Greece followed, inevitably, the centralized model of development: almost everything was concentrated in Athens. So, until 1964 the country had only two Universities (in Athens and Thessaloniki ). In 1972 a few small technological institutes were founded in experimental form, which, after Ovidian transformations approximated Universities in 2001(in terms of equivalence). After 1981, and mainly after 1999, the reverse tendency began: a multitude of Universities and Technological Institutes across the country. In most of the areas tertiary education institutions are now the “heavy industry”. The research focused on the west axis of Greece, but its results have a more general validity, as there is no divergence from the rest of the Greek regions. Initially, some regional inputoutput tables were compiled - something that was not available from the Statistics Service. This extremely laborious approach was carried out for the years 1995, and 1998. Likewise, the economic changes that occurred in the area as a result of the function of similar institutions of tertiary education were assessed.

Furthermore, various qualitative parameters are examined. More specifically, through primary research, questionnaires collected from six different cities, which helped to determine social differentiations. Based on the above outcomes, not only the social but also the demographic and cultural changes that came about after the creation of faculties of tertiary education were described. Then research was conducted in the archives of the cities in order to evaluate the changes in the morphology of the area (city plan, look of the city, land uses etc.).