Wills students speak out against accommodation crisis
“At boarding school I didn’t have to share”
This term it was revealed that the Stoke Bishop halls are in the middle of an unforeseen accommodation crisis as the university has drastically overshot on its intake targets.
Freshers this year were sent an email from the university, as early as two weeks after they had received their offers, asking them if their were still requiring their accommodation. Unsurprisingly, many freshers were dismayed at the university’s oversight and the prospect of sharing a room with a stranger.
With freshers not vacating their halls and finding alternative living arrangements for first year as per uni request, UOB has resorted to other accommodation solutions.
Namely by shoving freshers who had applied for single-room accommodation together in the same single-rooms that are designed to accommodate one person only.
This ‘temporary’ solution, has already done little to improve our infamous handicap, student satisfaction, which has come to haunt us year on year when the university league tables are released.
In Wills Hall, where the students who the university was unable to accommodate have temporarily been placed, there are currently 40 rooms where students temporarily share a single room.
Every block in Old Quad has a range of anything in between 2 to 8 rooms of students sharing single-rooms.
Unsurprisingly, those students affected by the university’s poor planning have remained angry at their situation.
Sam Wessling, a first year German student said:
“This is ridiculous, at boarding school I didn’t have to share…”
Hamish Hudson, a first year French student who was also flustered by his predicament added: “We’re working through it but things are difficult.”
First year engineering student Alex Rhodes who at first lamented the lack of privacy went on jokingly to say:
“You do need your own space, especially when he’s a twat like my room mate.”
If nothing else, at least their accommodation fees are half price for a few more weeks.