Wise words from the classic Australian soap theme tune but how true is it in our communities? Do students make good neighbours or are they wreaking havoc with endless anti-social behaviours, ridiculous noise pollution and inability to put litter in bins.

‘Student Ghetto’s’, ‘students no longer welcome’ are just some of the national headlines that paint a picture of what student areas are perceived to be like.

As a student I lived in Headingley, an area often described as a once leafy suburb of Leeds, now a student ghetto. Headingley’s not bad; it has quite possibly the worst roads in the whole of the UK, some of the worst burglary rates in Britain and streets and streets of converted houses occupied by students. But is that students fault? I loved living in Headingley, I enjoyed living just round the corner from many of my friends that I shared halls with, and I liked the social life, the sense of belonging and being part of the community.

I felt upset and targeted back in 2004 when as a sabbatical I read the headlines and saw what fellow members of the community thought of us. Headingley has been a student area for about 100 years; this is not a new thing and as an inner city area was it really ever a leafy suburb? Throughout the 90’s student numbers more then doubled and with it a new word was created to describe the effect: STUDENTIFICATION.

Studentification is a term used by UUK and some resident/community groups to describe the perceived negative impact of students in the community, which includes increasing numbers of takeaways, increases in house prices, increasing levels of noise and disorderly behaviour and litter.

Some residents have been lobbying hard to restrict where students live, creating areas of housing restraint. It’s unbelievable that this is seen by some as an acceptable solution to the problem. It is blatant discrimination against a group of people based on a minority of that group’s behaviour. What’s next; restrictions on how many pensioners or asylum seekers can live in any particular area?

This clearly isn’t the solution. Efforts to combat studentification across the globe has resulted in students being closed in within gated communities, separate from the rest of society and kept in a bubble. This does not benefit students or the community. It creates divides, polarisation, and if anything heightens the problems. Destudentification has meant in some areas there are streets of empty houses, residents now face living next door to boarded up houses and the problems that come with that.

NUS is now taking a lead, defending student’s rights whilst admitting there are problems and looking for solutions to these. In March we ran a think tank with UNIPOL at the department of communities and local government, to discuss the issues and how we plan to go forward with this work. Sabbatical officers, from across the country came together to share their issues and work. The think tank was extremely positive and we discussed a lot over the two days. Now a report is being compiled to take this work forward.

One of the issues raised was the constant aggression and lack of respect students, sabbs and volunteers received when attending community forums to represent students. Students going to help, often not the ones responsible for the problems caused are put on the defensive and blamed for all the problems in certain areas. For this to work its time we all met around the table as equals and until that happens we will constantly be fight each other rather then working together.

Another frustrating issue was students being accused of sucking crime into areas. How many times must we say it? Students are the victims of crime not the cause! If you look at the areas surrounding Headingley and Hyde park in Leeds, there are huge problems with unemployment, drugs and poverty, they’re Leeds biggest problems, not students and they are the cause of the crime.

Wheelie bins… I agree we can campaign for more and that would help in some areas but it is not the solution to all the problems. For too long in the lead up to local election have politicians talked about wheelie bins and dustbin collections. It’s a smoke screen. It’s an easier issue to tackle then the harder ones at stake. I am not saying we should rule out any work on wheelie bins, they clearly matter to people, but they are not the be all and end all.

At national conference we passed substantial policy on students and the community giving Ama a clear guide for her future work as VP Welfare. I was disappointed I didn’t get to speak on the policy which I felt so passionately about, but that’s conference and politics for you, and that’s another story.

I want to congratulate VK for getting this going; she has done amazing work with UNIPOL and staff at NUS on the Housing Act and Accommodation Costs through out her time in office! Keep feeding in your ideas, experience and issues on students and the community to NUS, for too long we have taken a back seat and its time to drive this work forward.

PS. I am sorry this blog is late, I started writing it in March, and then conferences took over and only just got back to it!

Here’s the speech I never got to say…it doesn’t matter now but I may as well share it with you, I enjoyed writing it!:

“Bloody students, student scum, students’ no longer welcome here, that’s justified… isn’t it? We’re lazy, day time TV watching, tax dodging, take away eating, binge drinking, disturbers of the peace and inept at understanding the function and benefits of wheelie bin usage. Who on earth would want to live next door to us? Plus we suck crime in to the area, and turn beautiful suburbs into ghettos.

But don’t you worry about it, community groups around the country are lobbying our councils to get students out of these areas, to restrict where students live, to close them away in gated communities and to make the suburbs harmonious once again.

Ok so some students will live up to the stereo types but make no mistake conference, many students contribute immensely to their communities. And those problem students are every ones problem. Students Unions have struggled alone for too long on this issue. Its time for some national direction and drive, and for unions to unite on these common issues. To fight the myths and stereotypes, to celebrate the diversity of the student movement and our communities and to take on the challenges our host institutions are too scared to. Vote for this motion.”

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