University braces for girls' battle of Prince William

The roll at St Andrews is full for the first time in 20 years. BRONWYN SELL reports.

LONDON - There is one man behind a resurgence in interest in art history at Scotland's St Andrews University this year and it isn't Da Vinci or Rembrandt.

When lectures start this week, somewhere, probably slouched low in a seat at the back of the hall, a lanky 19-year-old with floppy blond hair will be trying to blend in with the booze and baked-beans students.

But while he concentrates on chiaroscuro, hundreds of well-brought-up young women will be pinning their ambitions on an A in Royalty 101.

Prince William is said to be hoping to slip quietly into his new university, but with a surge in female enrolments since his choice of campus was announced last year, that is not likely.

Already the small university in the golf-mad coastal town has become as popular as Oxford or Cambridge - the traditional universities of choice for British royals.

Estate agents say local people are struggling to compete with wealthy parents and an increase in foreign students, especially from the United States, Japan and Scandinavia.

The university's usually sluggish rolls were full as soon as they opened. With a 44 per cent increase in applications - nearly all from women - the university will be full for the first time in 20 years.

Former students' union president Marcus Booth told reporters he hoped the new students had chosen St Andrews for the same reasons he did.

"[But] it would be churlish to say the 'Wills factor' had nothing to do with it. Every girl wants to be a princess. I'm not sure what the male to female ratio at the university is - but I'm sure it's about to change."

Booth says the Prince is also likely to be popular with the men, for bringing the girls in.

"It's certainly good news for all the other male students here - it's going to increase their chances," he said.

"All I can say is poor old Prince William - he's going to be very tired. I wish him luck."

The Prince will live in a relatively modest flat in the university's student halls, with Royal Protection Squad officers for neighbours. He'll eat pasta and baked potatoes in the student cafeteria. And all for a budget £2276 ($8242) for the year.

Wills missed Orientation Week last week, instead choosing to hang out with his father, but there will be plenty of opportunities to [ahem] "mix informally with fellow students", said his spokeswoman.

She probably wasn't referring to the suggestion in the tabloid paper News of the World that the university is also known as St Randy's.

The editor of the university magazine described it as: "Lots of sex and more booze than you can handle - that's life at St Andrews. The girls are always up for it."

The university's reputation has left some royal-watchers unimpressed. A columnist on a monarchist website complained sniffily about "loutish behaviour" on the campus.

"St Andrews has long been noted for the boisterousness - some might say rowdiness - of a segment of its student body. And drunken behaviour is encouraged by the local licensing laws. Remarkably, they have been able to drink alcohol at the bar in their students' union until 1 am!"

Students have been warned by university officials they face being thrown out if they tell tales on the Prince, and the media has been reminded by the Press Complaints Commission of his right to privacy.

Things weren't nearly as strict in his father's day. When Prince Charles arrived at Cambridge University in 1967, he wrote a column for the local student newspaper.

"I had never somehow contemplated the idea of writing for this paper," the inky Prince began, "since I had received so many admonitions about it before arriving here; but I believe that there is an old saying which enjoins - If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!"

Charles went on to describe some of the hardships of life outside the royal cocoon: "I was wedged into a Mini, which is a form of travel not normally employed when there are people to meet on disembarkation ... if you have ever tried to get out of a Mini, you will know through what contortions you have to go."

Afterwards, he and the paper's editor sat down happily to a drink of Madeira and some seedcake, which was probably not baked by his mother.