AIBU to think uni students should pay council tax?

[alwaysreadthelabel]

I live in a uni town. We have massive areas that were non student resident housing areas but are now mainly student areas. I cannot get my head round why students don't pay council tax. They use all the same services as non student residents, admittedly not for the whole year but at least for 9 months. They use the roads, bins, libraries etc. .... why do they not have to pay council tax?

I know some will say they can't afford it but that could be said about any household bill. It really confuses me.

Do you mean their parents should pay? When I was at uni I had lectures 9-6 most days and I worked 8-5 on Saturdays. Where's their money coming from?

I agree with @Hepizibahgreen, and also did my degree part-time while working, child-rearing and paying all taxes. I believe the landlords should pay council tax, particularly where they are (as in pp example) they are getting 2500 pcm for a house that would only be worth 700 pcm as a family residence.
I also live in a university area. Plenty of fast food shops, off licences, specialist gap year travel agent and student blocks of luxury flats with onsite cinema and gym. They certainly aren't all poor and quite a few have parents living abroad - the university spends a lot on overseas recruitment.
The areas the poorer students live in can be grim, certainly; especially where terraced housing funnels the noise and the outdoor space is taken up by multiple wheeliebins per courtyard. But paying some form of council tax would transfer money to the local area from central government, which has cut local funding by two-thirds in recent years.

@madcatladyforever If you were a full time student you would have been exempt. It doesn't matter what hours you worked or if you had your own home. If other (non exempt) adults lived in the household they would have still been liable.

*being a further education student is a choice and a privelige. It's not a right or compulsory. If you are so hard up, you could always get a full time job like those that can't afford uni at all as they have to pay to live and it's just not an option.

Great, let’s keep what tend to be the better paying jobs with more academically rigorous entry requirements for those from wealthy families. Those from poorer backgrounds shouldn’t aspire to better themselves regardless of their level of intelligence or capability, they should just take a full time entry level job and get on with it. Social mobility is so over rated. Peasants, know your place.*

I would like to add that while I know this is really specific I know people who went to uni because it was the only way they could get out of or away from bad home lives. I know it isn’t always the case and I do know people who went to uni for a year because they wanted to party but equally I know of students that attended the first university with a great deal of distance from absuive relationships both romantically and family wise so I guess in that sense its not a choice or a privilege but a means of escape

But whether you are at uni to party or to better yourself or because you really like a subject I don’t think being left with £200 to live off of is fair. (Also major apologies idk how you are meant to reply on this so I just copied and pasted and didn’t want to seem like I didn’t value other peoples input because I get just because I am a uni student my perspective isn’t the only accurate representation xxx)

The local government funding formula does explicitly take account of income lost due to the student discount though Witsending.