Stories about the seediness of life on the university campus are as much a part of the student experience as stealing traffic cones and subsisting off baked bean dinners straight from the tin.

In the UK. the undergraduate lifestyle was encapsulated by The Young Ones, a 1980s BBC television comedy about a decrepit house full of students at Scumbag College, a (fictitious) seat of learning in north London. Amazingly, the dank rooms, dodgy landlords and recalcitrant plumbing that the show epitomised are still recalled with misty-eyed affection by thirtysomethings who would now sooner forgo the annual family holiday in Tuscany than share a bathroom with friends.