Is the allocation of higher education resources a means to regional development? Although many governments have approached higher education as part of a wider regional policy, it is still very much an open question whether higher education regionalization really works. The evidence from the most conspicuous Scandinavian example of using higher education for regional development - the creation of Norrland University - indicates that the allocation of higher education resources may be conducive to breaking up traditional patterns of center-periphery interaction, but it also shows that the activities of the periphery play just as crucial a role as the special framing of the policy of the center in determining outcomes.