“Super-high rent” forced student to reject UCL

Stefan Dimitrov, a grade-A student from the town of Chirpan in Bulgaria had to reluctantly decline his offer to study at UCL this April because he couldn’t afford the costs for UCL Halls of Residence.

Stefan said it was “my dream” to study at UCL

Stefan had wanted to study Information Management for Business at UCL and received top grades in his school exams- roughly equating to 2 A*s and an A at A-level. He said that,

“My dream was to study at UCL for its great reputation and its location in Central London. Unfortunately I had to reject the offer because I cannot afford to study at UCL, mainly due to the super high rent charged at UCL Halls.

“I was very disappointed and even more upset since UCL is one of the richest Universities in the UK but cannot invest enough in supporting low-income students”

This year, UCL has decided to cut the bursary offered to students from low-income backgrounds to up to £1,000 with critics calling the move a form of “social-cleansing“.

Stefan believes that UCL was “absolutely” becoming a University reserved for the privileged saying that,

“I have friends there who struggle with two jobs during term…UCL needs to reduce room costs to the level they were back in 2009 and maybe increase bursaries for people who worked hard all their lives to study there. The richest are not always the smartest and UCL must realise this.”

Earlier this year, Andrew Grainger who is currently the Head of UCL Estates allegedly told students that UCL does not “consider low income students when setting rents”.

UCL has also come under criticism for the quality of the rooms- in late April a ceiling collapsed in a room at Campbell House East.

Stefan will now study Information Technology in Organisations at Southampton University.

@Ranter_Rager