City council gets tough over student 'ghettos' (From The Oxford Times)
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City council gets tough over student 'ghettos'
11:00am Thursday 26th January 2012 in News By Liam Sloan
Oxford City Council will stop the universities moving into new buildings until fewer than 3,000 of their students are living in private city homes.
It comes as the latest annual survey shows the numbers of students living outside university accommodation has soared, with Oxford University and Oxford Brookes both breaking their caps.
The council’s monitoring report for 2010/11 shows that 3,251 Oxford University students were living in city houses, up from 2,991 last year. Brookes’ total rose from 3,493 to 3,611.
Under Town Hall planning policies, both universities could be blocked from moving into new teaching and administrative buildings until the numbers are cut.
That would include buildings in Oxford University’s new Radcliffe Observatory development later this year, and Oxford Brookes’ new Headington campus in 2013.
City council deputy leader Ed Turner said: “The universities have been clear about the policies and acknowledged the reasons for them all along, so they have got to find a way of ensuring that they meet the requirements.”
Asked whether the council would stop the universities moving into their new developments, Mr Turner said: “There is not a lot of point in us having said that if we don’t mean that.
“The council means it, otherwise it would be a waste of time.
“But I don’t think it will come to that because the universities will recognise the importance of meeting the requirements.”
The report predicts Oxford University may find it easier to meet the targets, because new accommodation blocks are already being built.
Spokesman Matt Pickles said it would be up to Oxford City Council to decide whether the university could move into its new buildings when they were complete.
The report predicts student numbers at Oxford Brookes may fall because of new £9,000 tuition fees, but the university has since seen a 4.5 per cent increase in applications.
Brookes said it was aiming to meet the 3,000 cap before autumn 2013, when it is due to move into its new Headington campus.
Director of Corporate Affairs Dr Anne Gwinnett said: “We continually review the way we measure student numbers in private rented accommodation to ensure the figures are as accurate as possible. This has resulted in the higher numbers reported for 2010/11 in comparison to 2009/10.”
Since the report was produced, an extra 117 student rooms had been created at Clive Booth Hall and there were 150 fewer new students than last year.
Comments(8)
GPOWELL
says...
12:44pm Thu 26 Jan 12
sparky123456
says...
2:46pm Thu 26 Jan 12
Christine Hovis wrote:well Christine. I think you'll find that a ghetto actually means an area of a city or occupied place that is predominantly inhabited by a specific group of people. Originally it was a term to refer to jewish parts of a city. but it is now more broadly used to refer to any area predominantly occupied by a specific race, religion, class etc. A ghetto is associated with crime or degradation but is not necessarily dominted by it.
Why do you use the word "Ghettos" in the title of this article? It's not used by any of the contributors, and it's not exactly a neutral word is it?
"Oxford City acts to prevent successful universities growing" would be a better title.
What it should read is Oxford city sensibly reviews their policy with local educational institutes to ensure enough rentable and affordable housing is made available to the local residents. Those whom pay taxes and keep the businesses that support the universities open year on year and to prevent the average house price of Oxford soaring above that of central London.
Scrofulous Serf
says...
4:03pm Thu 26 Jan 12
Andrew:Oxford
says...
6:01pm Thu 26 Jan 12
I can see individual students (of a wealthy background) taking action against the council if they fail to secure a place at a college as a consequence of this policy.
If I were to consider taking a course at Ruskin, I certainly wouldn't be happy if it meant that the council would force me to sell my house and move into rented accommodation.
Darkforbid
says...
9:09pm Thu 26 Jan 12
The definition of "ghetto" still has a similar meaning, but the broader range of social situations, such as any poverty-stricken urban area.
Really nice way to describe, Oxford's students.
I think Oxford's universities should try not to meet the targets, leave the developments empty and shame this power hungry council
Christine Hovis
says...
9:51pm Thu 26 Jan 12
The policy can be discussed - but surely we need to avoid the newspaper adding to the emotive terms used (see the fuss about Councillor Brett's comments).
Andrew:Oxford
says...
11:16pm Thu 26 Jan 12
Christine Hovis wrote:Well, we don't know for sure that the word "ghettos", which was in quotation marks in the title wasn't used by one of the people interviewed by the newspaper.
My key concern is that the sub-editor who added this term, sets the tone of the story. However you view the etymology of the word, it carries a connotation. One that the rest of the story doesn't necessarily carry.
The policy can be discussed - but surely we need to avoid the newspaper adding to the emotive terms used (see the fuss about Councillor Brett's comments).
The frothy "fuss" about Councillor Brett's comments mostly came from those who realised that they could be in an awkward position if it was accepted that their published views of the student community were inappropriate. Subsequent press releases from the relevant organisations have been considerably toned down.
Christine Hovis says...
11:57am Thu 26 Jan 12
"Oxford City acts to prevent successful universities growing" would be a better title.