Student Rent Strikes Due to lack of En-suite Facilities

missbiggles1

setmefree2 wrote: »

It's normal these days for a large proportion of university halls to be offered with en suite facilities. We offered both our sons this option and they turned it down, they preferred to be in flats with shared bathrooms - the mid priced stuff - as a previous poster said these are regarded as the most sociable flats. In 2nd year eldest DS was in a house with a 3D TV....

It's definitely good money for the landlords - youngest DS is in a house of 6 at £400 ish per month each = £30k pa in Newcastle. I don't know Newcastle well but most of the Newcastle Uni students live in an area called Jesmond which I've been told is one of the posher areas of the city, which probably speaks volumes about today's university experience. Seriously, who wants their kids living in a crappy neighborhood? Anyway, the landlords provide high quality student accommodation because they know there is a market for it. This includes the university providing good quality accommodation for freshers and private landlords for the rest.

Newcastle has a population of 250,000. In term time there are 50,000 students in the city. 20,000 Newcastle Uni students and 30,000 Northumbria Uni. They bring an enormous amount to the Newcastle economy.

Both of my kids are loving Uni life. I really don't think living in !!!!!! accommodation like we did in the past has much to recommend it tbh. You go to Uni to study and it's much easier to do this if you are warm and in a nice environment and can cook and do your washing easily. Don't worry though students can still be really messy and dirty, most halls these days come with a cleaner.

Halls at Essex in the 70s had cleaners (for communal areas) and also bed linen was provided and changed every week. The cleaners used to enjoy bedding change day because they tended to find out who was sleeping where.;)

GwylimT

Generali wrote: »

I don't think people are making light of rape. I think they're making light of you making stuff up.

In that case the British justice system are also making things up.

SingleSue

mumps wrote: »

When we were looking at universities for my daughter she went on a tour at one of the universities she was interested in. She said the students taking them round said don't go in the expensive halls the cheap ones are the sociable ones where you will have a great time. Don't have an en suite as you have to clean it, if you have a shared bathroom it gets cleaned every week. My daughter did go in a cheap hall although at another university and she said she agreed with the advice she was given although the bathrooms were sometimes a state.

Eldest originally applied for one of the most expensive, super duper halls at his uni with an en suite. Unfortunately, he hadn't been organised and was late submitting his application and was allocated the cheapest, non en suite halls..he was gutted.

To pick him up, I showed him some You Tube videos of his allocated halls and he became more optimistic and on arrival, although he wasn't so impressed with the look (very basic, no pretty walls to look at, think prison cell appearance for his actual room), he absolutely loved the social side of it.

He is still in those same halls now as a senior resident (this is his second year as an SR) looking after the 1st years although he is pondering on moving onto one of the better halls for his final year just for a change of scene, still as an SR of course but he has to work out if it is financially viable (he has reduced rent due to his SR duties but it is still an increase on a very tight budget).

missbiggles1

My personal (and parental) requirements for student accommodation would be -

Safety, both in terms of security and gas/electricity
A single room (I know I verge on the spartan but I don't feel sharing is a valid option for most people)
A bed, desk, somewhere to store clothes, books and resources.
Somewhere to cook and store food.
Reasonably convenient for lectures and library (on campus, walking/cycling distance) .
I'd like to say a quiet environment but, unfortunately, that isn't really feasible.
These days I suppose you'd have to have decent internet access.

What I don't think are essential are en suite facilities, a double bed, dishwasher and masses of gadgets.

I've probably forgotten something but that seems to be a reasonable middle road.

SingleSue

I would agree missbiggles.....apart from one point, only very slightly though. For middle son, an en suite was an essential due to his bowel disorder but that is an exception to the norm really.

Generali

GwylimT wrote: »

In that case the British justice system are also making things up.

Maybe, maybe not. We have your word for this terrible crime that may or may not have happened. Nothing more nor less.

Semple

I rented a flat in the centre of Bristol for around £110 a week (bills inc) from a private company (Unite). When comparing to friends who rented at the Uni, i think it's safe to say i had the better deal.

The flat consisted of 5 single bedrooms each with an en-suite, and then shared kitchen/communal area. The rooms were fairly small, a bed, built in desk, and standing wardrobe took up most of the room. All in all, i was fairly happy with what was provided for the price.

Sapphire

mumps wrote: »

I was never a fulltime student but from friends who went to uni in late 60s early 70s I seem to remember they had access to other benefits, weren't they able to claim job seekers (well it wasn't called that then) and housing benefit for the academic holidays. I was a busy mum at the time so I might have got it wrong.

I don't remember any such benefit payments. I do, however, remember that far fewer people went to college then than do now, so if this was the case taxpayers could perhaps have been able to fund such things.

mumps

missbiggles1 wrote: »

You used to be able to claim unemployment benefit , IIRC, during my first year (75/76) but then it stopped. You may have been able to claim Supplementary Benefit after that but I'm pretty sure you couldn't claim money for housing.

Given that everybody I knew either worked or went home to live with parents for the holidays, it wasn't that relevant.:)

My friends were finishing as you were starting, I think you are right that it was changing by the mid 70s. Of course there was more work about in the early 70s so my friends all worked, I just remember them talking about the lazy !!!!!!s claiming benefits in the summer.

zagubov

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

You could claim supplementary benefit in the 80s.
It was approx £22 but I didn't claim it myself so I'm not sure what time period that covered.

Was at uni in the 70s. In the summer the benefits including Supplementary benefit was a bit over £11 per week. I took a job in a supermarket which cost me £5 a week to get to and paid £17.60.

I was a pound better off and it was much heavier work than any of the building site jobs I had after that.

Everybody got a grant for uni but it was means tested and if both parents worked it would be reduced. I think the full grant would have been somewhere near a £1000 and I got a bit more than half that. Only 16% went to uni.