Regeneration plans for the centre of Swindon are being challenged by the town's civic trust.
Land near Coate has been already been earmarked for a new campus
The campaign group has put forward its own set of proposals because it wants a university campus included.
The New Swindon Company (NSC) rejected the idea of a campus in its scheme, claiming there was no room in the centre for such a development.
But Swindon Civic Trust said it had identified several potential sites after consulting local groups.
These are broadly in the area from Swindon College, down Princes Street to Whale Bridge Roundabout and continuing down to the Railway Line and incorporating the North Star site.
Trust spokesman Alan Hayward said it asked 200 local residents if a university needed to be located mainly in the central area and more than four-fifths agreed.
"The trust strongly believed that a town centre university was vital for the successful economic and social regeneration of the central area.
"Our strategy now is to influence all the people and organisations who are involved in making decisions about the future of the town centre and Coate," he said.
He hopes, in particular, to influence the University of Bath, which wants to build a campus for 8,000 students on green fields between the Great Western Hospital and Coate Water Park.
This scheme is to be considered at a planning inquiry in January.