A big part of going to university during my undergraduate
degree was the sense of belonging to a place. To me, the socially correct thing
to do was to live in student halls for the first year and then move in with
newfound university friends during the second and third year. Therefore,
studying and living in York were intertwined: my degree reminded me of the city
and the city reminded me of my degree. I became involved in local politics,
knowing what local constituencies were likely to vote for particular parties; I
knew local attractions and no longer felt like a tourist but rather a citizen.
Since graduating and moving away from the city, whenever someone mentions the
place I get a sense of pride in telling anyone who will listen that I lived
there and a sense of protectiveness over their views of the city.
However, this was not the same experience of my subsequent
times at university. During my PGCE I studied from a distance, completing full
time teaching responsibilities whilst going to university 5 days out of the
year. I lived an hour away from the city the university is located within and
rarely visited it. Despite studying there, I feel no affiliations to the city.
Indeed, my graduation in this city felt different to my undergraduate, my
family and I did not “need” to visit a particular spot in the city which I had
spent a lot of my time. I did not feel an emotional connection when we passed
the university library, in fact, I had never set foot in there. It wasn’t the
same pride ridden day as my undergraduate graduation.
I started thinking about university and place about a month
ago. As a current student at the University of Warwick, again through distance
learning, when logging onto the website I noticed that Warwick were advertising
the triumph of Coventry winning the title of City of Culture. At this point I
even forgot that the University of Warwick is located in Coventry and not, in
fact, Warwick! I am guessing, as I have nobody to ask, that those students who
live and study at the University of Warwick may be happy and proud that their
city has been given this prestigious title. However, although I study at
Warwick, I am far from thrilled. As a full-time teacher in Stoke-on-Trent,
another candidate for the City of Culture title, I feel much more attached to
Stoke. Having lived in the city for two years now, my sense of belonging is
around the same as the city I studied in during my undergraduate studies. As
such, when I saw this advert on the Warwick website I felt conflicted, on one
hand I felt I should have joined the University of Warwick in celebrating the
success of the city in which it is located, but on the other hand, I had no
ties to this city and my current residing city had lost the title to Coventry. I
have written before about place and the emotional connections one feels, indeed
this has involved places one has not even visited. In my experience of
university and place, living in the host city conjures up a different sense of
belonging to the university. What is your experience of living [or not living]
within the city you studied within? Has it changed your perceptions?
