The Guardian
I welcome the housing minister’s decision to review laws surrounding student housing.
Caroline Flint has announced she wishes to tackle the growing problem of ‘ghost towns’ during holidays.
The National Union of Students has opposed the move, suggesting the review is victimizing students.
The significant point which I think the NUS has overlooked is that while students are a part of the community, the vast majority are different from groups such as ‘young professionals and migrant workers’ in that student houses are only term-time dwellings. Having swathes of properties vacant for months, with houses separating the few remaining permanent residents, cannot be beneficial to any community; the situation needs reconsideration, perhaps with development of secure university-run accommodation.
While it’s easy to play the ‘discrimination card’, sometimes the long-term advantages have to take precedent over short-term inconvenience.
The Times
Unusually for me, I felt sorry for Oxford students last week.
Continuing a process started last year, proctors (university officials) have used Facebook to detect ‘disorderly behaviour’ and have issued over £10,000 in fines (ranging from £40-£500) for post-exam celebrations. The final-year celebration, known as ‘trashing’, includes students pummelling each other with eggs, flour, champagne, and recently, squid and catfood (!).
While the following clean-up is not a job I’d envy, aren’t fines of up to £500 an overblown reaction to a food fight? I dread to think of the consequences if Cardiff University were to start looking for incriminating photographs…
Surely a more appropriate punishment (if the University insisted upon recompense) would be some form of unique Oxford community service, where the perpetrators have to come back and clear up the following year’s ‘trashings’ – and if they don’t return, their degree gets revoked; now, doesn’t that sound like a much fairer system?
