The leader of Oxford City Council has been forced to admit that “Cambridge is at least 20 years ahead of Oxford” in its business potential.

Bob Price was reacting to a report in The Economist that claimed Cambridge far outstrips its rival in creating well-paid and high-skilled jobs, stimulating the city’s economy and encouraging local business.

The article suggests that, to a certain degree, Oxford’s failures are an inevitable consequence of geographic and demographic circumstances. Unlike Cambridge, Oxford is surrounded by four different districts, each run by the Conservative Party, and each filled with what the article defines as “wealthy, powerful residents”. This makes changing the status quo an arduous task. 32,000 new houses are planned for completion by 2031, but there has been seemingly unanimous resistance to such a project among wealthier residents. A drastic housing shortage has led to the average Oxford home in 2014 costing 11.3 times the average local earnings. Consequently, 46,000 people are forced to commute into the city.

In comparison, the report praised Cambridge’s merits. Led by visionary academics, the university has been successful in combining local government, business and investors through effective mediation.

Decades ago, the university decided to combine its strengths in the sciences into wider regional prosperity, generating what the article calls a “whole ecosystem” of self-stimulating prosperity.

Trinity College, in the 1970s, opened the Cambridge Science Park, and the St John’s Innovation Centre was finished in 1987.

As Professor Jeremy K. M. Sanders, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Institutional Affairs, stated, these projects “drive the flourishing local hi-tech economy”.

“The University has had a prominent role in generating scientific enterprise in Cambridge and in civic life at least since the 1880s”, Sanders continued, “when Horace Darwin (son of Charles) founded Cambridge Scientific Instruments, one of our earliest spin-out companies.”

Today, Cambridge continues to follow this strategy. An ongoing project to channel Cambridge’s remarkable talents towards local socially desirable projects is the Department of Architecture’s installation at the Cambridge Junction, on display from the 29th January.

As defined by the architects themselves, the structure aims to “bring the community of Cambridge together through the senses of touch, sight and sound.”

First year architecture student Emily Wickham stressed the importance of such a project.

“I think it’s fundamental for the University to invest in creative projects in areas of the city that would otherwise easily be neglected,” she said.