The past 30 years have witnessed a gradual expansion in the missions of many universities, and in the ways in which they contribute to local and regional economic development. While teaching and research continue to serve as the foundational core of most university missions, increased attention has been afforded to how universities, by their presence and functions, influence the spatial geographies of neighborhoods, cities, and regions. This dissertation research explores the changing roles of research universities in small and medium-sized metropolitan areas with an emphasis on their impacts across the different geographical scales by investigating associations between university presence and (1) growth in foreign-born populations; (2) the attraction and retention of highly educated residents; and (3) student-driven neighborhood change dynamics.

The findings of this dissertation extend previous studies emphasizing the increasing importance of higher education institutions to economic development activities at various scales. Results from metropolitan area level analyses demonstrate that counties with large research universities were associated with an increase in foreign-born residents following the 1990 Immigration and Naturalization Act, as well as an increase in highly educated residents in the 2000-2014 period. More specifically, while findings revealed that the presence of research universities generate significant spatial spillovers of highly educated residents from university host counties to metropolitan levels, there was little evidence of such spatially-explicit dynamics occurring amongst foreign-born residents. Furthermore, findings from neighborhood-level analyses indicated that proximity to large research university campuses may play an outsized role on the likelihood of neighborhoods undergoing studentification (i.e., student-driven neighborhood change) in the 2000-2014 period. These results may be indicative of a bifurcation of neighborhoods in university-dominant counties into wealthy and highly educated renter populations situated near the university campus, and relatively less wealthy and less educated homeowners residing on the further away from the campus or on the periphery of the county.

By exploring university contributions beyond the spheres of research, teaching, and service contributions, this dissertation presents scholars, urban planners, and policymakers with a more comprehensive portrait of the relationship between universities and their host communities. The evidence of this work suggests that the evolving role of higher education institutions, including their role as gateways for new populations, should be reflected in policymaking which seeks to leverage the locational advantages of research universities for city building or revitalization efforts. Further, policymakers and planners should also be cognizant that scale matters when considering how higher education institutions can better serve their surrounding communities. The contributions of research universities should not be thought of as monolithic or uniform, but should rather be seen as presenting different opportunities and challenges at different geographical levels.