big enough to do it itself."

He added that sharing resources and expertise through collaborations with other universities and businesses is the fastest way to increase research.

And the Biomedical Technology Alliance, a consortium of universities in southeastern Wisconsin including UWM, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Marquette University, Milwaukee School of Engineering and UW-Parkside, is one such collaboration aiding in the advancement of university research.

"The BTA has the primary mission of fostering collaboration among institutions in southeastern Wisconsin," Brian Thompson, managing director of TechStar, a founding member of the BTA, said in a phone interview. "UW-Milwaukee has enormous [research] potential that dovetails well with the BTA mission."

Thompson added that increased research creates economic benefits in a number of ways.

"Research does translate into economic benefits," he said. "It's not just about directly creating jobs, it's about the new companies that spin out of it. In part, where UW-Milwaukee is going is to create more innovations that get into commercial markets."

The BTA is also focused on research with commercial potential, and its collaborative-grant program looks not only at the scientific merit of projects, but also at the commercial potential.

Another collaboration being discussed is one between UW-Milwaukee and UW-Madison.

"Milwaukee does need to build a research infrastructure," Santiago said. "One of the real benefits of that research infrastructure is that it will help forge stronger ties with the exceptional research infrastructure that exists here in Madison."

He noted that while UW-Madison generates about $700-800 million in research, UW-Milwaukee only generates about $50 million. Yet UW-Milwaukee has the only architecture school and fine arts school — and the largest college of health sciences and of nursing — in the state, but no medical school like Madison, he added.

"When I think of research and where it's moving, I look in Chicago, I look in Minneapolis, and I look in Madison," Santiago said. "And there is a link … and Milwaukee, at this point, is the part of that link that needs to be strengthened."

Showing slides documenting recent economic troubles in southeastern Wisconsin — including a loss of 30,000 jobs, a 15 percent decrease in personal income and a 5 percentage-point increase in poverty — Santiago stressed the economic importance of investment in higher education.

"Today's economy demands [advanced research]," Santiago said. "We must build the research infrastructure, and then we can deal with the surrounding [economic] needs."