Universities going to Town | JOHN TIBBITT from Policies for Places

I have written about the importance of learning for places before here and about encouraging accessibility to learning from a more visible presence of learning and skills agencies in city streets here. This piece is focused particularly on the role of universities and other higher education institutions (HEIs) in supporting their local economies through taking a presence in often struggling high streets in towns and cities.

I was prompted to explore this a little by a recent news release from my own alma mater, the University of Keele in Staffordshire in England, about their plans to re-purpose a building on the main street of their nearby town as a resource both for the town as well as for the University itself.

Located on a main street in Newcastle-under-Lyme and funded through a partnership including the University, the local council and central government, the project is intended as a gateway where residents, community groups and businesses can collaborate with experts from the University and benefit from new learning and support opportunities. The project will bring back into use a previously empty 19^th century building as a mixed-use venue – a ‘hub of learning’ and a place for people to connect with the University and access advice and support on a range of subjects. It will also be a place where businesses and local community groups can meet and showcase their work.

Keele, of course, is not the only HEI developing this kind of resource as Universities over recent decades have worked to increase their engagement with their surrounding cities and regions. Some major universities in the UK and elsewhere have developed facilities aimed at providing a shop window for their work and break down a perceived remoteness from their communities. But from the urban planning perspective there now seems to be a new dynamic at play which envisages the exporting of facilities that are often included within conventional university campuses into the centres of the towns and cities themselves to be integrated alongside other more traditional features of city centres.

There is an opportunity for towns and cities to take advantage of the range of facilities within universities such as theatres, libraries, bookshops, conference facilities, arts centres and exhibition space to fill under-used or vacant city spaces alongside more traditional retail and leisure uses. Such facilities, no longer serving only a student or university audience can increase high street footfall and bring a new vibrancy to city streets as they engage local people as well.

Diffusion of the university campus

This diffusion of higher education campuses to the high street is a trend which has been gaining momentum in recent years as university expansion has led to incursion into surrounding communities as institutions grow. Universities and colleges have placed satellite extensions in city neighbourhoods in an effort to reach out to more potential students, whilst collaboration with local businesses has increasingly seen the placing of innovation and research hubs in business centres.

These developments have often been planned for the benefit of the university and its students, but in so doing it is increasingly clear that they can bring benefits for the local economy and additional diversity to the social life of the community.  However HEIs are now also showing an adaptability and collaboration with communities as they seek further integration with the urban fabric of cities.

There are examples of multi-use developments which contribute to meeting local housing needs, the provision of community health facilities and careers and legal advice centres. Others, of which the Keele initiative above is a modest example, have shown a willingness towards adaptive re-use of existing buildings to support efforts to maintain the viability of city high streets and the attractiveness of the local environment.

Higher Education institutions can be an important partner for re-inventing the fabric of struggling town and city centres. Town centres can offer HEIs the chance to re-focus from often expensive and exclusive campus development to become agents for positive change in city centres whilst still providing living and learning opportunities to students.

Time for joint planning?

It is not only up to HEIs to take the initiative to taking forward these opportunities.  It is well recognized that talent and skills are essential to the resilience of cities and regions. City and regional authorities should be ‘reaching in’ to their local Universities and Colleges to attract them to their city centres. An appraisal of existing city assets and under-used spaces and of the gaps in current local facilities such as healthcare, cultural and event spaces and in retail and food services could enable local authorities to negotiate development possibilities of benefit to both the institution and the local community.

There might be an incentive for both local authorities and universities to come together just now to their mutual benefit. It is reported that several universities in the UK are facing financial difficulties and are facing the possibility of closing campuses or merging with other institutions. Some cities in the US are also having to cope with university closures and vacant campus buildings.  

Solutions are being found in the imaginative re-purposing of such facilities to create more housing and additional space for services and businesses, often in central locations. HEIs with local authorities can help mitigate their difficulties through joint planning and development. Could we be seeing the emergence of the high street as the new university campus?