PRINCE WILLIAM today thanks the people of St Andrews and the media for allowing him to lead a near-normal life at university, where he drinks cider, occasionally escapes to the nightspots of Edinburgh and is trying to learn Swahili.

In an interview with the Press Association to mark the halfway point of his four-year course at Scotland’s oldest academic institution the Prince, who will be 21 next month, discloses that he considered leaving after his first year, but was persuaded by his father to stick it out on the breezy, bracing east coast of Fife.

The Prince, who enrolled to study the history of art, also reveals that he is considering switching his course to geography after developing a fascination for Africa. With the help of books and tapes, he is attempting to learn East Africa’s lingua franca.

In a relaxed and carefully uncontroversial question-and-answer session with Peter Archer, the national news agency’s court correspondent, the Prince only once skirts political issues, on the question of fees. Scottish and some foreign students do not pay tuition fees at universities north of the border, but English students, including the Prince, do.

“I do listen to what goes on and I know there are sensitive issues. There are some students who have just cause to be worried about loans and fees but most students here, as far as I know, don’t get involved,” the Prince says, adding that he declines any active participation in student politics.

Prince William, casually dressed in corduroy jeans, a jumper with holes and well-worn loafers, conducted the interview in a room at the University’s chaplaincy centre, after completing his last exam of the academic year, sipping a glass of mineral water and looking forward to a long summer vacation.

“Everybody thinks I drink beer, but actually I like cider,” he said.

The Prince expressed gratitude for being left alone in the small Scottish town to get on with his studies and his life is largely uninterrupted.

“People here just treat me like everyone else. It’s really nice. I’m able to lead a near-normal life because of a combination of reasons really. The media have been very good considering, I’m sure, how tantalising it is having me up here, and the people of St Andrews and the students themselves have been so supportive. So basically I feel very comfortable.”

William acknowledges that the media’s considerate attitude to him has played a major part in allowing him to enjoy student life but he fears that, once he has gone, they may try to rake over the coals of his college life.

“I’m slightly concerned that when I leave here the media could have a tendency to look into what I’ve done. I’m just hoping that they won’t go round trying to do that. If they do, I think the people of St Andrews will be my greatest allies.”

While local people, media and fellow students left him alone, it was a different matter for the huge influx of visitors to the home of golf.

“The local residents, I’m sure, know what I do. They know the routes I take. Yet, very kindly, they just get on with their lives, their shopping and things like that. I think it’s probably a little harder for tourists and foreigners who come up here to try and pretend, as it were, that they haven’t seen me. That’s a bit tricky sometimes, but everyone else is very relaxed.”

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