EXCLUSIVE Student Housing Shortage
17th January 2017 Issue 333
Students to sleep in bunk beds The official student newspaper of the University of East Anglia | concrete-online.co.uk
Megan Baynes Editor-in-Chief
Up to 750 students could be left without accommodation for September 2017, due to a shortage of rooms on campus and in the city. This is likely to mostly impact current first years wishing to move off campus. The university has responded to this housing crisis by adopting emergency measures to increase the number of bed spaces on campus. These include the division of some campus rooms with bunk beds as well as introducing a new University Lecturer Homestay scheme that will see a number of students housed with lecturers. HomeRun opens on Friday 20th January however, the SU fears that not enough bed spaces will be available for students wishing to move off campus. The university recruited
more students than expected this year, although have agreed to a temporary expansion freeze for 2017/18 entry due to intensive SU lobbying. However, there will still be in an additional one thousand extra students on campus in September.
In order to provide bed space for the increased number of soon-to-be second year students the university has agreed to a "stay on campus" scheme for returners, encouraging
students to stay in campus accommodation, generating an additional 325 bedspaces. In order to do this 80 bed spaces have been secured within INTO, a new University Lecturer Homestay scheme will generate approximately 50 bedspaces, and 13 rooms have been made available in Suffolk Terrace due to the relocation of counselling services. Some larger rooms on campus will be converted into doubles, offered at a significant discount, and some rooms will be converted into "bunk bed twins", priced between £53-57 per student, per week. A number of ensuite "family rooms" will be converted into doubles and offered at a significantly discounted price. In addition, some of Broadview lodge, which has 63 rooms in total, will be converted into student accommodation. The SU believe an additional 175 bed spaces can be found in the
city. The university is also considering changing the format of the new planned buildings at Blackdale which may now be larger than previously intended and feature shared bathrooms to maximise capacity. Commenting SU Campaigns and Democracy Officer Amy Rust said: "Although getting there has been like pulling teeth, the University’s stay-on-campus plan is a good start- and the creation of a new category of accommodation at the affordable end of the market a welcome development from a student hardship perspective. "However, we remain hugely concerned about the Norwich housing market - when demand outstrips supply prices will go up and safety will go down - and most importantly we’re furious this has all been noticed and acted on too late when the University has known its expansion intentions for years.
Ms Rust added that is was "galling" that despite the increase in profits made by student accommodation last year, the university was insisting on "hiking rents" by more than inflation every year for a decade: "We all know that the campus needs investment but doing this on the back of student hardship is unacceptable." She continued, "In the context of big profits and poorly planned expansion, the idea that the only way to get affordable accommodation is if you share a desk and bunk up is outrageous. So we’re also calling on the University to do a number of things- develop and publish a proper assessment of student accommodation affordability, and create a proper on and off campus expansion plan that deals with the crises we have now.
under £13,000. The FoI request also discovered that in the same period, 79 university-employed staff signed compromise agreements as part of their redundancy packages. The compromise agreement in severance deals usually takes the form of a payment to former employees, in return for the university gaining immunity from legal action. These deals include confidentiality clauses, known as
‘gagging orders’, which prevent former academics from discussing aspects of their time at the university. UEA was one of 48 universities which responded to Liberal Democrat requests regarding payments to staff. In the last five financial years, over 3,500 staff signed compromise agreements, with the universities which responded paying out in excess of £145 million in financial settlements.
A UEA spokesperson said: "Confidentiality clauses are a standard legal clause in this type of agreement. They are there to protect both parties involved, and to maintain confidentiality about an agreed financial settlement." The spokesperson added: "Such clauses do not prevent an individual from making disclosures under whistleblowing legislation." Campaigns and Democracy
Officer Amy Rust said: "Rocketing rents and tuition fee increases are bad enough when they get spent on the student experience- but when they are spent on gagging disgruntled staff and massive increases in senior management pay students will rightly be furious." She said the union are "calling for student representation on University
"Up to 750 students could be left without a bed for September 2017"
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University 'gagged' 79 staff since 2011 Tony Allen News Reporter
A Freedom of Information (FoI) request has revealed that since 2011 UEA has paid out over £1.1 million to staff leaving the university. Spread among the 90 staff members who received financial settlements, the figures mean that the average amount paid was slightly
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