University Research and the Effects of Education
Sponsoring a university to research a particular industry raises the city’s competitiveness rating in that industry — and competitiveness is what decides whether a city makes goods or imports them.
Reading the competitiveness report
A city’s ratings across industries are on the Industries page of the Cities report.
| Figure | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| City competitiveness rating | The higher it is, the more people are employed in that local industry. A weak rating means the city must import large volumes, which costs manufacturing jobs. |
| Global competitiveness rating | The benchmark. Once the city’s rating exceeds it, the city can export to the world market. |
| Volume of export | Exports only begin above the global rating. Strong exports lift city employment considerably. |
What research actually does
It creates jobs, and jobs attract people
Research raises competitiveness, competitiveness raises exports, and local businesses hire more people to meet the demand. Unemployment falls, job openings multiply, and people migrate to the city.
None of this is immediate. Nothing happens until the city’s competitiveness passes the global average — which can take months or years. The effect only becomes obvious once many product classes are well clear of that average.
It improves what the city makes
Where an industry’s city competitiveness rating is above zero, every product made in that city within that industry gets a bonus to Production Quality. It appears as City Quality Bonus on a manufacturing unit.
With the Digital Age DLC, it improves talent
University research in specific fields of technology raises both the skill and the supply of talent specializing in that area.
The effects of education
Click any education-related civic building to see the education levels of a city’s people.
Those levels affect two things.
How fast competitiveness grows
A better educated population raises a city’s competitiveness in an industry more quickly.
More about City CompetitivenessOn that page, scroll to the Industries section for the detail on city competitiveness.
The skill of civic building staff
Staff skill level comes from two inputs: the education levels of the city’s people and the staff training budget for that building.
How the education factor is calculated
It is the average of two percentages:
- the share of the city’s population with a high school education
- the share with a university education