Vliv vysokých škol na ekonomický růst v regionech Evropské unie

Abstract

This bachelor’s thesis focuses on the analysis of the impact of higher education institutions on regional economic growth in the European Union. The main objective of the thesis is to assess whether and to what extent regional economic performance is related to the presence and number of universities. The theoretical part defines the key concepts of regional development, economic growth and human capital and summarizes the main theoretical and empirical approaches addressing the role of higher education in regional economies. The empirical part is based on a quantitative analysis of regional data at the NUTS 3 and NUTS 2 levels covering the period 2000–2024. First, a descriptive statistical analysis of selected indicators is conducted, focusing on GDP per capita, unemployment rates by educational attainment and the number of universities across regions. Subsequently, correlation and regression analyses are applied to examine the relationship between the number of universities and long-term regional economic growth. The results indicate that the direct linear relationship between the number of universities and regional economic growth is weak. However, regions with a higher concentration of universities tend to achieve higher average long-term growth in GDP per capita, suggesting that higher education institutions represent an important factor contributing to regional development.