THERE was a time when tension between town and gown meant well-to-do students fearing for the security of their teddy bears at the hands of horny-handed, resentful locals. The Times Higher Education Supplement (August 1) reports that those days have, most definitely, gone.
In the first of a series of summer specials on the changing relationship between students and their host areas, the newspaper did its best to lay out the case for joy on the part of new university towns.
For instance, a report published by the Work Foundation in November last year, called Manchester: Ideopolis?, argues that globalisation presents unique opportunities to create a “knowledge economy” to “harness and boost the existing research and development capacity of local higher education institutions into effective city/region competitiveness strategies”. Really.
In the spirit of global prosperity, Staffordshire University has calculated that it adds about £250 million a year to the local economy. This figure is arrived at by adding together the spending of students and staff, and multiplying by 1.7, to represent the impact of the money (on local breweries and kebab shops, presumably).
“A student is like a hotel guest who stays for 1,000 days,” beams Peter Fell, of Manchester University.
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But Loughborough locals know that these are the kind of hotel guests who steal the towels, block the toilets and leave mysterious footprints on the ceilings.
“I find this argument that the university employs a lot of people, therefore it’s OK for students to vomit on your doorstep, a bit hard to take,” says Rosie Peddle, of the Ashby Road residents’ association, recent victors in a fight to prevent a new hall of residence landing on their street.
“There are other big employers in the area who provide plenty of jobs, but their employees and customers don’t come and piss in your garden.”