AbstractsEconomics

Universities play an important role within their region and the common economy. They are source of the development of essential knowledge and industrially relevant technology, have a strong influence in economic development of a region, and, as employers, they are part of the regional society. In addition universities have an influence on the competitiveness of a region through a combination of people’s wellbeing, regional feeling, reputation, and everyday happiness. Students of universities get an impression of the universities themselves and of the surrounding environment. They promote their feelings about the universities, the campus, and the city to their relatives, families, and friends. The focus of the present study is to visualize the influence of universities on their region, the development in the past decade and the existing challenges to combine third level education with traditional occurrences and the vicissitude of a region influenced by the universities themselves. The research area is the Austrian municipality Krems at the Danube with five universities which has a long tradition in education. The foundation of the first two universities in the middle of the 1990s was the start of higher education within the region. Inductively based approach was used for investigating how universities are influencing their environment, which needs exist and which benefits are created through a common planning and confident cooperation with the regional government. Empirical data was collected through a mix of methods; in addition to literature and statistics the main data was extracted from interviews with involved persons of the universities and the local government. As a result of this study the predominating topics mentioned by the interviewees are the challenges for both participants which are given by a change of society through increasing numbers of students and young people, the tasks to solve infrastructural problems, the effects and advantages for the local labor market and the purchasing power of the region, the reputation and its effects to the region, and finally the common need and ways to intensify the cooperation between the local government and the universities. The aim of this study is to give a broad but detailed overview about the thinking of involved persons and to compile implications to focus further research.