What's the point of using the bitwise XOR operator "^" to get/generate the hashcode of an object?

Question

While reading some code, it came to my attention that some developers use the bitwise XOR operator, ^, to generate the hashcode of an object.

What's the point of doing it like this? Does it have some advantages over other methods to get/generate the hashcode of an object?

Here is a code example.

class Student {
  final String name;
  final int age;

  Student(this.name, this.age);

  @override
  bool operator ==(other) {
    return (other is Student) && other.name == name && other.age == age;
  }

  @override
  int get hashCode => age.hashCode ^ name.hashCode; // <-- Here
}

Answer 1

It has to be a single number, and the more it varies on more of the bits of any member of the object, the better.