Turner at the Tate page 36
Mental health in freshers page 15 Turner at the Tate page The Referendum page 10 Issue 276 Friday 26th September 2014 www.epigram.org.uk
Students face accommodation fiasco
India Castle-Gibb
• Rising student numbers lead University to make students share rooms • Housing supply is not growing with increased demand • University asking staff to temporarily take students in
Sarah Newey News Editor Matthew Field Online Comment Editor More than 300 Bristol University freshers will be forced to share single bedrooms when they arrive next week, after the university overrecruited first year undergraduates. Many of the 312 involved in the temporary arrangement will be provided with bunk beds, and expected to share desks and wardrobes for the first term of their time at Bristol. An exceptional number of students have been accepted through re-marks and insurance choices this year. It is also the first year that the University
has been recruiting through clearing, which is an added strain on already limited supply. There have been some suggestions that rapid expansion of the University was to blame for the blunder. However, the Accommodation Office has insisted that Bristol has been a victim of its own policies. The University guaranteed that everyone who applied for accommodation before the 31st August will be provided for - which therefore includes those coming through clearing, remarks and insurance choices. Pru Archer, Head of Accommodation Services, told Epigram that in many other universities these latecoming freshers would be worse off, as they would have had to find their own accommodation. She argued that ‘If we hadn’t guaranteed all these students accommodation, they would be
desperately searching in the private sector for somewhere to live.’ Nonetheless, Darcy Ramden, a first year Philosophy student going into Churchill Hall, described the confusion she faced before she moved in to Epigram. ‘They firstly sent me an email saying I had an accommodation offer from Churchill but were very unclear on the details, it seemed to say I may be sharing for a while. I then found out when they updated the online offer that I was definitely sharing but they were very unclear about how long for. ‘I haven’t been given any options, I asked and they effectively said take it or leave it. Everyone on the Facebook group seems irritated; especially those who, like me, had firmed Bristol and got the grades, as well as applying as soon as possible to
secure the accommodation we wanted and have ended up in bunk beds sharing one cupboard and one desk between two people - not ideal!’ Other students have also expressed their frustration. Hugh Williams, a first year Economics student also going to Churchill, told Epigram: ‘As I have already taken a year out, I have my hands tied in having to go to university this year. There is no possibility of me deferring this offer and I have basically been forced into a situation which I was not even aware existed. ‘Despite being told that the University has had some experiences with this in the past, I never once saw this caveat on the website. If I had realised Churchill was going to have shared accommodation this year, I probably would have applied to a different residence.’ continued on page 3