Professor Glen O’Hara’s article in today’s Guardian on the threats to the UK’s universities is food for thought; and it strikes me that there are wider and very significant implications for the built environments and economies of towns and cities like Portsmouth, where I live. Social distancing guidelines have resulted in universities moving to online teaching only, from September 2020 onwards; however they are still asking students for full tuition fees of up to £9,250 per annum. (Living costs are extra.) Students and prospective students are increasingly looking at deferring their places, as they stare not only at a bewildering future of debt and unemployment, but also a disintegration of meaningful “student experience”, student support and value-for-money. Overseas students in particular - the universities’ “cash cows” who pay inflated fees - are expected to stay away in substantial numbers. Cities like Portsmouth, dependent on one large and rapidly-expanded university and the tourist vibe to keep its economy afloat, are looking at dark days ahead.
Read moreThe Politics of ... Student Housing
Housing is in the news - conditions, safety, shortages, rip-off rents, and rogue landlords. In Portsmouth, a city with a housing shortage, local tradespeople are talking openly about ‘600 student houses’ in the city lying empty this academic year. It’s certainly true that in my area many are unseasonably untenanted and hushed. It’s probably a relief for some beleaguered neighbours, and ought to be a welcome source of additional Council Tax revenue for the the Local Authority given that the landlords are liable to pay up to a city facing severe austerity cuts. Significantly, the terraced houses once let to students aren’t empty because of the huge ongoing building programme of privately built student ‘Halls’. This is not a policy victory. It’s a market failing. These ‘Halls’ supposedly have vacancies too, not least because of the eye-watering costs of renting them for students already dependent on scarily huge loans.
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