The Geographies of Student Migration in the UK

Abstract

Recent research on studentification in the UK has examined the ways in which significant growth in student numbers over the last twenty years or so have led to marked change in the nature of the parts of cities in which clusters of students live. Yet these changes do not happen in isolation: the students are also associated with major migration flows into and out of studentified parts of cities. I examine the migration flows associated with a set of wards selected on the basis of having a high concentration of students. Examination of the age profiles of migrants into and out of these wards supports an argument that assumptions can be made that, for most of the selected wards, in-migrants are predominantly new students entering the system, whilst out-migrants are predominantly recently graduated students leaving the system. The specific origins from which new students arrive, and destinations to which former students depart, are examined and mapped, and the role of higher education as a mechanism through which the South East of England gains qualified workers is considered.