Üniversiteler bulundukları bölgelerin eğitim ve öğretim ihtiyacını karşılamakla beraber, kuruldukları yerlerin ekonomik olarak kalkınmasını da sağlamaktadırlar. Bu anlamda üniversiteler, kuruldukları ve henüz gelişmesini tamamlamamış olan şehirlerin ekonomilerinde özellikle hizmet sektörünün gelişmesine, doğrudan ve dolaylı katkılar sağlamaktadır. Bu çalışmada Kilis 7 Aralık Üniversitesi’nde öğrenim gören öğrenciler üzerinde uygulanan ankete göre elde edilen veriler SPSS istatistik programı ile analiz edilmiş ve yorumlanmıştır. Bu bağlamda, 417 öğrencinin katılımı ile yapılan ankette aylık toplam gelir 456 TL, aylık toplam gider ise 414 TL olarak belirlenmiştir. Yaklaşık 6000 öğrencinin bu harcama miktarı ile yıllık yaptığı harcama yaklaşık 29.808.000 TL’dir. Bu anlamda, öğrencilerin şehir ekonomisine göz ardı edilemeyecek bir katkısının olduğu söylenebilir.

Universities are able to meet the educational needs of a region as well as contributing their economic developments. In this context, universities help to develop service sector and provide direct and indirect contributions to the economies in developing cities which are not fully developed yet. Furthermore, they also develop regions’ social cultural characteristics and also they reveal cities’ innovative features through projects and research activities. In addition to this, universities increase the mobility of the work force of city, significantly contribute to the physical infrastructure such as improvements in housing, health facilities, communication and transportation and it increases the cultural activities, leads to the improvement in life quality and by enabling the contribution to the education it made an effective educational and demographic contribution by decreasing the migration. According to the 2011 population census it was stated that the central population of Kilis City is approximately 87.939. The viniculture, olive production and agricultural activities can be seen in the southeast and the border line. However, border trade plays a crucial role for the city. After the establishment of the university in 2007, there can be seen intensive service sector activities. Kilis 7 Aralık University has 5 faculties, 2 academies, 2 vocational school and 2 institutes with 6000 students by the end of 2011-2012 academic year. In national and international literature, there are various studies regarding to the economic effects of universities to the cities where they established. However, this study is important due to the reason that there is no such study at all for Kilis City. In this context, when considering the studies in literature, it was revealed that students’ expenses compose a significant resource for cities. According to these studies, the great portions of the students’ expenses are covered by sheltering, food, clothing, entertainment and foodbeverages with the order of presence. The aim of this study is to determine the economic effect of the students in Kilis 7 Aralık University to the Kilis City and to the region. It was tried to measure the contribution of students to the economy by determining students’ expenses through various expense items. The economic structure of the city is changing because the university in the city is newly established and the number of the students is increasing day by day. The survey used in the study includes questions which try to determine the demographic features of the students as well as intend to understand the amount of expenses which students made in various areas. The convenience sampling method was used in the selection of the student sample which represents the population. The students which represent the population restricted with only Kilis 7 Aralık University students. The study is within 95% confidence interval with a 5% error margin and the population is 6000 and according to these data, the sample number was found as 362. The minimum sample was increased and the study was conducted to 417 students. The data was examined in SPSS-18 software. Descriptive statistics which are gathered from the survey results can be summarized as follow. 417 students are participated to the survey, 58% are female, 26,4% are from faculty of education, 23,3% form vocational high school, 11,5% are from faculty of arts and sciences and 10,8% are from health school. 64,5% of students are from primary education and 35,5% is secondary education. 48,4% are from second class, 25,2% are from first class, 23% are from third class and 3,4% are from fourth class. Students prefer Credit and Hostels Institution dormitories with 40,5%; tenement with 29,7; private dormitories with 18,9% and residence in own house with 7,7%. Apart from these 3,1% of students marked other option. Participated students room with 3 or higher individuals (72,4%). Mean of age is 21 with a range 18-28. GPA is assumed as indicator of achievement and changes in the range 0-4. Students reside in Kilis City for 8 months long, in average. 95,9% of students do not work. Second group of questions collects the information about the income and expenditure of students. A typical student assumed to have three sources of income. These are pocket money from family, credit and scholarship and salary if he/she works in somewhere. According to the results, a student has 750 TL monthly pocket money from family, 850 TL from credit and scholarships and 400 TL salary at maximum. Expenditures in Kilis city are grouped into two categories as monthly and annual. According to the research results when student’s spending items are analyzed, according to the findings; paying for rent per person is utmost 750 TL, monthly spending at university canteen is utmost 250 TL, refectory spending is utmost 120 TL, food spending outside of the university is utmost 300 TL, other market spending are utmost 300 TL, monthly electric, water, bottled gas spending which is varying from person to person, are utmost 200 TL, monthly stationery spending are utmost 250 TL, monthly transportation spending are utmost 450 TL and monthly communication spending are utmost 100 TL. On the other hand student’s yearly entertainment spending are 1000 TL, clothing spending are utmost 1000 TL, newspaper and magazine spending are utmost 300 TL, trips within university spending are utmost 600 TL and certificated educations are utmost 400 TL, buying gift spending are utmost 741 TL. The study which analyses the effect of Kilis 7 Aralık University to the city economy is important due to the students’ spending items. According to the study results, it was found that the monthly average spending of a student in Kilis 7 Aralık University is approximately 456 TL. On the other hand, the yearly total contribution of students’ spending to the Kilis city economy is approximately 29.808.000 TL. However, the limited opportunities of the city and the inadequate level of income of some students restrain the spending opportunities and the economic contribution to the city. On the other hand, it should not be underestimated that the calculated amount may create a velocity to the economic development of the city. In this context, some recommendations can be made regarding to the role that universities play in the development and improvement of the cities. Thus, universities should be aware of their roles in accordance with creating a better and more knowledgeable economic infrastructure of the city by enabling the university-industry cooperation. Furthermore, they also should be aware of their roles to contribute the city economy by strengthening the students’ knowledge and skills with a more permanent way to the city economy. In this sense, some roles of universities come into prominence such as being in a struggle for bringing together the global dynamics with the cities’ resource, pioneering the social, cultural and economic potential of the city, creating a synergy in order to develop the city entirely, being a resource and prosecutor for projects which creates awareness in city. On the other hand, the city also must be in a state of understanding and make effort to create adequate infrastructure such as physical, economic, social and cultural as well as considering the university’s mission and vision with regard to the city dynamics.