Scottish solutions
Uncomfortable with the idea that not everyone might adore them, the many student politicians of the NUS have maintained an active policy over the last few years to try and integrate students and universities into the local communities in which they reside. They suggest that we get out and volunteer in the run down housing estates that are increasingly being given over to student populations, much to the frustration of local residents. Rather cutely, the whole scheme is called “Love Your Neighbourhood”.
There are few neighbourhoods around the country harder to love than Glasgow, though. It’s a place where life expectancy can hover around the age of 54, and 50% of people draw incapacity benefits and unemployment is rife. It rarely makes pretty reading; it’s hard to love something that’s truly lagging behind the rest. Well, good news; someone is making the effort.
Typically concerned with pulling the poor of Bangladesh out of poverty, the Grameen Bank is a lending service with a heart of gold. It works by giving out small loans to the impoverished, giving them generous terms of payment in return for promoting good social practice such as encouraging kids to stay in school, and then relying on trust rather than law to reclaim investments. And now, it’s being set up in Glasgow, in partnership with Glasgow Caledonian University.
It’s a perfect example of a university institution achieving the goals of “Love Your Neighbourhood” without any useless patronising inbetween. The project is win-win for everybody, as it even allows the Glasgow Caledonian to conduct pioneering research into welfare dependency and solutions to poverty. Glaswegians build a unique relationship with their local higher education institution, and have the chance to escape some of the worst poverty in the country.
It also comes at a crucial time; it’s taken years to set up, especially with the full involvement of the busy founder of the Grameen Bank, Professor Muhammad Yunus, just as the newly elected Conservative government is set to impose strict austerity measures on the provisions of welfare. While not as far reaching in Scotland due to the SNP, the poor are to be hit regardless by the coming cuts.
Meanwhile, the NUS timidly suggests you knock on your neighbour’s door and let them know when you’re having a party. I suspect that constructing true friendships rather than half-hearted efforts to make peace are what will save the reputation of British students with the communities that they are taking up residence in.
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