Accomodating needs
It's the age old problem of town versus gown. The University wants to expand, and needs more land on which to do so; the city is surrounded by a protective Green Belt, supposed to prevent this kind of outward spawl.
As students denounce new plans to restrict post-exam celebrations, they must also recognise that University authorities sometimes are on their 'side', and that the case is often far less clearly cut than the simple them/us dichotomy that student militants so like to perceive. If proposals to develop college sports grounds do go ahead, some students will inevitably feel cheated, but many others will also welcome the opportunity to live in less expensive University accommodation.
This need for cheap student housing is particularly marked in a university that comes third only to London and Cambridge in living costs, yet the question of student housing and facilities is one that goes far beyond the boundaries of Oxford. Increasing student numbers is a goal not simply of Oxford University, but also the declared aim of the Labour government who insist, despite the present and pressing crisis in the funding of Higher Education, that the proportion of young people completing university courses should increase. Not only is the question of funding these courses one that appears to have received inadequate consideration, but so too are the logistics of this continued expansion, in terms of simply accomodating the vast numbers of students who will need housing.
What remains to be seen in Oxford is whether this new student housing goes to the increasing number of graduate and oversees students that the cash-strapped University is hoping to draw in, or to new and existing undergraduate students who struggle to afford the cripplingly high rents demanded by Oxford landlords. Opposition to University developments is likely to come from outside; let's at least hope that these developments go some way towards addressing the pressing needs of students here.
29th Apr 2004