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This paper explores the politics of studentification in the UK. It is argued that there is a paradox between New Labour's vision of sustainable communities and the geographical effects of the promotion of higher education—in a similar vein to policies to generate `positive' gentrification. This contention hinges on the absence of a national policy on the supply of student housing, which dictates how enlarged student populations should be integrated into established communities, or dispersed to other parts of towns and cities. It is asserted that the lack of government policy and the incapacity of institutional actors to intervene or regulate the residential geographies of students are yielding `unbalanced' populations. This is a factor in the rise of studentification and the fragmentation of established communities. Ironically, some activists argue these `lost' communities signified lucid exemplars that the sustainable communities …