Universities as a transformative micro-geography and locality-universality paradox

Universities that shape the future and lifestyle society are micro-geographies where change and transformation are experienced both individually and socially. The role of universities in this change and transformation follow a parallel process alongside the social and cultural environment they create. The framework of this research is to determine the locality of the universities according to the provinces and the region the students come from. In this context, the provinces where students enrolled in each university from the YÖK database are used. The data was classified as NUTS 2, 3 and classified with respect to the provincial border neighbours of the universities. A location quotient (LQ) analysis was applied to the data and as a result of the analysis, the LQ of the universities were obtained. The average of the LQ of universities constituted the LQ of the provinces. In the second stage, the relationship between the LQ and per capita income status of the province was examined. Results indicate that significantly higher localization exists than the reference value (1.25) for each university in Turkey but with regional differentiation. In addition, the relationship between the LQ of the provinces and the income status is at a moderately negative level.