Student accommodation is a pivotal, yet unique, strand of the university experience for many.
Despite efforts to embed diversity across all areas of campus life however, student residences may be the places where this is most lacking – and the desire for students to live with people that they share characteristics with makes this difficult for universities to change.
In his influential report of 1963, Lord Robbins defined two essential needs for a student over the course of their university career. One of these needs, he suggested, is “a room of his own, however modest.” While most of us would not describe today’s availability of studio apartments and wellness spas (yes, really) as “modest”, the sentiment does remain. Accommodation is an essential, and ideally complementary, counterpart to academic life.
