Town and gown

Town and gown are two distinct communities of a university town; ""town"" being the non-academic population and ""gown"" metonymically being the university community, especially in ancient seats of learning such as Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh and St Andrews, although the term is also used to describe modern university towns as well as towns with a significant public school. The metaphor is historical in its connotation but continues to be used in the literature on urban higher education and in common parlance.