‘How did we miss him?’

The boss of Campus Living Villages says the family of a dead student are owed answers after his body lay in his room for up to eight weeks without anyone noticing.

The body was found on Monday night at the University of Canterbury’s Sonoda Christchurch Campus accommodation after fellow students noticed an odour.

Police are investigating the cause of death and wider circumstances, while the university is launching an independent investigation into the death and has promised to act on its recommendations.

Campus Living’s managing director, John Schroder, said he was haunted by the death.

“We owe it to our young student and his family to make sure that we can determine what actually happened . . . . Unfortunately we don’t know enough facts yet to be able to characterise where we fell short.”

The company was fully cooperating with both investigations and looking at its processes as well.

“The thing that haunts me . . . is how did we miss him?”

It was not yet clear how the student died or how long his body had gone unnoticed.

Sonoda was designed to give students “maximum independence” and allow students their privacy, Schroder said. Campus Living ran programmes and offered meals but students had to opt in.

There was also a process for parents, the university or friends to highlight that they had concerns for a student, in which case they would be checked on regularly. However the student had not been flagged in that system, he said.

The university’s vice chancellor, Professor Cheryl de la Rey, said yesterday she deeply regretted what had happened and had apologised to the student’s family.

She did not rule out ending the university’s contract with Campus Living.

“As I’ve indicated we will take [police and independent investigators’] recommendations extremely seriously.”