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But it has meant that the university has better relationships with

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But it has meant that the university has better relationships with the city, says Ceri Nursaw, head of the city and regional office at the University of Leeds.In the months of June and July, when the previous year's students are leaving their accommodation and the new lot is coming in, the university mounts special events - jumble sales, recycling and donations to charity - to ensure that student belongings are not left to litter the environment. In addition, a Leeds University community initiative provides a conduit for students to undertake voluntary work, basketball for inner city schools, fashion design for the homeless, a healthy food co-op or hip-hop awareness week. Most, if not all, universities have volunteer projects for students.Last year Sheffield Hallam University had 400 students volunteering; this year the number is 600."Many universities have been seen as apart from their local communities," says Diana Green, Sheffield Hallam's vice chancellor, who will be chairing a Universities UK conference next month on the role of universities in the community. "Some have tried to bridge that gap."She, and others, argue that students have a substantial positive impact on local communities. Many stay on and work in the locality when they graduate, setting up their own businesses and helping to regenerate run-down inner city areas. "Students are a diverse lot," says Simon Kemp, code of standards officer for Unipol, which provides student housing and is holding a conference tomorrow (22 Oct) with Leeds City Council entitled 'Students, Housing and the Community - Opportunity or Threat?'"In Leeds there are a lot of different types of students.

We have mature students with families and local students from round and about who want to move into Leeds. They can't all be lumped together."Most universities have learnt that complaints from the public about students being noisy or indulging in drunkenness need a swift response.Stephen Waring, head of external relations at Southampton University, says that, if students are spoken to about antisocial behaviour, they will normally mend their ways. "Most of them are very reasonable and sensible," he says.It is important that universities have a good neighbours policy, says Peter Reader, director of marketing and communications at Bath University They need to talk to local people. They should provide information to local residents about how university plans will affect them, for example, how plans for a new hall of residence might affect a local area in terms of parking, litter, noise and so on. Second, they need to tell local residents about university events Last year the end of session ball was held on campus.

Local people were told when the fairground would close and when the event would move indoors. "We made sure they knew what to do if they had a problem," says Reader. "In the event, there wasn't a problem."Everyone agrees that Leeds has particular problems because of the number of students - more than 60,000 - at the two universities and others at the teacher training college and institutions of further education. Representatives of other universities talk as though there is very little divide between town and gown.One is Professor Graham Henderson, vice chancellor of Teesside University, who says that the university's and Middlesbrough's futures are symbiotically linked and that one of the university's jobs is to help to regenerate the economy of the North-east. "We don't get a lot of complaints as a result of students living in private accommodation in town."The university has just put up a new sports building complete with an all-weather pitch.

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