University campuses as agents for urban change

Abstract

Thanks to the leading role of universities in cities as knowledge and innovation hubs, many cities rely on their universities to face their economic and social challenges. On the other hand, universities need their cities to fulfil the capacity needed to satisfy student and staff needs for services and facilities. Therefore, the university-city relationship is considered to be intercorrelated and overlapping. However, due to the need for expansion, universities tend to move out and build larger campuses causing different trends of studentification and de-studentification in the city. These trends impact a city's urban growth and transformation over time. This study analyses the impact of four different campuses of Kyushu University from 1993 to 2017 to understand the morphological impact of old and new campuses on their surroundings. A spacematrix and a mixed-use index were used to produce raster maps that helped to visualize temporal trends of urban density and the mixed use of functions in areas surrounding campuses. Results have shown that moved out campuses have the potential to impact the surrounding mixed use of functions. However, new campuses have the potential to impact a city's urban density, therefore, trends in de-studentification can impact the campus-city functional relationship. Conversely, studentification trends can impact the campus-city physical relationship. Thus, university campuses could be considered as indirect agents that contribute to the urban physical and functional change of the city.