In 1355 in Oxford, 63 students were killed in the St Scholastica Day riots. Clearly, town–gown relations were at a low ebb! Has much changed? Do universities engage with their local communities or stand aloof and apart?
One of the most contentious issues is the inevitable concentration of student housing in certain parts of a university town. This can make life difficult for the remaining non-student residents. In Durham, some people argue that student lets are preventing families from moving into the area. But is this really the case? Terraced housing in the inner city began to be abandoned in the 1960s as families moved to new houses in the suburbs with all the ‘mod-cons’ including decent-sized gardens. Would such people want to move back into inner-city, terraced housing? Probably not.
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