Blacktown is trying to lure a university to its town centre, offering a new high-rise building and opening local sports and technology facilities to any institution, local or international, willing to set up a campus and help it become "the talented city".

The council hopes to open a "pop-up" university of 1000 students by 2020, and a full campus with two faculties and 5000 students from 2023.

"We don't want someone to put a shingle on an office building, run a business course and repatriate the profits to their head office somewhere else," said council's general manager Kerry Robinson. "We want commitment."

An artist's impression of the proposed Warrick Lane campus of a yet-to-be determined university.

The council knows that universities help local business and re-energise town centres. It has studied examples from Chicago to Moreton Bay, and has developed a strategy that Mr Robinson said reflects "best practice of university location".