This week the National Union of Students launched its 'Students in the community: working together to achieve harmony' report, writes NUS president Gemma Tumelty. It responds to the challenges of 'studentificiation' and explains how students and students union can contribute to positive local communities.
The NUS is being proactive. We are telling students how to improve their reputation and relationships with the community. But this report also highlights that things aren't always as bad as the papers would have you believe. There are plenty of 'neighbours from hell', but not many of them are students.
We have supported measures to improve student behaviour and university initiatives to discipline students found to be behaving anti-socially off-campus. In Nottingham, for example, this punishment includes banning students from the students union.
We won't apologise for this, because we have a duty to permanent residents. But we must also protect the majority of students who are considerate neighbours - from being disrupted by the behaviour of their fellow students, and from unfairly being tarred with the same brush.
Students are four times more likely than the average UK citizen to volunteer, and our report sets out recommendations for students unions on tailoring this to the benefit of the local community - be that running litter picks, tea dances or play schemes.
Our report means that we can solve local community problems holistically. Be it old sofas in the back yard, too much rubbish by the bins, or increased crime rates, this report will help us get beyond the perceived negatives students bring to their local area, and empower unions across the UK to forge productive relationships with local councils, landlord groups, residents' associations and police forces to improve the community to the mutual benefit of all residents.
There are tens of thousands of empty bedrooms in purpose-built halls of residence in cities across the UK, from Leeds to Nottingham, Manchester to Liverpool. That's because students are actively choosing to integrate themselves into local communities as part of their student experience.
The NUS wants to see balanced communities. We're not necessarily convinced it's best for students to make up 75% of the population of any road, but legislating for this is unfair, impractical, not a long-term solution.
If local councils invest in infrastructure - for example, better travel links - we are confident students will broaden their view of where they chose to live, potentially providing vital regeneration and economic growth to run-down areas of cities. Investment of this kind, combined with student unions becoming more involved in their local communities, could really mark a sea change in relations.
