Durham SU President claims uni ‘didn’t plan right’ as freshers miss out on college housing

Dan Lonsdale outlined support for roughly 100 freshers who are looking for private accommodation

3 months ago

Ben Green | News

Durham University Students’ Union president, Dan Lonsdale, has released a statement after roughly 100 freshers were unable to secure college accommodation for the 2024/25 academic year.

Dan claimed that whilst some students missed the deadline for applications, others are “scrambling” for a bed due to “an incredible short-sightedness” from Durham University, yet the uni has since denied this to be a planning issue.

Affected students now have just over two weeks to find private accommodation in the city before term starts.

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A post shared by Dan Lonsdale SU (@durhamsu_pres)

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Roughly 100 students are without college accommodation for the 2024/25 academic year due to “various reasons”, and Durham University has since confirmed that all students who applied for a college room by the deadline were allocated accommodation.

Posted to Instagram at 5pm on Tuesday 17th September, the SU president issued a statement, explaining how Durham University is offering support to students who had “issues” with college accommodation: “We are aware of the roughly 100 freshers looking for beds in the private rented sector due to issues with college accommodation.

“Durham University is offering comprehensive support for these students, and I’ve raised their cases directly with the vice-chancellor and with the pro-vice chancellor.”

Dan added that students missed securing a room in college accommodation due to various reasons, including late application submissions: “Some of these students missed the deadline to request accommodation, for various reasons. It is right that the university is helping them to find accommodation.”

Recognising the challenges of renting in the city, Dan wrote: “House hunting in Durham is an anxious and challenging process at the best of times. Undertaking that as a fresher, in a new city, on short notice must be a terrifying prospect. These students need support to do so.”

Durham University is currently providing incoming freshers without college accommodation support, offering information and guidance on renting in the private sector, including hosting a webinar and guides. It is also providing financial support (up to £1,000) should private accommodation cost more than a standard room in college accommodation (£6,805), as well as call-in clinics for students with questions or concerns, and support with freshers engaging in college freshers’ activities in the first two weeks of term.

The university is also offering ongoing support from a student’s college to support the transition into university life, as well as a guarantee of college accommodation in the student’s second year, if they wish to take it, to enable them to experience college living.

But the SU president then went on to claim that while some students missed the deadline, others had been left without college accommodation so due to “incredible short-sightedness” from Durham University.

The full quote reads: “Other students are scrambling for a bed at short notice because the university didn’t get its planning right and in doing so displayed an incredible short-sightedness. Student recruitment is almost impossible to get exactly right, but being a collegiate university, and the city’s largest landlord, comes with responsibilities and expectations and students suffer when the university fails to meet them.

“I expect the university to be transparent about what went wrong here and what they will do in the future to prevent it happening again. I’m working to ensure affected students can participate fully in the Durham Collegiate experience.”

However, Durham University has since denied this claim, and clarified that “this is not an issue of university planning”, but that all students without college accommodation did not submit their accommodation form by the deadline of Friday 12th July.

In his statement, Dan also mentioned the progress and hard work that the university has made to combat the housing crisis in recent years, but added that “incidents like this threaten to undermine the progress we’ve made”.

He said: “We’ve worked hard with the university to tackle the housing crisis over the last few years. Incidents like this threaten to undermine the progress we’ve made, and the confidence of students and residents in us to continue to tackle it.”

The statement finished by reassuring students that there is housing available and that there “remains no need to rush for housing”.

“I’ve made my concerns about this clear to the university and I want to reassure all students that there remains no need to rush for housing for the next academic year. There are enough houses available, along with a significant surplus, to accommodate every student in the city.”

A Durham University spokesperson said: “All new undergraduate students who met the conditions of their academic offer and confirmed their place with us will have received an offer of accommodation, providing they have also met the accommodation guarantee.

“This is not an issue of university planning. There is a group of students who have not met the accommodation guarantee, mostly because they have not responded to repeated email requests.

“Where for this reason we have not been able to make an offer of university accommodation, we are providing students with comprehensive support to help them find private accommodation.

“Students can be assured that there remains plenty of private student accommodation available in Durham City.

“Students who live in private accommodation will still be full members of their college, with access to all events, facilities, and support throughout their time in Durham. Colleges are working hard to help students who are living out engage with freshers’ activities in college at the start of term, and to support their transition to university life.”