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Purpose
Attracting skilled students is an important aim of many cities in a knowledge-based society. This paper focuses on urban factors of attractiveness from a student's perspective and analyses their influence on locational choices of students. The criteria found were also used to evaluate how the City of Osnabrück, Germany, is rated in terms of these criteria and to reveal the greatest discrepancies.
Design / Methodology / Approach
The paper is based on a multi-level empirical research concept, including qualitative and quantitative approaches. A survey of 2,300 students was conducted in Osnabrück on the basis of focus group discussions with students and interviews with various experts such as a neighbourhood manager, an urban planner, a district mayor, a college president, a real estate manager.
Originality/value
To date, little research has been undertaken to empirically examine the specific requirements that German students look for in a place to live and study. According to the author’s present state of knowledge (January 2018), a comparable study has not been done.
The main contribution of this paper is the empirical analysis of what makes cities attractive to students. In contrast to the findings of Richard Florida about the Creative Class, the cleanliness of a city, beautiful city scenery, and attractive apartments are more important to students than cultural offers, interesting job opportunities, or a multicultural population.
Practical Implications
Insights from the empirical survey can both help to analyse important factors in students' decision-making process and provide possible measures that the city stakeholders can take.
Keywords
1. Knowledge-based urban development
2. Mobility decisions by students and skilled professionals
3. Location factors
4. Place branding
Proposed paper: Academic Research Paper
Die Entwicklungsrichtung ist eindeutig: Im Wintersemester 2017/2018 waren bereits 2,8 Mio.
Studierende an 428 Hochschulen in Deutschland eingeschrieben. Im Zehn-Jahres-Vergleich
bedeutet das einen Zuwachs von gut 46% – Tendenz steigend. Für 2016 wurden bundesweit
385 Haupt- und 234 Sub-Standorte ermittelt, mehr als eine Verfünffachung gegenüber 1991
(Hüning et al. 2017). Für Städte sind Studierende eine immer wichtiger werdende Akteurs-
gruppe: Sie beleben und verjüngen die Stadt, wirken teilweise als kreative Raumpioniere in
Innenstädten oder benachteiligten Quartieren, können das Image der Stadt positiv beein-
flussen und sind nicht zuletzt eine relevante wirtschaftliche Einnahmequelle.