The Resilience of Universities

A lot of cities began as university towns, I believe, or at least if we go back to the medieval period and you think about what were the prestigious places to go. But now, especially with work remote, and perhaps just a decoupling of college from prestige, it doesn't seem like universities must be clusters for talent. It seems like you might have talent choose any place, and then create a meme of itself. So, I wonder what that will do to the resilience of colleges and college towns.