Because of the geographically unbalanced distribution of universities, regional disparities at the higher educational level in Japan have been formed by two migration-related behaviors: the entrance behavior of university candidates and the occupation behavior of university graduates. The purpose of this paper is to detect mechanisms of regional disparities by analyzing these two behaviors in Saku region, the eastern part of Nagano prefecture, at both the regional and prefectural scale. <br> The results obtained are summarized as follows : <br> 1) Because of the small capacity of universities in Nagano prefecture, most of the university candidates in this prefecture have to go elsewhere, most of them to Tokyo. In 1980, their migration rate to Tokyo had somewhat decreased. However, the rate of migration to the metropolitan area surrounding the city has not decreased so much. <br> 2) The so-called return migration rate of university graduates who were originally from Nagano prefecture is less than half of the whole. So Nagano prefecture may be called a supply area of human resources to the Tokyo metropolitan area. <br> 3) In Nagano prefecture, proportions of university graduates tend to be large in the urban areas with large populations, although some municipalities, scattered at the north mountain areas of this prefecture, have only a small proportion. The growth rate in their proportions tended to be unchanged from that of 1970. After that date the disparities in higher educational levels in this prefecture did not decrease up to 1980.<br> 4) In the northern half of Saku region, proportions of university graduates are larger than in the southern half. This phenomenon corresponds with the progress of urbanization and the growth of municipal populations. The growth rate in the numbers of university graduates and of successful candidates for university admissions show the same contrasts between northern and southern parts, and these disparities also did not been diminish between 1970 and 1980.<br> 5) The migration behavior of university graduates who graduated from high schools in the Saku region, fall into four categories. The major group are those who leave Nagano prefecture when they enter university and do not return after their graduation. This pattern characterizes almost half of the whole. The next group are those who return to Nagano prefecture. But only about 60 per cent of them returned to Saku region. There were also disparities in the return migration rate between thenorthern and southern parts of Saku region. <br> 6) There are clear differences in occupation between those who took jobs in Nagano prefecture and the others. The rate of employment in private companies is most remarkable. The difference is not so remarkable between those who graduated from universities in Nagano and the others. However, the quality of jobs plays an important role when they choose their occupations. <br> 7) In Saku region, regional disparities in opportunities for jobs, especially in private companies, have a most decisive influence on the rate of return migration.<br> 8) Thus the disparities in higher educational levels exhibit a tendency for an area which has a small number of university graduates to also have a low rate of university admissions and a low rate of return migration. This shows that reproductive mechanisms of regional disparities in higher educational level are at work.