Swanky residence halls that promise high life too costly for most students
Think tank warning for universities that build luxury accommodation to attract overseas interest
UNIVERSITY halls are being replaced with “Instagrammable” hotel-style rooms that are becoming unaffordable for students, a think tank has found.
The Higher Education Policy Institute said universities were building “luxurious” residences with neon art and hanging plants to attract wealthy foreign students not accustomed to the “squalor” of traditional halls.
The author of the report, William Whyte, a reverend professor of social and architectural history at St John’s College Oxford, said universities are also trying to impress parents, who expect their children to have a more “high-end” halls experience due to their higher fees. However, the think tank warned that the result is rents for halls are soaring and now account for more than 70 per cent of students’ average annual spending.
It urged universities to be more up front about the cost of on-campus accommodation and to advertise the full range of options rather than just highlighting the plushest halls to prospective students.
The report found that while the percentage of students opting to live at university had remained steady since the 1960s, at around 80 per cent, this had meant a huge boom in demand since the surge in university admissions since 1997. Today around 50 per cent of teenagers go to university, creating a student population of around three million at any one time.
The report, called Somewhere to Live, found that the average weekly cost of halls had increased by almost a third (31 per cent) since 2011, with students now paying on average £6,400 a year for their rooms, and £8,900 in London. Student rent now accounts for 73 per cent of their loans, up from 58 per cent in 2013.
Despite rocketing costs, universities are still struggling to meet the rising demand, with more than 1,500 students starting this autumn term in temporary accommodation due to new halls not being finished in time.
Prof Whyte warned universities are heading to a “tipping point” where more and more students will soon be priced out of living on campus.
He said that part of the problem was universities engaging in an “architectural arms-race” to build eye-catching, lavish halls that would attract higherfee-paying international students.
As well as the rising costs, the report warned that universities were increasingly building halls on an en suite “hotel model” to rent out in summer for conferences, but that leave students more isolated from their peers.
Prof Whyte added: “There is a growing sense that people’s well-being at university is not helped by living isolated lives.”