Accommodation angst

For many, the 5th of March marked the beginning of the scramble for a place to live in the coming year. I am going to be one of them (although not in the near future with essay deadlines looming far too close on the horizon).

I have been living in Andrew Melville for the last two and a half years. Every year before the application period begins our wonderful warden, without fail, informs us that there will be quite a few places available and there was no exception this year. Never have I met anyone that didn’t manage to get into Melville if they took the trouble to apply. In fact, last year after the first round of applications, there were still a good 36 places left. But it was different this time. Not only did I not get a place, but I was not alone. I was astounded. How can one of the least popular halls in the university be so badly oversubscribed all of a sudden?

I have two explanations: the new rules that were put into place, and the same old problem of finding affordable housing.

With no explanation, the accommodation services decided to make Fife Park and Albany Park exclusive for ‘students with financial needs’. This meant that for those of us who are not considered to be in ‘financial need’ Melville is the cheapest option one can get from the university. So, instead of the normal scramble for a place in Fife or Albany, this year Melville-hopefuls became victims.

When will Accommodation Services stop fooling around with the regulations? Last year they banned entrant students from both Fife and Albany Park, before some serious lobbying by the Student Association encouraged them to change the regulations (in the middle of the application period, mind) and made it applicable only to Fife Park.

We can learn a couple of things from this mess:

1) The policies were not explained or agreed upon before they were put in place.

2) Secondly, they were not well thought-out before they were officially announced, otherwise they wouldn’t have had to be completely redrawn this year. This change of rules makes the whole application process completely unpredictable. If it was consistently difficult to gain a place, then at least I could prepare myself for the monumental struggle of getting private accommodation and not having to scramble and call everyone I know, searching in vain for a flatmate or a spare room.

Then comes the problem of affordability. Without a doubt, St Andrews is one of the most expensive university towns to live in. We are paying London accommodation prices, but without the job opportunities to earn that much money while studying. With the introduction of higher tuition fees and the yearly increase in rents, students with less financial resources are being priced out. The only major housing development made by the university lately was the new Fife Park, (a carbon copy of DRA in both style and price). We don’t need the university to build palaces for students. Many students just want a place to stay that won’t cost them an arm and a leg, and that is why Fife Park, Albany Park, and now Andrew Melville, are so popular.

Changing the rules every year is not a cure for the genuine lack of affordable accommodation.