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Inside Out

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Inside Out East Midlands: Monday January 12, 2004

STUDENT CITIES

Student behavior has enraged some residents

The growth of university students has brought problems for some East Midlands cities. Inside Out investigates whether gown and town can co-exist successfully.

The boom in student numbers is fuelling a housing revolution in Midlands cities like Loughborough and Lincoln.

The influx of students has injected new life into these cities' local economies, but it has also brought its share of problems.

Many residents are up in arms about the drunken and loutish behaviour of students, and their impact on property values.

Inside Out investigates what can be done to reconcile the problems of gown and town in the East Midlands.

Gown and town

Loughborough has had a University since 1966 but its growth in recent years has caused a massive shortage of places to rent for students.

Standing tall - the rising towers of Loughborough University

In 1966 there were fewer than 2,000 students. Now there over 14,000, all looking for somewhere to live in the market town.

During term time an amazing 22% of Loughborough's population is made up of students.

A similar situation can be found in Lincoln, a new University city. Lincoln's University has only been up and running since the 1990s.

Lincoln now boasts over 6,000 full time students but provides only 1,160 bed spaces on campus.

The result of its rapid expansion has been a huge increase in the number of students having to live in the city's private rented sector.

Students behaving badly

A side effect of a growing student population is problems of anti-social and drunken behaviour.

Since the 1960s student life has always included plenty of extra curricular activities such as drinking and letting off steam. It's all part of growing up, a right of passage.

Student behaviour hasn't changed radically over the years. The mixture of alcohol and youngsters away from home for the first time can be a potentially explosive cocktail.

Antisocial behaviour take many forms including urinating and vomiting in the street

But what's the new is the extent of the problem. In some cases the problem of unruly student behaviour is driving local people away from their homes.

Although it's a national problem, Lincoln and Loughborough suffer from a high proportion of students living off campus.

We know that it is a minority of students who behave in antisocial ways, but this is no reassurance to anxious residents.

Inside Out filmed in several student neighbourhoods, and found numerous instances of unruly behaviour, mainly linked to alcohol.

Sadly it is often just one incidence of antisocial behaviour which tips the balance and makes another resident decide to leave a neighbourhood.

Student streets

The misery some residents have suffered is compounded because their communities have been taken over by student houses.

In some streets the majority of houses have been snapped up by landlords and converted into student bedsits.

Those living in the private houses which remain have found themselves surrounded and battered by the noise and disruption.

Moving out - Angela Jarram feels driven out of her home

Rosie Peddle who lives near Loughborough's Ashby Road has witnessed the campus spread into the town over the years.

She can understand their boisterous behaviour but has to put up regularly with what she calls "vomit and tin can football".

She feels that "the only way forward is to have a resident's group to fight to get the students within the campus."

But it's all come a bit late for Angela Jarram who has lived on the same street In Loughborough for 65 years.

She felt she had to move out when the students moved in. She's resigned to the move, "I always imagined I'd only leave the street in a box. But I felt forced out and no one was listening to me."

It's a similar story in nearby Lincoln. Trudy Farrelly who lives in the Victorian terraces close to Lincoln city centre says, "they've turned part of the city into a makeshift campus and we're the ones having to suffer the consequences."

University challenge

UNIVERSITIES AND COMMUNITIES

There's also a positive side to the influx of students:

* Universities can boost the local economy with ideas and highly skilled people

* Students spend money on local services, in pubs and clubs, and in local shops

* Universities can stimulate arts, music and local culture

* Universities can provide an important link between academic life and the business sector, feeding through research and development to help local industry

* Students who remain in the area when they've finished their studies can provide a pool of young, entrepreneurial talent

Loughborough University is sympathetic to residents' concerns, and is doing more to regulate student behaviour.

It also has plans for more places for students to live on campus.

Some Universities have drawn up complaints procedures targeting student behaviour in rented housing, and others have developed codes of conduct with disciplinary procedures.

Loughborough University's handbook says, "The University expects students聮 behaviour to be such as not to damage the standing of the University in the community".

In practice that is sometimes hard to achieve with many students living off campus.

The challenge for the future will be to balance the needs of residents and the ever growing population of students living in local communities.

But it's not all bad news, Lincoln and Loughborough's economies does benefit greatly from the presence of their Universities.

If Loughborough and Lincoln can solve their student housing problems, residents could find themselves much happier about the boom in student numbers in future.

In the meantime, action is needed to respond to this thorny university challenge.

Readers' Comments

We are not adding any new comments to this page but you can still read some of the comments previously submitted by readers.

Matt Bance
As a Loughborough student myself I feel that the programme was unfair to the students of Loughborough. It implied that the University was not a great place for further education when in fact we are placed 13th in the university league tables.

Can I also point out that without the student population of Loughborough which is about 25% of the total population there would be no way many of the local businesses or national shopping chains could survive in the town. This would mean nowhere for the residents to go shopping. I'm sure that if this were the case they would be the first to complain.

Yes students go out in the evenings and yes they consume alchohol but this is only natural and the University's student Union is where most of this goes on well away from any local residents.

Pete
I saw your programme last night regading the problems of student's behaviour in Loughborough. I was a student at the University during the 1980's and never felt there was a problem. I feel that the rise in the number of students and the lack of campus accommodation is partly to blame, but students themselves must be held resposnible for their own actions.

The University needs to establish acceptable guidelines for all students and especially for behaviour that can cause public offence and damage the reputation of the University.!

Gail Bishop
I can completely understand the residents point of view - our main problem in Leicester is parking. There are many students who live just outside of Leicester who drive and park their cars round the residential areas where most of the students live, and crossing the road can be quite hazardous when you're faced with a student in a car, late for their lecture, desperate for somewhere to park. DMU is slowly trying to build enough halls of residence to accomodate the first year (never mind 2nd and 3rd years) when the intake keeps growing. But while living in halls is great fun, it's very claustrophobic and it's not until you move into a house that you learn about real life - landlords, paying bills, keeping your music down after 11pm.

I appreciate the residents have to put up with this year after year, but we also have a right to get our education, go out and get sloshed, face the consequences and get a taste of experience before we go out and face the big bad world.

Ben
I'm actually a student at Loughboroug Uni and possibly suprisingly I agree with many of the points in the article. Loughborough which has a proud reputation both academically and on the sports pitch also seems to have the utterly unfathomable alcohol culture which is a real shame.

I live in the town in a house that I own and we get on really well with out neighbours, often going round for meals etc. The problem is that the links between the campus and town are so poor. Most students in their first year see nothing but the town centre and campus and even when they move out they move to entirely student based areas. It's no suprise then that they have no concept of owenership on the town.

That said though it is a wide brush that we are being tarnished with. The vast majority of students are well behaved and fine. It's a shame it takes a few drunken louts to ruin it for the rest of us!

Len Miller
Excellent article and is issue of increasing concern to other Uni Cities like Nottingham, and where some parts of the City, e.g. Lenton where I live are virtually under siege by students during term time and causes irreversible breakdown of local communities and their identity - and thats without recognising the enormous extent of anti social behaviour that seems to be inherent when student 'ghettos' are allowed to become established communities in their own right!

Katrina
Hi, well I am a student at one of these universities and I do remember seeing some people filming - but they weren't filming in town on a night when the students here particularly go out?!

Also, as far as the people of the town are concerned - I am sure also go out and course bad behaviour!!

Chris
However much local people complain about the problems of having Loughborough University in their town, the simple factor is that there would barely be any town without it.

If there was no students in loughborough, I find it highly unlikely that there would be a town centre anything like there is today.

I can almost guarantee that there wouldnt be the number of national stores such as JJB and Big W just moving in aswell as the huge variety of other stores. This means that whatever the downsides there is to the town caused by students, the benefits like the shopping and vast number of jobs created by the students needs will always outweigh them.

John
The residents want more students to live on campus in Loughborough? If this is true, why are the residents objecting to plans put forward by the university to build more on-campus accomodation? .

I live in the Storer Road area and I do not think that the noise level is higher than areas near town centres in any other part of the country, including towns without a university. I also think Inside Out cast students in a bad light. If a 大象传媒 camera crew went to any town on a Saturday night they would see the same behaviour, not only by 19-21 year olds, but also by people in their late 20's and 30's.

Martin
As a loughborough university student I am well aware that a very small percentile of students may cause a slight disturbance to some residents. However, the local economy benefits greatly, and those who live in areas of student accomodation are living in properties which have a value much higher than their 'true' value.

So, how about these residents selling up, therefore keeping all the students together and also making a lot of money, and buying a much nicer property in a much nicer neighbourhood.

Loughborough Student
Loughborough has a student lifestyle however, it is far less a problem than many other universities across the country, and some of the people featured in the programme were university staff and not students.

Matt
Having recently finished my undergraduate degree in Loughborough, I can tell you that only once in my four years here was a small letter put up in our hall telling us to keep the noise down.

The university does NOTHING about the problem. How about emailing students (they emailed us about everything else), put warning posters up and reprimanding students for bad behaviour off campus?

Mr Norman
Where were the students' views???

Dirk
I study at Loughborough and think this program showed a one sided view and was very poor not what I have come to expect from the 大象传媒.

Jonathan Light
I fully sympathise with the residents of Loughborough, I have myself been the constant victim of unruly behaviour in my area. After only one year I feel forced to leave the area. Something has to be done.

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