Where did they go? A study on newly established universities and graduate mobility in Finland

Abstract

This paper investigates cross-regional mobility in Finland using individual-level data on a cohort of people over a period of 15 years. The backdrop is that of the institutionalization of science and technology policy in the 1960s, part of which consisted in the expansion of universities in five regions. This had a threefold rationale: increasing participation rates to higher education, widening the recruitment base by facilitating young generations the right to study in their native regions, and stimulating regional economic development by providing skilled labour force. Our empirical analysis reveals high levels of spatial mobility and uneven retention rates across regions. Despite the policy action, graduates are still attracted towards the capital city Helsinki. Through a binary logit regression model we observe that mobility is influenced by the type of studies and to a lesser extent by the socioeconomic background.