Students at University of Oxford housed in four-star hotels due to a lack of accommodation

Over 120 students at The University of Oxford have been housed in four-star hotels due to a lack of accommodation. 

Around 20 students at St Peter’s College Oxford have been booked into the  Voco Spires Hotel, a four-star hotel with an indoor pool, spa, and gym this term whilst over 100 third years at New College have been living in the Leonardo Royal Hotel for more than two months, The Times reports. 

Facilities at the Leonardo Royal include room service and a Marco Pierre White steakhouse restaurant. 

The hotels typically cost up to £150 a night and costs are being subsidised by St Peter’s College, Oxford. 

Via Instagram

The students are being housed here after building work on new accommodation has been held up. The building contractors are paying for students at New College’s accommodation.

Colleges are also asking for money from wealthy benefactors. New College is asking for £25,000 per bedroom, to build halls to sleep 94 students.

This comes after students were forced to queue outside a letting agency overnight to try and secure accommodation in November last year.

Via SWNS

Over 100 students from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes queued up outside Finders Keepers Letting Agency for up to 24 hours in sub-zero temperatures to try and sign student houses for the following year. 

One student, Will who queued for 24 hours said: “It was absolutely freezing, I’m wearing three jumpers right now. It’s so ridiculous that we have to be out here for so long – it’s just a cam to drive up demand beyond belief.” 

Via SWNS

A spokesperson for St Peter’s College said: “St Peter’s College is disappointed that the occupation of its new residential development, Castle Bailey Quad, was unavoidably postponed until January 2024 due to supply chain issues.

“A total of 47 students were scheduled to occupy the residential buildings in October at the start of the 2023-2024 academic year. The college’s priority has been to ensure that all affected students remain housed in alternative accommodation and are compensated throughout the delay period. The college has accommodated several of the impacted students in other available college rooms.

“The college provided housing for the remaining 20 of the students in a nearby hotel, Voco Oxford Spires. The college arranged, booked and paid for hotel rooms, provided moving assistance and college meal credits, and reduced impacted students’ weekly rent rate over the delay period in compensation for the delay.

“The college plans to move students into their rooms in Castle Bailey Quad in January 2024.”

The warden of New College, Miles Young told The Oxford Mail that the 120 students staying at the Leonardo are being paid for by the college’s building contractors working on the new accommodation block. He said: “It is being paid for by the building contractors, or their insurers, of our new student accommodation which was late but is now finished. There is no cost to the college.”

Featured image via Instagram and SWNS. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Oxford students forced to sleep in queues for over 24 hours to sign uni accommodation

• Rishi Sunak called ‘evil’ for boasting about new changes to international student visa rules

• A professor at the University of Oxford has told students to use ChatGPT for essays