The paper is to examine the university as an object for geographical research and to review its related studies. Although the higher education system in Korea has much expanded its capacities since the 1980s, there are few studies that carry out geographical investigations on the themes including locational changes of universities, regional impacts of the university, and interactions between universities and regional development. Therefore, focusing on the university as an innovative element for the regional development in a coming knowledge-based society, this paper first tries to examine and conceptualize new roles and changing functions of the university in facilitating regional economic and social development. It then reviews various studies of educational geography and research shifts on the role of the university in the context of the western developed countries. Finally this study suggests a series of research themes that we should investigate in the future.