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The rising costs of higher education in the UK look set to

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The rising costs of higher education in the UK look set to swell the ranks of those opting to study at home through a distance-learning programme. Studying for an accredited qualification in your spare time - using reading lists, prepared materials and online resources to structure your learning - is an option that increasing numbers of people are finding suits their budget, lifestyle and ambitions. "We are becoming increasingly aware that growing numbers of students cannot, or do not want to, attend university," says Professor Suzanne Robertson of the University of East London, which, in conjunction with International Correspondence Schools (ICS), part of Thomson Education Direct, has launched two new distance-learning degree courses: a BA (Hons) in Business Management and a BA (Hons) in Psychology Studies. There was no plan to accommodate the explosion in student numbers in the 1990s, he complained The market was left to provide. That meant that private landlords moved in, bought up family houses and turned them into multiple units.The irresponsible attitude of many landlords led to a rapid decline in the standard of housing, he told Lord Falconer. "Properties converted to multiple occupancy are frequently neglected and poorly maintained internally and externally."Richard Tyler, a retired academic, who has been campaigning for eight years to have a more balanced community in Leeds, says: "We're not anti-student We're pro-community The community is in a minority at the moment We're outnumbered by students.

Moreover, they keep odd hours, throw late-night parties and spend much of their time elsewhere. The result has been catastrophic, according to Harold Best, Labour MP for Leeds North West. Some streets resemble slums; the roads are potholed and litter-strewn, the grass uncut and the fences broken. One school in Headingley has had to be closed because of changing demographics; another school is threatened with closure. "All you see is dereliction and devastation in the four months when the students are not there. That's why we have among the highest burglary and robbery rates in the UK."So concerned was Best that he invited the former housing minister, Lord Falconer, to Leeds to see for himself and presented him with an eight-page document.

As student numbers have grown, so parts of Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham and Newcastle have been taken over by a transitory population of young people who aren't interested in tending the gardens or cutting the hedges. In the past 10 years students have colonised whole swathes of Britain's inner cities. "It's a gentle way of changing careers," says Will Gibbs of KLC, which prices the two-year course at £995. "You can study at your own pace and you don't have to chuck in your existing job to retrain."Juggling studies with other commitments is not for the faint-hearted, however.

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