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Access to universities in the EU: a regional and territorial
analysis by DG REGIO

 
As stated by the renewed EU Agenda for Higher Education adopted by the European Commission in 2017 (COM(2017) 247 final), convenient access to higher education is an important asset for regional development and competitiveness. It can boost innovation and upgrade the skills of the labor force through education and lifelong learning. There is a social dimension to it too, as widespread access will allow more and more diverse students to attend university, including those who cannot afford to move to get a degree.
Thanks to its broad coverage of European higher education and good localization information, ETER provides the ground for an evidence-based analysis of the level of accessibility to higher education at regional level. To this aim, a study of the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) combined ETER data with information on the European road network and with population data from EUROSTAT.
The study shows that, in the EU and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) area an average of four out of five people live within a 45-minute drive of the main campus of at least one university. Nevertheless, in one out of five NUTS-3 regions the majority of the population cannot reach a university in 45 minutes. These regions together represent 14 % of the EU plus EFTA’s population. Most of the regions with low access to a university are located in eastern Member States (Figure 1). This might be mitigated by the presence in some of these regions of auxiliary campuses, which are not yet included in ETER. National policies for the expansion of higher education through the foundation of new universities and, in many countries, the establishment of an extensive college sector have therefore been effective in promoting regional access.
Universities can also play an important role in the social and economic functions provided by cities. By combining the information on universities’ locations and student numbers with the extent and the demographic characteristics of European cities, we can assess the importance of the student population in comparison with the residential population of the cities. On average, students enrolled at universities2 in cities represent more than 6 % of the cities' population. Higher shares are found especially in medium-sized cities. In 38 cities, the number of university students divided by the cities' population exceeds 20 %. Many of these cities (such as Bologna, Oxford, Kraków and Leuven) have hosted universities for several centuries.
Figure 1. Access to university main campus by NUT3 region, 2014

Variables and data availability
ETER provides for all HEIs information on the location of the main campus, including the name of the city, the postcode and geographical coordinates (longitude and latitude) derived from the postcode. For this study, the location information (geographical coordinates) has been linked to a comprehensive road network. For each university, we have determined the area that can be reached within 45 minutes by car. Next, the extent of the accessible areas with population data at the level of each 1-km² grid cell by using GEOSTAT data from EUROSTAT. Hence, each populated grid cell is now characterised as being close to a university or more remote. Finally, the grid level data can be aggregated at different geographical levels, such as EUROSTAT NUTS-3 regions or territories by degree of urbanization (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/nuts/background).
The link between university locations and cities has been determined by overlaying the point locations of universities with the boundaries of the harmonised European definition of cities and greater cities. As the campus of a university that is functionally linked to a city can be located somewhat outside the official city boundaries, universities located at less than 5 km from the city boundaries (but in the same country) have also been included.
Since ETER also provides data on the number of student by HEI, it becomes possible to compute the number of students in each spatial area, in absolute figure or as a percentage of the population.
A further analysis might look into accessibility focusing on particular subsets of universities, classified by study subject, by using the classification of students in ETER by the fields of educational statistics. Furthermore, ETER data will allow analysis of the distribution of HEI research, by using the number of PhD degrees as a proxy, as it is generally assumed that the research function is much more concentrated than the educational function.
Finally, ETER will publish in spring 2019 enhanced geographical data information on the location of the auxiliary campuses, which might provide a more accurate picture of accessibility to European higher education particularly in rural areas. Unfortunately, data by campus (for example students or staff) will not be available.

European Commission, DG Regio, Access to universities in the EU: a regional and territorial analysis, by Hugo Poelman and Lewis Dijkstra, link.

 
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The opinions expressed in this message are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission
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