A couple of Mondays ago the Guardian features this headline:
"Figures compiled by Labour find register has shrunk dramatically in areas with high student population"
As one columnist puts it in rebuttal of this bizarre argument.
"The students referred to in the Guardian report have not had their vote taken away. They are simply now being asked, under the individual electoral registration system, to spend three minutes online to personally register to vote."
This is being done to combat voter fraud. The new voter registration rules came into force last December, ending the out-dated system whereby the (often self-appointed) head of a household registered all eligible voters at a particular address. This was wide open to abuse, error and fraud so now every voter has to register themselves individually, which includes students who have moved into halls of residence at university. It is easy to do. The Guardian have nothing to complain about - in fact they should be applauding the end of the old abuses. The full commentary on why this is a good thing is here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/12133872/Students-who-dont-have-the-vote-arent-being-disenfranchised-theyre-just-lazy.html
