The role universities play in smaller towns and communities goes deeper than education and research—they’re helping reshape their hometowns.

With a societal shift under way, combined with flexible and remote work arrangements, the number of priced-out inner-city dwellers, mostly millennials, moving to regional areas hit a 12-month high in May and sits 20 per cent above the pre-Covid average.

As part of its $66.9-million initiative, the Federal Government wants to double the number of university study hubs across the country and also bring the hubs to the outer suburbs of major cities, which lack significant physical university campuses and where the local population has a low rate of university qualifications.