The Business Higher Education Council (BHE), led by the Metro Atlanta Chamber (MAC), issued a higher education research study that shows Atlantaranking among the top 10 metropolitan areas in the United States for key higher education indicators related to student enrollment, research and development, number of graduates and types of degree programs.

"The report gives us confirmation that metro Atlanta has an exemplary higher education system," saidMark Becker, president of Georgia State University and co-chair of the Business Higher Education Council. "We are educating the best and brightest students and providing companies with the best possible talent and research to create jobs and grow companies. Metro Atlanta has the people, companies and innovation to drive the businesses of today and grow companies of tomorrow."

Significantly, metro Atlanta leads the nation in growth of enrollment of African-American students and in continuing education opportunities. Out of the top 100 U.S. metropolitan areas, Atlanta has had the highest growth in the number of African-American students enrolled full-time. Additionally, Atlanta has had the highest growth in the number of African-American college graduates.

The report also reveals some encouraging findings regarding research expenditures and the increase in full-time enrollment. In five short years, the region's higher education system has grown research and development expenditures by 46 percent. The study also determined the most popular degree programs, ranked by number of graduates: business & economics; technology-related; engineering & engineering technologies; biology & biomedical sciences; communications & communications technologies; and computer & information sciences.

The study looked at the enrollment numbers from a period of Fall 2005 to Fall 2010, and numbers from degrees conferred from 2006 to 2011. Atlanta had the fourth highest change in total full-time student enrollment – behind New York, Los Angeles and Chicago – with an increase of nearly 78,000 students from 2006 to 2011.

The Atlanta region ranks, among America's 50 largest metro areas:

• #1 metro for growth in African-American full-time enrollment (increase of 23,612)
• #1 metro for growth in full-time students enrolled, age 35 and older (increase of 640)
• #2 for total African-American full-time enrollment (65,933).
• #5 in university research expenditures ($1.49 billion) – after NY, Boston, LA, Baltimore
• #7 for total degrees conferred (42,126, bachelor's level or higher)
• #7 for total bachelor's degrees conferred (27,728)
• #7 for total undergrad full-time enrollment (228,155)
• #8 in total full-time college students enrolled (277,831) – ahead of Dallas, San Franciscoand Houston

The metro Atlanta region also excels at graduating engineers with the third highest number of bachelor's degrees awarded in the nation.

"Our strength in engineering, coupled with being the 4th fastest-growing metro for technology degrees awarded, sets the metro Atlanta region as a national leader for innovation," said Katie Kirkpatrick, senior vice president of BHE.

"Atlanta's vision to serve as a world-class model of university and industry collaboration will help us become one of the world's highest-rankest cities for higher education," said John Brock, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises and co-chair of the BHE Council. "With its abundance of high-growth and established FORTUNE 1000 companies and its vast academic and entrepreneurial ecosystem,Atlanta provides young professionals a unique opportunity for education and employment after graduation."

The BHE Council commissioned Human Capital Research Corporation (HCRC), a privately-held educational consultancy located in Evanston, Illinois, to review and analyze the data from the Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Survey, which is the primary source for data on colleges, universities, technical and vocational post-secondary institutions in the U.S. The data is collected by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which is the federal entity related to education data.