The recent article ¡°Has the multi-campus university had its day?¡± is a fashion statement (19 November).

The use of terms such as ¡°criminal¡±, ¡°short-sighted¡± and ¡°disgrace¡± by critics of London Metropolitan University¡¯s one-campus plan to uproot the Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design from Aldgate, refers to a threat. There is a constellation of civic as well as educational values at stake. These are not addressed by such vacuous descriptors as ¡°gleaming¡±, ¡°stylish¡± and ¡°hum¡±, which are normally used to recommend shopping arcades.

There is a big difference between a plan ¡°appear[ing] to make good financial sense¡± and constructing a functional, collegiate university with a social purpose. Middlesex University¡¯s abandoned plans to rebuild its Tottenham campus entailed abandoning a community and its hopes for the future. Estates do not just comprise ¡°ageing, tired buildings¡±, or inherited assets ripe for disposal, they also entail civic and community responsibilities, and decades of public investment ¨C a fact recognised in planning law.

London Met straddles two equally important areas of the city. A two-campus solution is, very arguably, a better fit. Or should the views of all the local East End stakeholders just be brushed aside?

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Helen Mallinson
Director of Cass culture and course leader for critical and contextual studies
London Metropolitan University

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