The Attractiveness of Regional Towns
Inferring Quality of Life From Higher Education Facilities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47381/aijre.v23i2.658Keywords:
quality of life, higher education facilities, regional towns, happiness, social lifeAbstract
We examined whether the presence of higher education facilities made regional towns more attractive as potential residences. Metropolitan undergraduate students reported that they were more willing to live in a regional town with (vs. without) a university. Importantly, this applied regardless of whether they intended to work or study at the university. Perceived quality of life - defined as a combination of resident sociability and happiness, and the estimated amount of activities within the town - mediated the effect of university presence on residency likelihood ratings, suggesting that the presence of a university prompted participants to infer a higher quality of life for town residents. These results have implications for policy to counteract out-migration from regional areas, which threatens food security.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Aaron Drummond, Matthew A. Palmer, R. John Halsey
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors contributing to The Australian and Internation Journal of Rural Education agree to publish their articles under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license, allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, for any purpose, even commercially, under the condition that appropriate credit is given, that a link to the license is provided, and that you indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to The Australian and Internation Journal of Rural Education.
Manuscripts submitted for publication should not have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. It is the responsibility of authors to secure release of any copyright materials included in their manuscripts, and to provide written evidence of this to the editors.
Papers are accepted on the understanding that they are subject to editorial revision. The Editorial Committee cannot guarantee that all contributions will be published nor give definite dates of publication. However, contributors will be advised if their papers are not accepted or if there will be a long publication delay.
