The Rise of the UniverCity

Urban universities play an important and outsized role in cities. They bring diverse ideas and people together and they generate new innovations. But they also gentrify neighbourhoods and exacerbate housing inequality in an effort to enrich campuses and attract students. They often become the main employers, dictating labour practices and suppressing wages. And they increasingly occupy real estate positions in vulnerable communities. Together with leading urbanist and historian Davarian Baldwin this event will discuss the relationship between universities and cities.  What is the role of higher education in shaping urban environment? And how to ensure that they actually contribute to a just and vibrant city?