Thames Valley here we come!
The Imperial College Accommodation Office has had to deal with a record number of applicants this year, a direct result of the increasing number of students studying at Imperial. This led to fears that some students would not get student accommodation in their first year; as guaranteed by the university to those who apply in time. Three weeks before the start of term, felix was informed that there were about 160 students who had applied for accommodation but had still not received it.
This problem occurred because some students, unhappy at what they believed to be an unreasonably high rent for halls close to Imperial, rejected their offers in order to receive less expensive accommodation. One student was even trying to swap his single en suite room in Beit on Facebook, as it had not been one of his choices and he would struggle to afford it.
The accommodation office has been unable to change the offers made to students due to the understandable difficulty in making individual changes once everyone has been catered for. This year 80% of students received one of their top 5 accommodation choices.
It is a combination of a shortage of rooms and a demand for cheaper accommodation that has put this pressure on the accommodation office. While all students want to be situated as close to university as possible, the high cost of rooms in the area (the majority of single rooms in South Kensington range from £140 to £180 a week) has put many off.
Hannah Theodorou, Deputy President for Education and Welfare, admitted that “the price of accommodation is certainly climbing out of the reach of many students” but argued that the rent was in line with other London universities. felix then conducted a survey of the three central London universities: LSE, UCL and Kings. The most expensive hall was High Holborn Hall, where LSE students could be expected to pay up to £160 a week for a single en suite room. UCL’s most expensive accommodation was at John Dodgson, where a single en suite room costs £145 a week. Kings’ Great Dover Street Apartments, the most expensive Kings accommodation, costs only £128 a week. Hannah Theodorou then concluded that “Imperial was focusing too much on quality”; presumably instead of on affordability. Eastside, the new hall being built at Princes Gardens, will consist almost entirely of high quality single rooms with only around 17 affordable twin rooms.
This is not the first year that there have been problems with 1st year students. Last year, due to redevelopment work on halls in Princes Gardens, Imperial was forced to rent out two UNITE Halls of Residence (Piccadilly Court and Orient House) at nearly £500,000 each in order to house all the 1st year students.
In addition to UNITE, this year’s accommodation office has looked to Thames Valley University (TVU) to house the overflow of students. The college is planning to house over 20 1st year students in Paragon Hall close to Boston Manor tube station in Zone 4, and is currently looking for a warden to accompany these students.
The wardening staff have rejected the scheme, however, on the basis that the students will not receive appropriate pastoral care. An alternative solution was offered to the college by the wardens, which included reconverting single rooms that were once twins back into twin rooms, though this was later rejected. A contract has already been made with TVU, making it difficult for the wardening staff to prevent college from housing students at TVU.
The accommodation problem has largely been ‘solved’, however, by the fact that many students who were unhappy with their accommodation offer have decided to either live at home or seek housing in the private sector.
In total around 10% of this year’s intake has been unable to obtain, or have chosen to opt out of, student accommodation.
There is significant work being done to address this problem in the long-term, and work on the new halls of residence on the east side of Princes Gardens has been progressing rapidly over the summer. The hall is being built in a similar manner to Southside, with three adjacent halls being built, each expected to house close to 400 students. On the first floor there will be a bar to replace Harrington’s Bar and Grill (looking out onto Prince’s Gardens) as well as a cash machine and a small shop for everyday groceries. This new hall, which will be opened in September 2009, will deal with the steady increase in the number of students coming to Imperial in the near future.
For students desperate for cheap accommodation, however, these halls are not a viable solution. As stated above, fewer than 20 rooms in these new halls will be affordable twin rooms. A follow-up story will run sometime this term.
