Factors in the university - City interaction: The case of Greek Regional Universities

Abstract

The complex interdependence / interaction relations between the academic and local communities - mainly in terms of their potential contribution to the development of the university and the city - have been the object of intense conflicts. In the current conjuncture, where knowledge has been acknowledged as one of the main means for the development of the cities, regions and countries, this has become a growing consideration. Experience has taught us that, any weakness to define how higher education could act as a principal development factor is largely owed to the failure to take into account a set of factors that seem to be associated with the planning of its expansion and can - directly or indirectly - impact the integration process of the university into the life of the broader area. These are factors that emerge from the broader framework set by the main reference levels of the university - dry relationship: i.e. the "state", the "university" and the "city". In this framework, and given the deficient investigation of the subject, this study attempts to identify these interaction factors between the university and the city, and group them on the basis of political, social, economic and spatial criteria. Taking Greece as a point of reference, it is investigated whether these factors have been taken into account in the design of the higher education decentralisation policy, and have affected the relationship between regional universities and the respective cities, and if so how.