Private Student Apartments Or Communal Halls, Which is Better?
Despite universities like Cambridge offering free COVID-19 tests to those in college-owned living quarters many students are still choosing to source their own accommodation on channels like RightMove, Zoopla and Airbnb - suggesting a new trend of living in private apartments.
As a provider of serviced apartments to students in London we’ve seen a major increase in demand for our services over the last 3-4 months, and believe it’s partly down to a major concern with the current format of university halls of residence.
The problem.
Communal spaces, and lots of them - a common attribute to university facilities and none more so than in halls of residence. Only days ago, Glasgow university had a coronavirus outbreak which saw students ordered to self-isolate - many of whom are living away from home for the first time and can now not visit families, and are banned from going outside.
An almost identical situation also occurred recently in Manchester Metropolitan University student halls, and Lucy Owens, a student affected in Glasgow told BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “…Putting 2,000 students into such a confined area, something like this was bound to happen.”
What are the government doing in response? Well, not a lot. A C4 segment on University students illustrated how many people believe the Conservatives let coronavirus hit university halls in a botched attempt at some minor herd immunity. A brief scan of Twitter and other social media shows how students and staff continue to be dismayed at the impracticalities of living in halls of residence during the coronavirus pandemic.
@StephenNolan why didn't government and universities work weeks ago, or even yet, that concentrating students into halls of residence, with mass ventilation systems similar to a cruise ship would result in mass corona virus transmission? #notrocketscience
— Allen (@allenyogaman) September 28, 2020
So, are halls of residence losing their appeal? We certainly think so. From both a safety and a practicality point of view in this current pandemic climate they clearly have several major weaknesses.
The solution?
While they are usually more expensive and we might be biased, private apartments with no shared space are clearly more suitable for students right now. Even sharing an apartment with just one or two other people would be a far more preferable outcome than en masse in halls of residence.
For many people university is as much about the experience as it is the studies and eventual qualifications, and some students might have hesitations about living away from ‘campus life’. To those students we would say this:
Even with social distancing and semi-lockdown regulations, London is a great city. There’s still so much to see and do. We would argue that outbreaks in universities could become regular occurrences, and so students would really be far better off not having to isolate themselves for weeks at a time, and explore London to the best of their abilities, and in smaller groups as is allowed.
…Are you looking for a luxury student apartment?
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