Andreia Dionísio, Maria Rego (p), Cassio Rolim

Martina Dal Molin

The reasons that lead students to choose a higher education institution in a certain city, is an extremely important piece of information for political and institutional decision-makers, in the domain of city policy as in the area of HEI. This research has as main goal to identify the determinants of demand for cities with higher education institutions. Through fractional analysis and based on a previous identification of university cities market areas - constructed with municipalities -, this research concludes that the distance between the location of students´ family home and the location of higher education institution is the most robust variable to explain the student’s higher education choice.

Maria Tsouri (p), Ridvan Cinar

Maria Rego

Over the past four decades, universities have been recognized as significant actors in fostering regional innovation and contributing into local (economic) development in places where they are located. Among the different early conceptualizations of the role of universities in regional development and innovation, is their traditional role, the one of education and research. Despite the new demands emerged in the transformation of universities’ role, due to several complex societal challenges, the emphasis on their traditional role has not lost its validity and legitimacy. Indeed, universities through the expansion, strengthening, and evolution of their scientific networks, tap on regional, national, and international knowledge resources. However, how these knowledge resources affect and transform the role of universities in terms of regional innovation and development?
Empirically, we aim to answer this question by investigating scientific collaborations of the three higher educational institutions in the region of Vestland, Norway for the last ten years. To do so, we used mixed methods, combining social network analysis with interviews. First, we mapped the scientific knowledge networks of the three universities through the publications of their scholars. Then, we analyzed the evolution of the three networks, in terms of locations of co-authors and scientific fields, dividing the network in three non-overlapping periods. Finally, we used interviews to understand the changes in the role of these three universities to the regional development of Vestland. Preliminary findings show that the role of universities is reflected in their scientific activity, while the three universities position themselves differently in their context.

Martina Dal Molin (p), Alessandra Faggian, Marco Modica

Maria Tsouri

Several studies have investigated the push and pull factors of student mobility, however to the best of our knowledge, very few of them have jointly considered the quality of the receiving institutions and the quality of life of the places that mostly attract undergraduate students. In a country such Italy - characterized by a well-known historical North-South dualism which is persistent over time - the brain drain from the southern regions towards those of the north of Italy, might be driven by a virtuous circle that attract incomers because of both the quality of the hosting institutions and the work opportunities and quality of life of the receiving places, that further improve the socio-economic conditions of attracting areas and further increase the North-South divide even in terms of universities quality (e.g. by attracting more funds). Disentangle between these two migration causes is not an easy task, however it might be relevant to define place-based undergraduate policies to reduce disparities among universities. Therefore, this work aims at identifying the determinants of Italian interregional student mobility at the province level (NUTS 3) over a decade (i.e. from the academic year 2010-2011 till 2020-2021), controlling for both the characteristic of universities, as well as for that of the local territory in which universities are located. We use several indicators controlling for the quality of the universities and for the monetary incentive for students and at the same time we include quality of life variables of the provinces where the universities are located. Furthermore, we disentangle for the propensity to attract new students from other regions and for the propensity of the students to stay.