Students plan 'biggest rent strike in 40 years'
Discussion
Students in halls of residence accommodation across the country are planning to stop paying their rent in a co-ordinated protest at the ongoing situation.
"The National Union of Students president, Larissa Kennedy, said students had been encouraged to move into halls because universities were heavily dependent on rents and tuition fees. “Students have been essentially lied to,” she said. “They were told campuses would be safe and there would be face-to-face teaching but, within days of arriving, many found teaching was completely online – or everything bar two hours of in-person teaching was online. Understandably, students feel like they been trapped on campuses so universities can collect rent and fees.”
“This is the biggest wave of student renter militancy in over 40 years,”
"The students’ union is also piling pressure on private landlords to compensate students in older years, many of whom have seen little need to stay on campus with online classes and coronavirus restrictions"
https://inews.co.uk/news/education/student-rent-st...
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/dec/06/...
"The National Union of Students president, Larissa Kennedy, said students had been encouraged to move into halls because universities were heavily dependent on rents and tuition fees. “Students have been essentially lied to,” she said. “They were told campuses would be safe and there would be face-to-face teaching but, within days of arriving, many found teaching was completely online – or everything bar two hours of in-person teaching was online. Understandably, students feel like they been trapped on campuses so universities can collect rent and fees.”
“This is the biggest wave of student renter militancy in over 40 years,”
"The students’ union is also piling pressure on private landlords to compensate students in older years, many of whom have seen little need to stay on campus with online classes and coronavirus restrictions"
https://inews.co.uk/news/education/student-rent-st...
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/dec/06/...
Carl_Manchester said:
It’s about time we had a protest out of them (younger people), good luck to them.
My opinion, for what it's worth, is that they have been well and truly stitched up this year.Students have all been encouraged to go away to Uni 'as normal', yet when they got there, things have been in almost total disarray, and they have had barely any face to face lectures or tuition, and in many cases, they have even been instructed to 'remain in their accomodation rooms' for weeks.
It has been an utter shambles, and they have all paid £10k for the privilege (the average UK cost per annum for fees plus accommodation)
The majority of courses do not require a lab or specialist facilities, and it is quite clear that these courses could have been delivered easily via remote learning and remote lectures, and the students could have stayed at home and saved a fortune. This idea clearly presented a significant financial problem for the universities, who then decided to insist the students return as usual.
It would appear the The Open University and it's distance learning model was ahead of it's time by about 50 years, but with 171,000 students and a massive intake of new under-25 students (now making up 31% of the 171,000, they must be well placed to capitalise of the shambles of other universities)
The student experience of going away somewhere new to live, study and party, is not to be underestimated though, and it remains to be seen what sort of a balance will be struck going forwards between students choosing distance learning, and heading off to Uni.
If their gripe is with the universities then it is the tuition fees they should be withholding. The universities have not provided the education they said they would.
The landlords have provided the accommodation paid for. I realise that some halls of residence are owned by the universities but far from all, so seems that the rent protest will hit the wrong people.
The landlords have provided the accommodation paid for. I realise that some halls of residence are owned by the universities but far from all, so seems that the rent protest will hit the wrong people.
Can't say I disagree with them. Imagine paying £9000+ for a year of tuition for your future, only to be told that you can't go to classes or socialise properly, have to stay in your halls almost indefinitely , get fenced in and also told you have to submit for testing before you can go home.
They aren't getting what they paid for either in social fulfillment or education - end of the day, it is their future.
They aren't getting what they paid for either in social fulfillment or education - end of the day, it is their future.
Scrump said:
If their gripe is with the universities then it is the tuition fees they should be withholding. The universities have not provided the education they said they would.
The landlords have provided the accommodation paid for. I realise that some halls of residence are owned by the universities but far from all, so seems that the rent protest will hit the wrong people.
To be fair to the students, the organised 'rent strike' is purely aimed at university owned halls of residence.The landlords have provided the accommodation paid for. I realise that some halls of residence are owned by the universities but far from all, so seems that the rent protest will hit the wrong people.
They are putting some pressure on some private landlords to negotiate over the rents, but they aren't planning a rent strike with them.
Lord Marylebone said:
Scrump said:
If their gripe is with the universities then it is the tuition fees they should be withholding. The universities have not provided the education they said they would.
The landlords have provided the accommodation paid for. I realise that some halls of residence are owned by the universities but far from all, so seems that the rent protest will hit the wrong people.
To be fair to the students, the organised 'rent strike' is purely aimed at university owned halls of residence.The landlords have provided the accommodation paid for. I realise that some halls of residence are owned by the universities but far from all, so seems that the rent protest will hit the wrong people.
They are putting some pressure on some private landlords to negotiate over the rents, but they aren't planning a rent strike with them.
On the subject of private Landlords though, let's not forget that usually private Landlords are very exploitative of Students often with very questionable "damage fees" (for damage that may or may not have been done) not to mention usually the poor condition of the student apartments.
A friends Daughter went to Southampton Uni and she had an apartment with 3 others so 4 in total. It had a load of damp, the heating didn't work half of the time, they paid full rent throughout.
One of the 4 left mid way through (I think they emigrated or something), the Landlord said if they didn't find someone to replace her he'd kick all of them out (even though the remaining 3 could cover the bills).
And to top it all off, when they left the Landlord attempted to retain their £1800 security deposit due to "damage" (bearing in mind these were all very sensible well to do girls who took pride in trying to keep it clean / tidy) . They eventually got all of it back but only because my friends Daughter was savvy enough to do a full video walk through of the house on the first day showing the damage/damp etc and had regularly emailed the Landlord to complain.
Of course the above is a little off topic :-)
Edited by 320d is all you need on Monday 7th December 10:56
Lord Marylebone said:
My opinion, for what it's worth, is that they have been well and truly stitched up this year.
Students have all been encouraged to go away to Uni 'as normal', yet when they got there, things have been in almost total disarray, and they have had barely any face to face lectures or tuition, and in many cases, they have even been instructed to 'remain in their accomodation rooms' for weeks.
It has been an utter shambles, and they have all paid £10k for the privilege (the average UK cost per annum for fees plus accommodation)
The majority of courses do not require a lab or specialist facilities, and it is quite clear that these courses could have been delivered easily via remote learning and remote lectures, and the students could have stayed at home and saved a fortune. This idea clearly presented a significant financial problem for the universities, who then decided to insist the students return as usual.
It would appear the The Open University and it's distance learning model was ahead of it's time by about 50 years, but with 171,000 students and a massive intake of new under-25 students (now making up 31% of the 171,000, they must be well placed to capitalise of the shambles of other universities)
The student experience of going away somewhere new to live, study and party, is not to be underestimated though, and it remains to be seen what sort of a balance will be struck going forwards between students choosing distance learning, and heading off to Uni.
This.Students have all been encouraged to go away to Uni 'as normal', yet when they got there, things have been in almost total disarray, and they have had barely any face to face lectures or tuition, and in many cases, they have even been instructed to 'remain in their accomodation rooms' for weeks.
It has been an utter shambles, and they have all paid £10k for the privilege (the average UK cost per annum for fees plus accommodation)
The majority of courses do not require a lab or specialist facilities, and it is quite clear that these courses could have been delivered easily via remote learning and remote lectures, and the students could have stayed at home and saved a fortune. This idea clearly presented a significant financial problem for the universities, who then decided to insist the students return as usual.
It would appear the The Open University and it's distance learning model was ahead of it's time by about 50 years, but with 171,000 students and a massive intake of new under-25 students (now making up 31% of the 171,000, they must be well placed to capitalise of the shambles of other universities)
The student experience of going away somewhere new to live, study and party, is not to be underestimated though, and it remains to be seen what sort of a balance will be struck going forwards between students choosing distance learning, and heading off to Uni.
My daughter was told in September that it was "really really important" that she come down to London. Although all lectures would be online the tutorials would be face-to-face.
Pretty much as soon as she got there she was told that (a) Everything was online and (b) she couldn't mingle with any of the other students. Effectively she was restricted to mixing only with the 8 other people in her flat. Basically UCL's priority was to get the rent from them by whatever means possible.
My son is in exactly this situation; his course plus hall fees comes to around £16k this academic year [£9250 tuition plus £7k hall fee]. And what does he get for that? One hour's face to face seminar a week, everything else is online. So he doesn't need the hall room anyway since a) he can study from home and commute in for the very rare face to face stuff, and b) the uni demands that one hall corridor must not socialise with another.
And the timing of announcements is deliberately set to squeeze the money out of the students. They were told there'd be a lot of in person tuition, but when they turned up at the start of term, it was "nope, sorry, all online. But too late, you're here now, so you owe us £000's ha ha!"
The universities are shameless and cynical, and care much more about keeping the readies rolling in than they do about providing proper teaching. The students are simply a cash cow; universities have grown so used to the gravy train they cannot see beyond the next lump of cash.
And the timing of announcements is deliberately set to squeeze the money out of the students. They were told there'd be a lot of in person tuition, but when they turned up at the start of term, it was "nope, sorry, all online. But too late, you're here now, so you owe us £000's ha ha!"
The universities are shameless and cynical, and care much more about keeping the readies rolling in than they do about providing proper teaching. The students are simply a cash cow; universities have grown so used to the gravy train they cannot see beyond the next lump of cash.
320d is all you need said:
That's what I understood from the article.
On the subject of private Landlords though, let's not forget that usually private Landlords are very exploitative of Students often with very questionable "damage fees" (for damage that may or may not have been done) not to mention usually the poor condition of the student apartments.
I agree that students have traditionally been poorly treated by private landlords. Provided with sub-standard accommodation and then having their deposit kept automatically at the end of the period.On the subject of private Landlords though, let's not forget that usually private Landlords are very exploitative of Students often with very questionable "damage fees" (for damage that may or may not have been done) not to mention usually the poor condition of the student apartments.
For at least 30 years, student landlords saw the deposit as a bonus that would never be given back.
Things have improved recently though, and private landlords are competing with each other quite heavily on standard of accommodation, facilities etc and review services such as UniRoomy are getting very good at steering students towards decent modern private accommodation.
I think the days of student houses looking like Rigsby's accommodation in 'Rising Damp' are numbered to be honest.
ts in Westminster. I doubt it'll go that far, but some proper demonstrating is definitely called for: they have been treated like utter sCountdown said:
This.
My daughter was told in September that it was "really really important" that she come down to London. Although all lectures would be online the tutorials would be face-to-face.
Pretty much as soon as she got there she was told that (a) Everything was online and (b) she couldn't mingle with any of the other students. Effectively she was restricted to mixing only with the 8 other people in her flat. Basically UCL's priority was to get the rent from them by whatever means possible.
My daughter was told in September that it was "really really important" that she come down to London. Although all lectures would be online the tutorials would be face-to-face.
Pretty much as soon as she got there she was told that (a) Everything was online and (b) she couldn't mingle with any of the other students. Effectively she was restricted to mixing only with the 8 other people in her flat. Basically UCL's priority was to get the rent from them by whatever means possible.
Brave Fart said:
My son is in exactly this situation; his course plus hall fees comes to around £16k this academic year [£9250 tuition plus £7k hall fee]. And what does he get for that? One hour's face to face seminar a week, everything else is online. So he doesn't need the hall room anyway since a) he can study from home and commute in for the very rare face to face stuff, and b) the uni demands that one hall corridor must not socialise with another.
And the timing of announcements is deliberately set to squeeze the money out of the students. They were told there'd be a lot of in person tuition, but when they turned up at the start of term, it was "nope, sorry, all online. But too late, you're here now, so you owe us £000's ha ha!"
The universities are shameless and cynical, and care much more about keeping the readies rolling in than they do about providing proper teaching. The students are simply a cash cow; universities have grown so used to the gravy train they cannot see beyond the next lump of cash.
Absolutely shocking, and I hope your children both get something back as recompense for this disgrace.And the timing of announcements is deliberately set to squeeze the money out of the students. They were told there'd be a lot of in person tuition, but when they turned up at the start of term, it was "nope, sorry, all online. But too late, you're here now, so you owe us £000's ha ha!"
The universities are shameless and cynical, and care much more about keeping the readies rolling in than they do about providing proper teaching. The students are simply a cash cow; universities have grown so used to the gravy train they cannot see beyond the next lump of cash.
Good luck to them agreed they have been stitched up. Over the last last 5 years I've noticed how much property Universities have bought. Chester Uni has a massive property portfolio within the city. They even purchased a Travelodge that was built near to the uni within a few months of it opening. They own ex council buildings, large private house and apartments.
They seriously reply on income from rental so may be it is time to hit them were it hurts!
They seriously reply on income from rental so may be it is time to hit them were it hurts!
cts1975 said:
Good luck to them agreed they have been stitched up. Over the last last 5 years I've noticed how much property Universities have bought. Chester Uni has a massive property portfolio within the city. They even purchased a Travelodge that was built near to the uni within a few months of it opening. They own ex council buildings, large private house and apartments.
They seriously reply on income from rental so may be it is time to hit them were it hurts!
This is true.They seriously reply on income from rental so may be it is time to hit them were it hurts!
Universities have, over recent years, become more interested in being landlords than education institutes, as they realised there was far more cash in it.
It is almost like the education part is simply a sideshow to keep the students coming, and filling the accommodation blocks.
Drezza said:
I wouldn't have bothered going to uni this year, it's fairly obvious from the start it wasn't going to be a normal experience. I'd probably have had a year out or done an OU degree instead.
But what would you have done on your year out? There are no jobs and travel is not an option. I think that's why so many thought, might as well go and see what it's like.Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff