Ten freshers shoved into TV room despite empty rooms in halls

• Emergency accommodation blasted as “more of an evacuation centre from the world wars”

• Students slumming it in Hillhead TV room while rooms in halls sit empty

• Provided with pancakes in plastic bags with no cooking facilities

Ten students have been sharing a TV room in Hillhead with only one bathroom between them.

The uni even had the cheek to charge them £80 per week for the pleasure. And those affected said: “This dire situation is only made worse by the uni’s attitude.”

And for food they were shockingly provided with pancakes in plastic bags – without even a microwave to cook them in.

This is while rooms in halls sit empty after students didn’t show up to uni.

Slumming it in Hillhead’s own shanty town.

One lucky fresher managed to escape the emergency accommodation after begging his parents for rent money. He said: “If Aberdeen had made the housing issue clear to me, I would definitely have considered another university.”

Like most applicants, Tom thought his accommodation was guaranteed.

But two weeks before Freshers’ he had to call the uni to find out where he’d be living: “I had to call them. I was still waiting for my student ID number to come through the post.”

And the furious Geography student feels alienated by the uni. He said: “Everything I found out, I had to seek out.

“They didn’t care.”

The gates of Fresher hell.

When Tom arrived in Aberdeen the only accommodation offered to him was the army-style barracks in Hillhead. He said: “When I arrived they gave me a key to a TV room. There was nowhere to work. I couldn’t even unpack.

“It was more of an evacuation centre from the world wars than anything else.

“Breakfast was a pancake in a plastic bag.”

And sharing with nine other strangers was no picnic either: “We had to keep the windows open. We were ten people – imagine the smell.”

Even Tom’s health was at risk in the living space as he has asthma which is triggered by cigarette smoke: “Even the bathrooms smelled of smoke.”

Home sweet, no.

And living in close quarters with nine other people meant Freshers’ Week got messy: “One night someone was sick on someone else’s bed.”

“We had to stay there all night with the smell.

“Apparently we were “inconveniencing the entire block” but you couldn’t avoid it. Dreadful scenario.”

And even more administrative cock-ups meant Tom and his roommates suffered while rooms were sitting empty in halls: “People have empty rooms in their flats even now.

“Some people just didn’t show up.”

Still no room in the inn, even though some of them are empty.

Now Tom and his parents are coughing up £190 per week for a private flat. He said: “I managed to find other accommodation, thanks to my parents. I had no choice.”

But it’s not as if the uni helped with his search, either: “Actually, it was the students’ union who put me in contact with my current accommodation.

“I’m only here because of the competence and hard work of other staff. No thanks to the uni.

“The entire situation has been absolutely dire. What’s made it worse is the university’s attitude.”