Studentification is it a key factor within the residential decision-making process in Kuala Lumpur?

Abstract

Studentification is the process that generates from residential concentration of Higher education students and accompanied by spatial structure transformations which has social, economic, cultural and physical impacts in districts enclaves of university campuses or higher education institutes. This process is believed to have some influences like gentrification and can stimulate social segregation and the widening socio-spatial polarization of different social groups, via the displacement of established residential groups. Studentification has been represented as a BritiSh phenomenon; although; recent evidence suggests that it occurs within other international contexts. The important key factor in this regard is the government-sponsored expansion of higher education to foster global economic competitiveness and innovation via knowledge-based economies and societies. In this paper we wish to scrutinize the meaning, causes and consequences of studentification and raise questions about some of underlying influences and effects of current and future forms of urban change in Kuala Lumpur city. We do this by focusing upon the relationships between national agenda in terms of economic and knowledge development and regional as well as local plans and strategies, and consider how process of studentification may be instrumental to the production of gentrifiers within Kuala Lumpur city context. The outcome of this study will support the residential decision making process.