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Studentification:
Tackling Causes, Tackling Effects
Dr Richard Tyler
Norwich City Council & University of East Anglia,
Studentification: the next steps
Norwich, 19 June 2007
Causes & Effects
DEFINITIONS
NB NOT students in the community, BUT students in
stead of the community.
“If the great majority of the population changes from one
year to the next, the number of settled, long-term residents is
too few to sustain, try as people will, the community organisations
and sense of neighbourhood – the social capital, as it is
called in the academic jargon – that make our communities
work,” John Denham MP, House of Commons, 5 June 2007
• National HMO Lobby: “the substitution of a local
community by a student community” (‘Studentification:
Discussion Document’, website, 2004).
• Darren Smith: “the replacement and/or displacement
of established residents with a transient, generally young and single,
social grouping” (Studentification: Guide, UUK, 2006).
(A particular instance of a general phenomenon – studentification
< homogenisation < polarisation.)
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Causes & Effects
CAUSES
Darren Smith: “There are four dimensions to the process –
social, cultural, physical, economic” (Studentification:
Guide, UUK, 2006).
• this describes, but it doesn’t define: what are the
relationships between these dimensions?
• the ‘social’ is not just primary, it is the
fundamental factor, the cause;
• the other dimensions are consequent upon the ‘social’,
the effects.
Hence, cause: student demand › distorted
housing market › demographic imbalance.
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Causes & Effects
EFFECTS
Demographic imbalance › a double whammy.
• decline of community
- imbalance undermines social networks, social norms, social sanctions
- reduces capacity to cope with problems
• rise of problems
- transience undermines neighbourliness
- social, environmental, economic (together, ‘cultural’)
problems increase
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Tackling Effects
PROBLEMS
• Social: antisocial behaviour, crime.
• Environmental: squalor, dereliction, street blight, carparking.
• Economic: distorted retail, fluctuating market, casualised
employment.
• Generic: some services overwhelmed (cleansing, policing,
housing, planning),
others underwhelmed (schools).
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Tackling Effects
SOLUTIONS
Twofold tactics: persuasion and coercion (students
themselves, student services)
• Social: campaigns (codes, promotions), interventions (wardens,
policing).
• Environmental: campaigns (waste, recycling), interventions
(prosecution).
• Economic: campaigns (good practice), interventions (policies).
• Generic:- persuasion: Community Code (Say hello, keep
the peace, clean up)
- coercion: Discipline (visibility, co-ordination, expedition, escalation,
credibility).
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Tackling Effects
PROBLEMS (2)
• Volatility: extreme mobility of student populations.
• Different Agendas: short-term or long-term?
• The Groundhog Effect: changing student population, changing
student leadership.
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Tackling Causes
PROBLEMS
• Higher Education Institutions: student expansion.
• Private Rented Sector: housing provision.
• Local Authorities: lack of constraint.
• Hence, Demographic Imbalance: incursion
of student houses - flight of residents - collapse of community.
• Tipping point: 20% population, 10% properties.
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Tackling Causes
SOLUTIONS
Ten Point Plan
• Accommodation Audit,
• Co-ordination,
• Action Plan;
• Mandatory HMO Licensing,
• Additional HMO Licensing,
• Restoration Strategy;
• Areas of Restraint,
• Threshold Policy,
• Purpose Built Development,
• Use Classes Order.
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Tackling Causes
PROBLEMS (2)
• Destudentification
- vacant properties: disposal?
- new residents: affordability?
• Internal Migration
- studentification, in some areas
- destudentification, in others
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References
Richard Tyler, ‘Comprehending Community’ in S Herbrechter
& M Higgins, eds, Returning to Communities, Amsterdam, 2006
National HMO Lobby, Balanced Communities
<http://hmolobby.org.uk/lobbybalancedcomms.htm>
National HMO Lobby, Studentification
<http://hmolobby.org.uk/lobbystudentif.htm>
National HMO Lobby, Symptoms
of Studentification <http://hmolobby.org.uk/lobbystudentifsymptoms.htm>
National HMO Lobby, Ten Point Plan
<http://hmolobby.org.uk/nattenpointplan.htm>
Darren Smith, Studentification:
A Guide, Universities UK, 2006
NUS, Students in the Community,
2007
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to –
National HMO Lobby
Leeds City Council
Universities UK, University of Leeds, Leeds Metropolitan University
National Union of Students, Leeds University Union, LMU Students
Union
Unipol Student Homes, Leeds Property Association
Dr Darren Smith
- for opposition and/or support!
National HMO Lobby
email: hmolobby@hotmail.com
website: www.hmolobby.org.uk
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