From the entrepreneurial university to the civic university: What are we talking about?

The study aims to verify the impact of the presence of the university on the perceived quality of life of the host community. To this aim, the authors focused on a specific area, that is the historical town centre of Naples (as defined by the UNESCO in the World Heritage List, since 1995), where 5 universities are located. Adopting a qualitative and explorative approach, 25 in-depth interviews have been conducted with local universities’ stakeholders, content-analysed through the software Nvivo 10. Thus, the authors identified precisely the multiplicity of activities through which the presence of the university contributes to the socio-economic and cultural well-being of the community of which it is part, thinking about the dynamics that may occur in the case of an urban-located university. Based on our findings, a conceptual model is proposed, that may be further validated with new investigations.