University constituencies have a long history in UK elections. Starting in the early 17th century, there have been several non-geographical university constituencies for Oxford and Cambridge as well as in Ireland. In various forms these continued into the 20th century with Oxbridge and various combinations of English, Scottish and Welsh university constituencies being represented in Parliament right up to 1950. Mike Ratcliffe, writing for Wonkhe a while back, provided a helpful overview of the position.

Hepi recently published data on the potential impact of the student vote and observed:

The constituencies with the most students registered are, unsurprisingly, in cities with several major universities such as Leeds, Sheffield and Nottingham. All of the top 10 constituencies for number of students, and all but two of the top 20, are currently held by Labour (the exceptions are Bath, held by the Liberal Democrats, and Lincoln, by the Conservatives). 

Noting that most students will have ‘dispersed’ by the time of the election and will not necessarily be voting in these constituencies with a high density of student it is suggested that this might have one of two effects:

On the one hand, being ‘dispersed’, they are unlikely to be a major voting bloc in many constituencies, reducing their voting power. Net losers of students will be cities with multiple universities like Sheffield, Leeds and Nottingham. However, these areas are projected to have large or even overwhelming majorities, usually for Labour, and so are unlikely to change hands even if many students leave. 

On the other hand, students may be more likely to return to formerly safe Conservative seats where Labour is expected to make inroads. 

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Match the constituency and university time!

Here is a list then of 10 Genny Lec 24 constituencies. All of them have a university campus in them. Can you identify which university has a presence in which constituency? Note that in one case there are campuses from two different universities and in two others the presence is a smaller campus of a bigger university. 

Constituency

1. Windsor  
2. Filton and Bradley Stoke
3. Welwyn Hatfield 
4. Whitehaven and Workington
5. Hendon
6. Edinburgh East and Musselburgh
7. Ceredigion Preseli 
8. Putney
9. Earley and Woodley
10. Rushcliffe

University

We’ve thrown in a few extra university names, just to make it a little trickier 

• University of Exeter
• Northumbria University 
• University of Reading 
• Edinburgh University
• University of Nottingham
• Queen Margaret University
• Bangor University
• University of the West of England
• University of Roehampton
• Royal Holloway University of London
• University of Cumbria 
• Edinburgh Napier University
• University of South Wales
• University of Central Lancashire
• Aberystwyth University
• Middlesex University
• University of Hertfordshire 

Almost as exciting as the real thing I am sure we would all agree. 

You can find the answers here. No cheating now. And no betting on the outcome either. How many did you get right? Do put your score in the comments below.