Studentification and governance in South Africa: Dependencies and conflicts

The term ‘studentification’ is used to describe the socio-spatial implications of students occupying housing in the suburbs near the universities. Our paper looks at how studentification is managed in South Africa, where rising student numbers have caused conflict with other residents. We show that despite a history of segregation and low densities in South African cities, policymakers seldom consider the role that studentification plays in desegregation and in creating higher densities but focus instead on its negative impacts and how to regulate it. Hidden interests and a rigid planning framework focusing on control are underlying to this response. On the one hand, the planners need to take the concerns from existing landowners seriously. On the other hand, planners’ embeddedness in the history of planning as a tool to control as opposed to a more facilitating role is central to an understanding of the situation. We use evolutionary governance theory to show that this focus is mostly the result of path dependencies, goal dependencies and conflicts associated with interdependencies. The focus on norms and standards largely ignores the fact that about 70% of the students at the University of the Free State, the site of our case study, live in unregulated accommodation. We recommend that policymakers should consider alternatives such as pro-active upzoning and using rates and taxes as a way to bring about change.