IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/loceco/v37y2022i4p279-296.html

The United Kingdom’s ‘going away to university’ migration and its changing impact on local populations in the twenty-first century

Author

Listed:
  • Tony Champion

Abstract

Against the background of strong growth in tertiary education globally, this paper documents the continued expansion of the United Kingdom’s higher education sector in the twenty-first century and examines the impact which the British tradition of ‘going away to university’ has been having on both the receiving and sending ends of this process. For each of the UK’s 379 local and unitary authorities, it compares the numbers of modal undergraduate age (19–21 year olds) with the number that would have been living there if the late school-age population (16–18 year olds) had merely aged in place. This approach is applied initially to 2019, with the findings then being compared with those for 2001, revealing that this migration funnels school leavers into a relatively small number of university cities and towns containing up to four times as many 19–21s as 16–18s, while siphoning off over 30% of school leavers from some of the main recruiting grounds–a pattern that has intensified since 2001. This raises questions about the future scale and nature of this process and its implications for local economies, given the current questioning of role of higher education in the UK and developments such as Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Tony Champion, 2022. "The United Kingdom’s ‘going away to university’ migration and its changing impact on local populations in the twenty-first century," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 37(4), pages 279-296, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:loceco:v:37:y:2022:i:4:p:279-296
    DOI: 10.1177/02690942221114625
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02690942221114625
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/02690942221114625?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alan Townsend & Tony Champion, 2020. "Core Cities’ strong growth in the 2010s: Were they ‘leaving behind’ the rest of their regions?," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 35(6), pages 566-585, September.
    2. Alessandra Faggian & Philip McCann & Stephen Sheppard, 2007. "Human Capital, Higher Education and Graduate Migration: An Analysis of Scottish and Welsh Students," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(13), pages 2511-2528, December.
    3. Christina Beatty & Steve Fothergill, 2020. "Recovery or stagnation?: Britain’s older industrial towns since the recession," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(9), pages 1238-1249, September.
    4. Moira Munro & Ivan Turok & Mark Livingston, 2009. "Students in Cities: A Preliminary Analysis of Their Patterns and Effects," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 41(8), pages 1805-1825, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emilia Del Bono & Greta Morando, 2022. "For some, luck matters more: the impact of the great recession on the early careers of graduates from different socio-economic backgrounds [Cashier or consultant? Entry labor market conditions, field of study, and career success]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(3), pages 869-893.
    2. Cattaneo, Mattia & Malighetti, Paolo & Paleari, Stefano & Redondi, Renato, 2016. "The role of the air transport service in interregional long-distance students’ mobility in Italy," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 66-82.
    3. Simona Iammarino & Elisabetta Marinelli & Elisabetta Marinelli, 2011. "Is the Grass Greener on the other Side of the Fence? Graduate Mobility and Job Satisfaction in Italy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(11), pages 2761-2777, November.
    4. Philipp Gareis & Tom Broekel, 2022. "The Spatial Patterns of Student Mobility Before, During and After the Bologna Process in Germany," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 113(3), pages 290-309, July.
    5. Akkoyunlu Åžule & Gil Epstein & Ira Gang, 2022. "Migration and University Education: An Empirical (Macro) Link," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 2211, ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin).
    6. Böckerman, Petri & Haapanen, Mika, 2010. "The effect of education on migration: Evidence from school reform," MPRA Paper 27629, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. José Prada, 2019. "Understanding studentification dynamics in low-income neighbourhoods: Students as gentrifiers in Concepción (Chile)," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(14), pages 2863-2879, November.
    8. Ilya Kashnitsky & Nikita Mkrtchyan & Oleg Leshukov, 2016. "Interregional Migration of Youths in Russia: A Comprehensive Analysis of Demographic Statistics," Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, issue 3, pages 169-203.
    9. Gianni Carbonaro & Eugenio Leanza & Philip McCann & Francesca Medda, 2018. "Demographic Decline, Population Aging, and Modern Financial Approaches to Urban Policy," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 41(2), pages 210-232, March.
    10. Kidd, Michael P. & O'Leary, Nigel & Sloane, Peter, 2017. "The impact of mobility on early career earnings: A quantile regression approach for UK graduates," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 90-102.
    11. Kent Eliasson & Olle Westerlund, 2023. "The urban wage premium and spatial sorting on observed and unobserved ability," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(3), pages 601-627.
    12. Aude Bernard & Martin Bell, 2018. "Internal migration and education: A cross-national comparison," Papers 1812.08913, arXiv.org.
    13. Kent Eliasson & Olle Westerlund, 2023. "The urban wage premium and spatial sorting on observed and unobserved ability," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(3), pages 601-627.
    14. Philip McCann, 2017. "Urban futures, population ageing and demographic decline," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 10(3), pages 543-557.
    15. Kidd, Michael & O'Leary, Nigel C. & Sloane, Peter J., 2014. "Should I Stay or Should I Go? An Investigation of Graduate Regional Mobility in the UK and its Impact upon Early Career Earnings," IZA Discussion Papers 8325, IZA Network @ LISER.
    16. Cuong Viet Nguyen & Quang Duy Phung, 2020. "Does Firm Agglomeration Induce Migration? Evidence from Vietnam," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(4), pages 3325-3337.
    17. Marianne Sensier & Fiona Devine, 2020. "Levelling up Regional Resilience Following the Coronavirus Pandemic," Economics Discussion Paper Series 2008, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    18. Pierre Courtioux & Tristan-Pierre Maury & Johan Seux, 2023. "The Geographies of Segregation in French Universities from 2006 to 2016," Post-Print halshs-04118941, HAL.
    19. Zotti, Roberto & Barra, Cristian, 2014. "Human capital development, knowledge spillovers and local growth: Is there a quality effect of university efficiency?," MPRA Paper 60065, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Ye Liu & Jianfa Shen, 2014. "Spatial patterns and determinants of skilled internal migration in China, 2000–2005," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93(4), pages 749-771, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:loceco:v:37:y:2022:i:4:p:279-296. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/index.shtml .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.