Universities, local labour markets and regional economic development

Universities as a supplier of the highly skilled have long been understood as a contributor to economic development (Glasson 2003). However, the direct impact of graduate education at the regional level is less clearly understood. This paper investigates patterns that emerge from ‘first destination’ data for all UK universities on where graduates begin work and what they actually do in successful regions, comparing this with recent policy rhetoric, for example in the UK’s Industrial Strategy (HM Government 2017), the Adonis Growth Review 2014 and the 2014 Witty Review of Universities and Growth. It illustrates reality using case studies of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire which are both adjacent geographically and among the most competitive places in the UK, albeit with rather different HEIs. It addresses the issue of spatial differences, examining how different patterns of skills matching emerge even in adjacent regions. It also reflects on spatial mobility: whether and how the migratory behaviour of skills influences education-job match.