WHEATON (AP)—The stretch of Interstate 88 west of Chicago may be Illinois’ industrial Disneyland, but it’s also turning into a battlefield for the state’s universities.

The business boom spawned by the area’s high-tech industries has led local governments and businessmen to stump for educational assistance in the fast-evolving research and development fields, and public and private universities are scrambling to meet that challenge.

The University of Illinois, Northern Illinois University and the Illinois Institute of Technology are among the top players in the academic turf battle for rights to serve in the region.

At stake are corporate relationships and affiliation with the highly sought-after Superconducting Super Collider, which state officials want to be located in the region.

Jack Knuepfer, chairman of the DuPage County Board in Wheaton, near the center of the growth area, says the one vital ingredient lacking in the recipe for progress is a major research university.

“That is No. 1, the top. There’s no other higher priority, no doubt about it,” Kneupfer said recently. He’s not alone in that view.

“Every high-tech center in the nation has evolved around a major research university,” said Bonnie Wood, director of the East-West Corporate Corridor Association. “You need a nationally recognized university to do this.”

The association has been active in advising the Illinois Board of Higher Education on corporate needs.

Even without a university, the far western Chicago suburbs constitute one of the fastest-growing advanced technology areas in the country.

Employment growth is projected at 192 percent in the fields of computer and data processing between 1986 and 1995, according to NIU’s Center for Governmental Studies. Employment growth in business services is projected at 132 percent; advertising and publishing, 64 percent; health services, 51 percent.

The influx of business has brought increases in the population. Between 1970 and 1985, DuPage County’s population climbed 51 percent. The population of Kendall County, to the southwest, grew by 63 percent. In neighboring Kane County, planners say the city of Aurora will replace Rockford as the state’s second largest city by 2010, with a population double its current 88,000.

U of I, NIU and IIT already have established footholds in the region, including offering faculty and courses to community colleges, and have plans for more.

They are restrained only by budgets, corporate contacts and, to a lesser extent, the higher education board.

The board must approve certain course offerings and eventually must approve the administration of the proposed Center for Graduate Study and Research that is part of the state’s plan to woo the Superconducting Super Collider project.