The use of state-to-state college migration data in developing a hierarchy of higher educational regions

States are frequently grouped into regions for higher educational purposes. This paper shows how systems of regions within which interstate migration flows are relatively great can be determined using state-to-state college migration data. Measures of the strength of regional identities are computed. New England and the northwestern states of Idaho, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, for example, are found to be well-defined regions. Comparisons between regional systems obtained when intrastate flows are taken into account, and when they are not, are made.