I WAS appalled to read Miss Phillips' angry tirade against students in Bath (Too many students will be bad for York, April 28) in which she says: "Most students are layabouts encouraged into higher education because they are (sic) unemployable."

This is completely unfair generalisation. If she'd said something similar about women, pensioners or anyone who isn't white, she would have been called sexist, ageist or racist.

The opinion that all students sit around all day doing nothing is as outdated as the representation of them in the TV sitcom, The Young Ones.

To blame students for the lack of residential homes and the closure of schools is absurd.

Most students will live in university accommodation in the first year and in later years will contribute a lot of rent to landlords.

Saying "life among students is absolute hell" is a ridiculous overstatement.

As a student myself, I've not seen any behaviour to local residents in Bradford, where I'm studying, that could be classed 'as absolute hell' and I don't see why the situation should be any different in Bath.

I can't see students having the time to sit around or cause trouble or menace old people as you suggest.

All the students I know work far harder than students ever have before, working hard to get better employment prospects at the end of their course, work that will leave them with a large debt.

I would urge residents to consider the merits of university expansion.

After all, the University of York is in the top three universities in the country and is at the forefront of research and the students, lecturers and all those involved in the university deserve increasingly better facilities to help continue their achievements.

Philip Lickley,

Wheatlands Grove,

York.

Updated: 09:56 Wednesday, May 03, 2006