We all know university cities or college towns. These are defined as communities or small till medium sized town which are dominated by its university population. The university may be large, or there may be several smaller institutions, or the residential population may be small, but college towns in all cases are so dubbed because the educational institution(s) presence pervades economic and social life. Many local residents may be employed by the university - which may be the largest employer in the community, many businesses cater primarily to the university, and indeed the students population may outnumber the local population outright.

With a university dominating a city, there are several advantages a cities benefits from.

According to a press release of the University of Saskatchewan, a public research university located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Canada, the University plays a key role in its community, bringing jobs, money, people and attention to this city of 230,000. The city is experiencing increased prosperity and the university is enjoying a boost in its stature. Many see the prosperity of the city and the rising profile of the university going hand-in-hand. Another trend is the steady increase of the population in “Saskaboom”. A part of Saskatoon’s rising fortunes come from increasing demand and prices for natural resources, including the province’s huge reserves of potash and uranium. But there is another story taking shape around the University of Saskatchewan and the profile it is developing because the University has been an incredible engine in all this, absolutely.

Another example are the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson, Temple University and Drexel University, all located in Philadelphia, US, which have a strong civic role. The Universities and their associated hospitals - "eds and meds" - are the biggest economic players in Philadelphia. The colleges, research centers, medical schools and health systems associated with these Universities together rate among the top local employers. Combined, they have 87,000 direct employees, and that doesn’t count the students and patients and contractors they attract.

But universities don’t only play a role in the city’s economy; they also have an important role in the improvement of the inner-city education. Richard M. Englert, professor at Temple University, assumes that there is such an institution as the "urban university" within a major city. There are tension points between cities and urban universities that constitute barriers to productive joint efforts to improve urban education; some of the most intractable disputes involve real estate and location. The professor created a 31-goal agenda that asks the urban university to provide a quality higher education for urban residents, provide university students with city experience, prepare urban professionals, develop a knowledge base for urban improvement, provide essential services for city residents, act as a good neighbour, and be a social critic and an agent of public policy. The first thing the urban university should do is to make certain that it provides access to urban students. Reclaiming the public trust and organizing urban improvement efforts are key elements of the university’s role in urban education. However, each urban university must set its priorities in accord with its autonomy.

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