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The uneven geographical distribution of university graduates in Belgium, 1970-2011

University education in Belgium expanded rapidly in the second half of the twentieth century. However, the geographical distribution of university trained human capital has remained unequal. In this paper, we focus on the historical evolution of the geographical segregation of university graduates during a period of four decades (1970-2011). Our analyses show that Belgium’s major universities have come to operate as attractors for university graduates; the regions around these universities have become brain hubs. But the regions where university graduates want to live do not always coincide with the regions where they find appropriate employment opportunities. Our findings show that university regions are able to attract highly schooled human capital despite a lack of appropriate employment opportunities.