One way that Open Access impacts academia is the higher impact of scholarly articles including greater readership and citation. This increased increased scholarship impact reflects on the institution and the researcher.
Due to the cost of journals published by toll-access publishers rising much faster than inflation, no institution can afford a subscription to every journal. Many libraries have had to cut their journal subscriptions in order to meet budgetary constraints. Open Access removes that burden.
Academic articles impact not only the academic community, but also society as a whole. When an article is open access, it is much more likely to be read by readers outside of academia.
Tennant, J. P., Waldner, F., Jacques, D. C., Masuzzo, P., Collister, L. B., & Hartgerink, C. H. (2016). The academic, economic and societal impacts of Open Access: An evidence-based review. F1000Research F1000Res, 5, 632. doi:10.12688/f1000research.8460.1