The vulnerability of student populations and a new wave of studentification

1
The vulnerability of student populations and a
new -wave of studentification

• Darren P. Smith
• University of Brighton, UK
• The Fourth International Conference on Population
  Geographies
• The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• 11th July 2007

2
Structure

• The first-wave of studentification
• The more effective management of student
  populations (UniversitiesUK Studentification
  Guide)
• Stabilising the concentrations of student
  populations (Anti-Student Housing Restraint Areas
  - ASHORES)
• The second-wave of studentification
• The INTENTIONAL dispersal and regulation of
  student populations via luxury (and costly)
  purpose-built student accommodation
• Students are becoming a more vulnerable social
  groups

3
The definition of studentification

• Macmillan English Dictionary (2003)
• Studentification is the social and
  environmental changes caused by very large
  numbers of students living in particular areas of
  a town or city.
• Wikipedia (2005)
• Studentification is a neologism, coined to
  describe the effects that a large student
  population can have on an established population

4
The challenges/opportunities of studentification

• Social (e.g. the demographic imbalance school
  closures, loss of sense of community, increase of
  crime, unsustainability, low voting)
• Cultural (e.g. student-oriented retail, leisure,
  recreation, sense of place)
• Environmental (e.g. increased refuse, tipping
  rats, noise nuisance, parking, fly posters,
  to-let signs)
• Economic (e.g. rising property prices,
  mono-tenurial profiles, exclusion of families)

5
Leeds - the studentified landscape
6
Glasheen Rd area - Cork, Ireland
7
Kingston (Town and Gown Association of Ontario)
8
Annex district Toronto, Ontario
9
Carlton/Fitzroy Melbourne (Carlton Residents
group)
10
Berkeley, San Francisco
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Improving the management of student pops.

• Studentification A Guide To Opportunities,
  Challenges Practice
• Commissioned / published by UniversitiesUK/SCOP
• Funded by Department for Education and Skills,
• Office of Deputy Prime Minister
• Local Government Association
• Parliamentary launch - 27th June 2006

12
Key developments

• Strategic local level initiatives (checklist)
• Partnership working
• Interlocking strategies
• Effective communication channels
• Respect, transparency, and trust
• Sensitive to the local context
• Studentification unfolds in different ways within
  and between different places
• No blueprint for mitigating the challenges of
  studentification
• Sharing of experience and practice between
  organisations and stakeholders

13
Key Developments since UUK Guide

• Student Accommodation Strategy (HEIs/LAs)
• Student Strategy Managers (Nottingham)
• Community Liaison Officers (Loughborough)
• Community Wardens
• Neighbourhood Helplines (Leeds)
• Complaint response strategies (Leicester, 101)
• Accommodation Bureaux (e.g. Unipol in Nottingham)
• Accreditation Schemes (London-wide)
• Community Strategy
• Student Volunteering in the community (CUPP
  Brighton)

14
Key Developments since UUK Guide

• Raising student expectations of quality and
  management of accommodation
• Student Housing Handbook Guides and Guidance
• House-hunting talks, Fresher stalls, Leaflets,
  Internet, etc
• Alert students to alternative residential
  locations widen knowledge (Area Guides in
  London)
• Being a good neighbour responsibilities as
  tenants and neighbours
• Codes of behaviour on/off-campus
• Information directories contacts and timings
• Encourage stable student households

15
Key Developments since UUK Guide

• Noise awareness campaigns
• SSHH Campaigns (Silent Students Happy Homes)
• Traffic and parking initiatives
• Car parking permit schemes (Bristol)
• Subsidised public transport (Norwich)
• Environmental blight campaigns
• Awareness and recycling campaigns (Brighton)
• Crime (Birmingham Emma Thompson) and fire
  prevention (Bath)

16
Studentification events since UUK Guide

• All-party parliamentary group (APPG) on balanced
  and sustainable communities
• National HMO Lobby continues to expand 35 towns
  and cities
• Devolution of decision-making to neighbourhoods
  (White Paper)
• National conference for local councillors/local
  authority officers - hosted by Nottingham City
  Council
• Councillors' Campaign for Balanced Communities

17
Studentification events since UUK Guide

• National Union of Students (NUS) think tank held
  at the DCLG in London - Unipol/Universities
  Parternships Programme (UPP)
• NUS publication Students in the Community -
  11th June 2007
• Championed by the Housing Minister, Baroness
  Andrews
• issues around students and communities have
  become a real challenge for students unions
  across the country (p.1).
• Students in the Community Studentification -
  Association of Student Residences and
  Accommodation (ASRA) Annual Conference Swansea
  (April 2007)
• Regional meetings South-east Uni. of Greenwich
  (June 2007)
• Local Student Unions more pro-active
• University of Brighton Student Union survey
• Universities
• e.g. University of Bristol, University of
  Leicester
• Police

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Studentification events since UUK Guide

• Studentification The Next Steps - local
  authority and university officers
  representatives from student unions - organised
  by Norwich City Council and University of East
  Anglia - 19th June 2007
• UniversitiesUK Students and Sustainable
  Communities (October 2007)
• Unipol training events 6th July (London)

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The emerging processes of studentification?

• The first-wave of studentification
  (1995gtpresent?)
• The marked expansion of student populations
• Influx of students into the private-rented
  housing sector (HMOs)
• Perceived as urban decline (Studentification is
  the modern scourge of British cities)
• The second-wave of studentification
  (2005gtpresent?)
• The stabilisation of the expansion of student
  populations
• The proliferation of purpose-built student
  accommodation by the private sector (Unite, Opal)
• Marketed as a form of urban regeneration
  (Studentification in a more positive light)

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The conditions of the second-wave?

• HMO Mandatory (and Selective) Licensing - Housing
  Act 2005
• Accreditation ANUK/UUK
• Property market saturation (buy-to-let) for the
  (over-)supply of student accommodation

21
The conditions of the second-wave?

• Private sector involvement luxury student
  accommodation
• Changing student lifestyles
• The effects of top-up tuition fees student
  bursaries
• Changing student populations home, EU and
  international
• The refurbishment of Halls of Residence (UPP) on
  university campuses - recruitment and retention

22
The emerging processes of studentification?

• Purpose-built developments on brown-field sites

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The landscapes of the second-wave
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Purpose-built in Cork, Ireland
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Do purpose-built effectively deliver

• An opportunity to
• regulate anti-social behaviour?
• enhance quality and management of student
  accommodation?
• solve refuse collection issues, etc?
• control student leisure recreation spaces
  (bars) ?
• reduce use of private vehicles?
• circulate information leaflets and enhance?
  communication?
• Increase electoral voting?
• Reduce concentrations in studentified areas?
• (Re)turn studentified areas to family housing?

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The challenges are displaced?
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The emerging processes of studentification?

• Purpose-built developments in studentified areas
• Regulating student populations?

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Purpose-build and the tipping-point
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Purpose-build and the tipping-point

• McGill student ghetto, Montreal, Canada
• New Residence Hall (NRH)

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The future of studentified areas?

• Gentrification?
• The retention of graduates and conversion of
  student accommodation (PRS) for young
  professionals
• Students displaced to former social rented
  estates / declining areas (Brighton, Bristol)

31
Displacement of students from Yorkville Annex
boundary
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The future of studentified areas?

• Destudentification?
• The abandonment of student areas by students and
  student landlords (Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham,
  London)
• We want our students back!
• Over-supply of bed spaces - the effects of
  purpose-built student accommodation?
• Do the families come back? Or A8 migrants?

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(No Transcript)
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The future of studentified areas?

• Gated-communities?
• The segregation of students and established
  communities
• Students are jettisoned into established
  communities with no experience of student
  populations

35
The creation of gated communities and divided
societies?
36
Conclusion the key debate?

• Studentification
• More effective management of student housing and
  student populations
• And / or
• Legislative change (e.g. Use Classes Order)
• In the context of
• a changing private rented sector?
• the diversification of the student population
  student lifestyles/experiences?

37
Codes of Conduct - Kingston

• The university is sending letters to the parents
  of
• all new and Returning students this summer
• telling them about the universitys student
• code of conduct and expectations for
• behaviour.
• This is one of several initiatives aimed at
• fostering an atmosphere of responsibility
• when the bulk of the student body returns to
• campus in September, members of the Board of
• Trustees heard at their May 6 meeting.

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Student Housing Co-operatives Toronto
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Responsible landlords/tenants - Toronto
40
McGill Ghetto, Montreal (Milton Parc Residents
Syndicate)
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Active citizens - Toronto

• Were promoting the idea of our students as
  active citizens by sensitizing them to the fact
  that this is a neighbourhood.
• The University is concerned with breaking down
  various misconceptions of students that residents
  hold (McGill Daily, 22/09/03).

42
Student volunteering - Toronto

• With a nudge from the University Relations
  Office (URO), a group of students attempted to
  change the communitys feelings by participating
  in a neighbourhood cleanup.
• 50 students donned gloves, grabbed garbage bags,
  and streamed out of the Milton Gates to collect
  the telling remains of a first week of excessive
  drinking and discarded apartment furnishings
  (McGill Daily, 22/09/03).

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Anti-social behaviour - Toronto

• The officers at Station 19 created an action
  plan to curtail noise and disruption at night.
  The station came up with the Local Intervention
  Group, a short-term task force that began
  patrolling the area between 8 pm and 4 am on
  August 25. the group has adopted a
  zero-tolerance policy and has already issued
  roughly 125 tickets (McGill Daily, 22/09/03).

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Party Safe Melbourne
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Donate Your Furniture - San Francisco