A charity has warned that the lack of student housing in the UK has reached a “crisis point” not seen since the 1970s, when some were forced to sleep in sports halls and cars. This issue is expected to worsen in the coming year, as students across universities have already complained about intense competition for rooms in flatshares for academic years 2022 and 2023. Experts predict that growing numbers of students will have to accept unsuitable housing as hidden homelessness becomes a pressing concern. Lack of suitable housing options has resulted in students resorting to couch-surfing with friends, living with distant parents or accepting rooms without windows.
According to Martin Blakey, chief executive of student housing charity Unipol, the majority of universities are seeing a shortage of student housing and the situation is expected to remain the same as purpose-built student accommodation has stopped expanding. Additionally, a significant decrease in shared houses, as well as universities running fewer accommodation facilities in partnership with private providers, are factors aggravating the shortage. Meanwhile, landlords are moving to renting to professionals or leaving the market, making the situation dire for students.
Blakey explains that several factors are responsible for the current time-bound housing shortage, including increased demand for rentals in cities, rapidly expanding universities, and international students returning amid the easing of the Covid pandemic. The situation is expected to worsen in January when new students arrive, and again in September 2023, a year that is slated to witness another record university recruitment round.
Chloe Field, the National Union of Students (NUS) vice-president for higher education, calls the housing shortage “unprecedented” and warns that it is “jeopardising students’ university experience and forcing them to make difficult decisions.” She states that student dropouts and homelessness will continue to increase without significant initiatives to increase affordable student housing.
Data compiled by the StuRents accommodation portal implies a shortfall of 207,000 student beds across the UK, with 19 towns and cities suffering from more than a 10% undersupply of student housing. The shortage in Glasgow is so severe that some students lacking appropriate housing have been advised not to register for courses. In Northern Ireland, the first student housing cooperative has been established to address the limited options.
The situation has pushed up prices, with an average increase of 10% compared to last year. Last year, a report by the Higher Education Policy Institute warned that the cost of living crisis would result in increased student homelessness. The NUS estimates that one-third of all accommodation costs more than the average maintenance loan.
Universities are being called upon to gather and publish data on student accommodation and to provide better information to prospective students. Nottingham offers a possible solution as its local authority worked with two universities to create a student living strategy to identify the amount of housing required and available. Universities could also develop their own housing again and address the problem themselves by helping alleviate the burden on students desperate to find suitable housing.
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