Most days I pass this on the cycle path between Tang Hall and Foss Island.

It made me think about students in a new way. The overwhelming majority are guests in new towns and cities and so they should consider themselves as bound by the rules of hospitality. For the graffiti artist, the students of York are no longer guests but trespassers.

The rules of hospitality also apply between taxpayer and student. Although the focus is almost always on the fees that the latter have to pay, the former heavily subsidise those fees.*

Often, the view of the student is that they have a divine right to education paid for out of taxation. Students who behave as though this is the case trespass on the goodwill of taxpayers as they claim to be entitled to a portion of their earnings. They create the conditions for this graffiti.

The view taken by many taxpayers, on the other hand, is that students are feckless scroungers who should down-pens and up-tools. But this is to ignore the benefits of behaving hospitably towards students in our society.

In the end, I think it is up to the student to justify the money spent on their education. Students are in a privileged position and it is their duty to always be assessing the rightfulness of their claim to the hospitality of taxpayers. Maybe this graffiti will serve as a reminder of this relationship.

*IFS “Estimating the Public Cost of Student Loans”: https://www.ifs.org.uk/comms/r94.pdf