The seaside city of Southend-on-Sea, on England\u2019s east coast, looks grey on a winter afternoon in term-time. Its cobbled high street, bordering the university campus, is sparsely populated with market stalls, vape shops and discount retailers, and feels unusually quiet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere used to be lots of shops, restaurants and youth clubs around here,\u201d says 23-year-old Nathan Doucette-Chiddicks. Now, the city is about to lose something else that it can scarcely do without.<\/p>\n
Just before Christmas, Essex University announced that it would close its Southend campus<\/a> this summer due to a big fall in international students, who pay much higher fees. The move will affect 800 students, as well as staff, but it will also have a huge impact on a city that has come to depend on the university in many ways.<\/p>\n Doucette-Chiddicks, a student on the adult nursing course, describes himself as Southend \u201cthrough and through\u201d. He wears Southend United merchandise from head to toe and has lived in the town all his life.<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s a big loss,\u2019 says Nathan Doucette-Chiddicks, 23, a student nurse at the Southend campus<\/p>\n His mother was one of the university\u2019s first students when it opened in 2008. \u201cShe used to sneak me into the computer labs so she could study,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n The campus is just a few doors from his home and, for him, has long symbolised possibility for the people who live here. His mother is now an A&E nurse and he wants to follow in her footsteps.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a big loss,\u201d he says. \u201cNot just for students \u2013 for the city as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n Q&AWhat is the Against the tide series?Show<\/p>\n Over the next year, the Against the Tide project from the Guardian\u2019s Seascape team will be reporting on the lives of young people in coastal communities across England and Wales.<\/p>\n Young people in many of England’s coastal towns are disproportionately likely to face poverty, poor housing, lower educational attainment and employment opportunities than their peers in equivalent inland areas. In the most deprived coastal towns they can be left to struggle with crumbling and stripped-back public services and transport that limit their life choices.<\/p>\n For the next 12 months, accompanied by the documentary photographer Polly Braden, we will travel up and down the country to port towns, seaside resorts and former fishing villages to ask 16- to 25-year-olds to tell us about their lives and how they feel about the places they live.\u00a0<\/p>\n By putting their voices at the front and centre of our reporting, we want to examine what kind of changes they need to build the futures they want for themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n Across Essex University, which also has a campus in Loughton, 18% of students are local, but in Southend, for students training to work in health or social care, that figure leaps to 52%. Doucette-Chiddicks describes a sense of community rarely found in larger universities. \u201cMy lecturers know my mum and they know me,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of them studied here before becoming lecturers.\u201d<\/p>\n Seventeen years ago, the arrival of a university in the centre of what was seen as a \u201cleft behind\u201d seaside resort was positioned as a clear message of hope. Its \u00a326m glass building, with striking views of the Thames estuary on one side and a derelict office block on the other, was there to kickstart the town\u2019s flagging economy.<\/p>\n It was a sign that young people growing up here could have bigger aspirations \u2013 that Southend was a town on the up.<\/p>\n More than half of students at the university are from Southend <\/p>\n Colin Riordan, who was vice-chancellor of the Essex University at the time, recalls the optimism when they set up the Southend campus. \u201cWe wanted the university to be a place people felt part of,\u201d he says. \u201cWe wanted to create a campus feel but one that was there for local people.\u201d<\/p>\n When it opened, the campus housed a GP surgery and a new dental clinic offering free treatment to local people. This was followed later by the forum \u2013 a library and art gallery shared by the university and local people.<\/p>\n Essex University\u2019s Southend campus, which opened in 2008<\/p>\n Riordan recalls watching a performance of Frankenstein in the church that Southend\u2019s acclaimed acting school, East 15, took over as a theatre and performance space.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember sitting on the edge of my seat because it was an amazing performance,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd it was extra exciting because this was a town that didn\u2019t have much access to culture before.\u201d<\/p>\n Over a few years, Riordan watched Southend changing: \u201cIt really did go from a place that felt like it needed attention to somewhere much more vibrant.\u201d Suddenly it felt like there were \u201cyoung people everywhere\u201d \u2013 and independent shops and cafes were opening up to cater for them, he says.<\/p>\n Riordan, who went on to run Cardiff University, which has also been in the headlines over dramatic job cuts, is pragmatic about Essex making tough decisions to keep its head above water. He observes that the Southend campus was established at a time when the New Labour government was intent on making sure as many people as possible could go to university, with Southend one of the first of a grand (and never fully realised) vision for 20 new university towns<\/a> in higher education \u201ccold spots\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cBack then there was a clear national vision for universities, and they were mostly publicly funded,\u201d he says. \u201cNow you stand or fall on your student demand.\u201d<\/p>\n Having the university was a big part of the city\u2019s feeling of youthfulness, and the idea that you can be here and learn and growGeorge Bejko-Cowlbeck<\/p>\n Yet the end of the Southend university dream still upsets him. \u201cIt is a great pity. It was a wonderful project,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n In Southend today, alongside the more concrete impact on students, the job losses (which will hit catering staff and cleaners as well as academics) and the threat to local businesses, many people are also depressed about the symbolism of what it will mean to be a city that used to have a university.<\/p>\n George Bejko-Cowlbeck, director of Caddies crazy golf, where students come to drink and play in the giant disco ball pit as well as putting balls, says he has spoken to students who love Southend and do not want to leave. He moved here when he was 17 and remembers that the seaside town \u201cfelt fun, like running away to join the circus\u201d.<\/p>\n \u2018So many children have lost access to their potential futures,\u2019 says one Southend-born teacher<\/p>\n Students are big customers for Caddies, and the drama school is an especially good source of effervescent part-time staff. But he senses Southend will be losing more than just cash. \u201cHaving the university here was a big part of the city\u2019s feeling of youthfulness, and the idea that you can be here and learn and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n Lauren Ekins, a Southend primary school teacher who grew up here in the days before there was a university, says: \u201cIf I think about what this means for the children who are at school here now, I want to cry. So many children have lost access to their potential futures.\u201d<\/p>\n George Bejko-Cowlbeck, who runs Caddies crazy golf, says many students love Southend and do not want to leave<\/p>\n During a stay in hospital for surgery recently, Ekins met a former pupil. \u201cShe was studying to be a nurse and that was so lovely,\u201d she says. \u201cShe was from a deprived background and university wasn\u2019t necessarily in her future \u2013 but it was here.\u201d<\/p>\n Southend, which is only 60 miles outside London, has some pockets of wealth, but Ekins says lots of families are living on the breadline. She is angry that the government bailed out banks but will not step in to save universities in deprived cities such as Southend. \u201cI feel like they are leaving us behind,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a joke. I\u2019ve lost two years of time and money and education. People are devastatedRadek Hanus, student<\/p>\n Bayo Alaba, the Labour MP for Southend East and Rochford, sees the university as a \u201cclear ladder to social mobility\u201d, noting that students of subjects such as midwifery, social care and nursing are \u201cdisproportionately poor members of the local community who often have caring responsibilities\u201d.<\/p>\n The university is worth more than \u00a3100m a year to Southend\u2019s economy, Alaba estimates. Small local businesses including cafes, bars, taxi firms and shops are braced for the loss of student customers. But he adds: \u201cThis sends the subliminal message to people who want to invest in the city or expand their business that they should be looking elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Lauren Elkins, a teacher at Heycroft Primary school, says children will have \u2018lost access to their potential futures\u2019 when the university goes<\/p>\n Alaba feels the \u201charsh decision\u201d was sprung on the community without warning. The university informed Alaba and his fellow Southend MP, David Burton-Sampson, out of the blue a fortnight before Christmas, he says. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t even a sit-down meeting. It was a quick 20-minute zoom call and the decision had already been made.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey have seen these challenges for a while,\u201d he adds. \u201cThey should have been putting contingency plans in place and priming the council.\u201d<\/p>\n Prof Frances Bowen, Essex University\u2019s vice-chancellor, says: \u201cClosing the Southend campus was an incredibly difficult decision, which we only took after reviewing all reasonable alternatives and was a decision we could never previously have imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n The university has said all Southend students can finish their courses at its Colchester campus, which is 45 miles away. But Alaba says a two-hour commute each way on public transport is not feasible for many students; many cannot afford the travel costs or cannot fit it in alongside caring for their family or holding down a job.<\/p>\n \u201cSome students have already dropped out,\u201d the MP says. \u201cThey have taken on debt for something they thought would change their life.\u201d<\/p>\n Radek Hanus, a mature student in his second year of a nursing course, has lived in Southend for four years. He only found out that the university was closing when he saw an article in the local paper during a shift on his nursing work placement.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a joke,\u201d Hanus says. \u201cI\u2019ve lost two years of time and money and education. People are devastated.\u201d<\/p>\n Hanus is registered disabled due to his Crohn\u2019s disease. \u201cCommuting to Colchester will cost me something like \u00a3800 a month in petrol. How can I possibly afford that?\u201d<\/p>\n The loss of the university is part of a wider decline of many of England\u2019s coastal places<\/p>\n Doucette-Chiddicks already works long hours to pay his rent alongside studying. However, he is resolute: \u201cThere are some people who have decided to quit, or they\u2019ve just not been turning up to lessons. But I\u2019m going to finish my degree.\u201d<\/p>\n By late afternoon, a fine drizzle begins to fall, deepening the gloom along the high street. The owner of a nearby business, who asked not to be named, describes the closure as \u201ccatastrophic\u201d and part of a wider decline of many coastal places that is affecting Britain\u2019s young people.<\/p>\n \u201cHow can you have a city without a university?\u201d he asks. \u201cIt\u2019s shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n The Against the tide<\/a> series is a collaboration between the Guardian and the documentary photographer Polly Braden<\/a> and reports on the lives of young people in coastal communities across England and Wales<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The seaside city of Southend-on-Sea, on England\u2019s east coast, looks grey on a winter afternoon in term-time. 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