What universities towns and cities gain from students’ retention? Evidence from Opole

The purpose of the study is to investigate the long run consequences of graduate’s retention by university towns and cities. It investigates hypothesis that the inflow of students to the university towns and cities among who dominate women, and their prosper to remain after graduation, cause surpluses of young women. The analysis presented in the article was conducted for Opole which is one of university towns in Opolskie Voivideship (region) in Poland. In the article, there were combined data applied – the results of the research was conducted in Opole among students and a range on statistic database from Opolskie Voivideship. The research has been conducted in 2016/2017 among more than 700 students of last academic years from all universities located in Opole. The data origins from Poland Statistics aggregated to the poviats of Opolskie region which are equivalent LAU-1. The most important findings proved that inflow of students to the towns and cities may create a huge demographic impact on the urban areas as some graduates remain in the university towns and cities after graduation. The most important is the fact that there are mostly younger women in working age population which affects the demographic potential of the urban area.