TARRAGONA AS AN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY CITY. The opportunities and challenges to attraction, integration and retention of higher education students in a tourist context

Identifier:  TFM:2458

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TFM2458

Authors:  Marogna, Marta

Abstract:
This research explores the relationship between intermediate cities and higher education communities, focusing on international postgraduate students at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona. It analyzes student housing conditions amid growing pressures from touristification and platform-driven short-term rentals (Airbnb model). Using a mixed-methods research design, the study highlights how temporal lease constraints, such as 'scholar contracts', trigger student housing precarity and seasonal displacement. Ultimately, the thesis demonstrates that these housing challenges and subsequent socio-spatial isolation undermine student integration, hindering the city's long-term strategy to retain highly skilled international talent