Dumlupınar University's impacts on socio-economic structure, and development of Kütahya city

University as an institution, the origin of which dates back to 12th century, was placed in a different context in 1800s. Roughly speaking, university that came to the fore with its education mission between 1200-1800, started to be discussed within the context of its research mission after 1800s. The university, which is an important agent of modernization of nations, has been part of a different story in every country. Particularly, with the emergence of problem of development after World War II started to evolve into a tool for development strategies. Within that context, after 1970, there has been increase in the number of studies on social and economic effects of university. In Turkey, however, studies on university's effects on its environments started in 1990s. In the last two decades, there has been an increase in the number of studies on foundation of universities in small and medium-sized cities that have exerted efforts for development. These studies have mostly focused on university's effects on spending and employment. But the university influences many factors such as transportation, demographic structure, housing market and spatio-temporal development of the city where they locate. Main purpose of this study is to determine the impacts of Dumlupınar University on the other spatial components of city of Kütahya in addition to spending and employment impacts. Since majority of Dumlupınar University's student and staff concentrated in city center of Kütahya, city center was determined as case study area. Results of fieldwork and evaluation of the collected data show that Dumlupınar University (founded in 1992) is an important source of expenditures and a significant employer in city of Kütahya. Amount of direct and indirect expenditures of Dumlupınar University, its student and staff was found to be around 330 million Turkish Liras (115.790.000$) in 2015 fiscal year. Dumlupınar University employ 1.754 people directly, and through direct and indirect expenditures creates employment opportunities for 3.890 people indirectly. Total employment impact reaches 5.644 people. Presence of Dumlupınar University affected the structure of the city's internal migration rates. Number of students, staff and their dependents that immigrated to Kütahya is estimated as 42.743. Majority of these immigrants are students whose ages range between 18-24 (93%). This has caused changes in the demographic structure of the city. Due to presence of students and staff, city has experienced quantitative and qualitative changes in the housing market. With the emergence of new urban neighborhood, city developed spatio-temporally and housing types have changed. For example, small square meter houses are increased in housing market. Students and staff who have migrated Kütahya affected the city and inter-city transportation system. While the number of buses and routes of city transportation have increased depending on the university, in parallel with the increase in the number of passengers inter-city transportation, national transportation companies (Varan, Kamil Koç, Metro etc.) have opened branches in Kütahya. Like many other Anatolian cities, Kütahya has problems in social and cultural attraction. Presence of the university in Kütahya is an important factor in closing the gap in this area. As a result, after Dumlupınar University was established in city of Kütahya, there have been improvements in many urban elements.