Oxford has a similar problem.
Not so long ago, Oxford University elected its own MP. The University appears to have a stranglehold on the planning committee. During term-time the population of Oxford is dominated by students (the resident population is only about 140,000).
I really like this town; but I'd really like it more, if political control were returned to the permanent residents. This isn't going to happen; most of our political leaders and senior civil servants went to Oxford or Cambridge, so those two schools are favoured over their native populations.
Incidentally, when I refer to Oxford as a "town", I am referring to the custom that you get to call yourself a city if you have a cathedral and a bishop. Well, the Bishop of Oxford doesn't live in Oxford; the cathedral is in fact the college chapel of Christ Church college; and if you want to visit the cathedral, apparently you need a note from your parish vicar confirming that you are a practising christian.
I despise elite Universities.
/me graduated at London; colleges like Kings and UCL have elite reputations, but I went to a lesser college, one that no longer exists.