The University in its Place. Social and Cultural Perspectives on the Regional Role of Universities

With the massive expansion of higher education systems in most developed

countries, involving the creation of the many new institutions of higher education,

more and more towns have at least one local university close by. At the same time,

the social and economic trends of globalisation mean that many universities are

internationally engaged in their research and recruit their students from all over the

world. And concepts of knowledge society and economy increasingly shape

thinking and policy making at international, national and local levels.

This book draws on the research project, Higher Education and Regional

Transformation (HEART): The Social and Cultural Impacts of Universities. It was

funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council as part of a wider

research initiative on ‘Impact of Higher Education Institutions on Regional

Economies’ (June 2007–May 2009). The research project addressed the interface of

global and local developments and challenges facing universities, though with the

main emphasis being upon the local and regional. The ‘places’ in which the project’s

four university case studies were located provided both constraints and

opportunities for the universities. In different measures in different places, universities

were helping to shape the futures of their places while, at the same time, they

were being themselves partly shaped by place. This book invites the reader to visit

the four universities and their places and to explore the relationships, opportunities

and constraints that were driving change and innovation.