A familiar September ritual was playing out in many towns and cities across the country this weekend.
asserted
ritual → play → country
In family cars, stuffed with overpacked suitcases and various pots and pans, thousands of 18-year-olds, fresh out of school, were turning up at the hallowed halls of university.
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thousands → stuff → university
Excited by the prospect of a stellar education and a newfound sense of independence, they waved their parents off with a teary goodbye.
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they → wave → goodbye
Later in the evening, beers will have been cracked open with new friends and the same questions – ‘Where are you from? What are you studying?’ – repeated in crowded communal kitchens.
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you → crack → kitchens
Elena Acatalinei should have been one of those students, arriving at Exeter University this week after passing her A-levels with flying colours.
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Acatalinei → arrive → colours
Yet instead, Elena is still stuck in her childhood bedroom in rural Wales, as the dream she’d worked so hard for disappears like smoke.
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she → work → smoke
She’s one of hundreds of students who’ve become the victims of a farcical situation in which universities have offered more places to students than they have affordable accommodation for, leaving them without anywhere to live.
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they → ’ → them
So dire is the situation, that some have even turned to homeless charity Shelter for help.
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some → turn → help
Jemima Caine feels robbed of the traditional freshers’ experience, having to find a private rental with a group of second-years after she failed to secure accommodation at Exeter
Elena, who was set to study neuroscience, has spent the past month since results day in an even more stressful situation, scrambling around trying to find digs, without success.
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who → rob → success
In the end, she conceded defeat and was forced to defer her place for a year – with no plans, or job, for the 12 months ahead.
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she → concede → months
Elena’s mother, Eniko, told the Mail: ‘My daughter had worked so hard to have good A-level results, and then everything just fell apart.
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everything → tell → results
She told me it should have been the best day of her life, but it was completely turned around.
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it → tell → life
I know financially they need that amount but if that is the case they need to make sure they have enough accommodation that students can afford.
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students → know → that
Up and down the country, from Bristol and Cardiff to Southampton and Manchester, students have found themselves beset with stress and uncertainty at what should be the most exciting time of their lives.
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what → find → lives
Some Exeter students who decided to stick with their plans have been left with a 90-mile round trip commute to accommodation in Plymouth – the only affordable rooms available.
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who → decide → Plymouth
Likewise in Southampton, a number of students have no choice but to accept digs a 13-mile bus ride away in Winchester.
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number → have → Winchester
Those are the lucky ones: others are racking up hotel bills or resorting to couch surfing.
Students at the University of Southampton have been forced to accept digs in Winchester - a 13-mile bus journey away
There have even been reports of students considering pitching a tent in nearby campsites or sleeping in cars. Some desperate students in Bristol, according to reports, have been referred on to Shelter.
uncertain
students → rack → Shelter
Similarly at Cardiff University, A-level students intending on starting midwifery and radiography courses this month were told on results day they would either have to defer until 2027 or forfeit their place.
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they → intend → place
The students were offered £750, which one sixth-form tutor said was measly compensation for those now having to ‘figure out’ what to do with their lives until next autumn.
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tutor → offer → autumn
The student union at the University of York raised alarm bells in June for incoming students, claiming affordable campus accommodation was ‘completely disappearing’.
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accommodation → raise → students
Its report claimed that only 15 per cent of rooms available to freshers would cost less than £200 a week – a huge decline from 47 per cent last year.
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cent → claim → cent
No wonder many, like Elena, feel they have no choice but to put their plans on ice for a year.
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they → feel → year
Who knows how many will end up giving up for good?
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many → know → ?
So what is going on?
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what → go → ?
One is that universities have been feeling the pinch after a tightening in immigration rules saw the number of lucrative international students attending British institutions fall by ten per cent.
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number → feel → cent
This has left them in a financially precarious position, meaning they’ve been accepting more students with lower grades than ever before.
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they → leave → grades
This year saw a record number of British 18-year-olds (262,820) secure a place at university – a three per cent rise on the previous year.
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number → see → year
It may offer some explanation as to why universities may have been so keen to award more places than they know they could reasonably accommodate.
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they → offer → places
A-level students intending on starting midwifery and radiography courses at Cardiff University were told on results day they would have to defer until 2027 or forfeit their place
‘
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they → intend → place
You have two reasons for accommodation shortages: one is that there are simply not enough beds and the other is there are enough beds, but students simply can’t afford them,’says Blakey.
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Blakey → have → shortages
‘But universities have never let a shortage of accommodation affect their intake.
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shortage → let → intake
I think they do have a responsibility to help secure accommodation for first-year students and when they cannot fulfil that responsibility they should make it very clear to potential students that they cannot house them and it will be difficult to find housing in the city.
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it → think → city
‘You will get a number of students who will sofa-surf and bunk down with mates while they wait a few weeks, but it is a very fraught way of starting your studies, especially as a first-year.
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it → get → year
‘If students cannot find accommodation that is affordable, it is a really bad way of starting your academic career and it is hugely disruptive.
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it → find → career
‘If you defer, it must be really disappointing for the students and universities are really just moving the problem down the line.’
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universities → defer → line
The disruption means many students will not have a ‘traditional’ university experience in their first year, alienated from the bond-forming experience of living in student halls.
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students → mean → halls
Like Elena, Jemima Caine, 18, from the Isle of Man, had also placed Exeter as her first choice, but still failed to secure accommodation so, on results day, along with hundreds of other clearing students, she was forced to join the scramble.
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she → place → scramble
She considers herself one of the lucky ones, finding a private rental costing £800 per month with a group of second-years off-campus.
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herself → consider → campus
But she still feels robbed of the traditional freshers’ experience
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she → rob → experience
She told the Mail: ‘I felt that I could not get excited about university.
uncertain
I → tell → university
…and 43 more, not listed.
The Aporia
