Sarah Smith, Jessie’s mother, who works as a PA in Sheffield, said she felt “scared and disgusted” that her daughter lived so far from the university. Manchester has offered £100 a week to cover travel costs but believes this is “missing the point”. She doesn’t want her daughter to be 40 minutes away by train from the city she was enrolled in. “There are all these fantastic activities in freshers’ week. I don’t want him to worry about how he’s going to get home afterwards,” she said. “University is all about meeting people and how can he do that if he’s not even in Manchester?” Smith is not alone. A week ago, Manchester confirmed it still had more than 350 freshers waiting for a place in halls across the city. Last week, after offering £2,500 to anyone within commuting distance who would move into the house, a university spokesman said there were now 75 freshers still waiting for somewhere to live. He added that “prioritizing work for more support” for students like Jessie who live in Liverpool, will link them with a room in Manchester. The university is rushing to complete the renovation of alternative accommodation and says it is “very likely” students will be able to move into the city within months. Jessie Smith with her mother Sarah. He studies at the University of Manchester but lives in Liverpool. Down the road, Manchester Metropolitan University, whose halls are also oversubscribed, has offered £100 a week to first years willing to accept accommodation in Liverpool or Huddersfield. But while the city is popular with students, the University of Manchester is quick to point out that this is not just a local issue. The university told students and parents there had been “unprecedented demand for university accommodation across the UK this year”. Universities have long anticipated the demographic increase in the number of 18-year-olds now underway, but Manchester points out they were unprepared for the pandemic and three years in which far more students achieved the high A-level marks they seek. Pressure from record results last year meant many students deferred their places for this year. New students in cities such as Bristol, Glasgow and Edinburgh report similar agonizing struggles to find somewhere to live. Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute thinktank, said students who find last-minute places through the clearance often miss the boat on university-owned accommodation – but now the problem is extending to those who accept places months in advance. “When I talk to sixth formers, I always say think about your residency as much as your career, as that’s where you meet people and make friends,” she said. He pointed out that students who commute by bus “have a worse experience”, according to research, and are more likely to drop out. “You have to be a pretty resilient student with a strong social network to cope with being housed in a different city,” he said. Dr Helen Spencer, an archaeological glass expert from East Lothian, resorted to a plea on Twitter for a spare room for her 17-year-old daughter Jess, who starts at Strathclyde University in Glasgow next week, after being told it was “close to bottom of a waiting list of over 200” for the rooms. “It’s been a tough few weeks, with a lot of tears,” she said. “After a stressful three years of working so hard to get the grades she needed and looking forward to a fresh start, she is devastated.” Spencer tried to help her daughter find private student housing or an apartment, but with huge competition for a dwindling number of rentals in the city they had no luck. Strathclyde freshers week has already started and this weekend Jess will move into a spare room provided for a few weeks by a ‘friend of a friend’. He doesn’t know where he will live after this. A relative’s flat in Edinburgh is hosting some Glasgow University students. Photo: John Kellerman/Alamy “She’s worried about moving into someone else’s house and not having other students around her, not being able to have the first-year experience of meeting new friends,” Spencer added. A Strathclyde spokesman confirmed that all halls at the university were now full and students would have to consider private options. He said: “We appreciate the frustration created by the exceptional demand for housing this year and the shortage of university and private accommodation across the UK, combined with high demand in the private rented sector in Glasgow.” The University of Glasgow told new students in August that they would not be guaranteed accommodation this year and those living within commuting distance were automatically refused accommodation. The university said this was due to an increase in demand for places combined with a “significant contraction” in Glasgow’s private rental market. Eamon Mcguill, a father from Oldham, said his daughter and two friends have nowhere to live for her first year studying philosophy in Glasgow after the private flat they thought they had secured fell through. The three freshers now plan to sleep on a family member’s floor in Edinburgh for a few weeks and attend university while they continue to search. “Of course everything is worse for her, but as a parent you really worry,” he said. “I have no assurance that she is safe, that she has her own place to go.” Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The annual struggle to secure student lettings is not new, but campaigners and universities say it is getting worse as landlords pull out of the student market and turn to more lucrative Airbnbs and holiday lets. When sociology student Hannah McGill secured her first self-owned student flat in Edinburgh in 2019, it was the result of winning a competition. “There was so much competition – people used to have friends waiting outside the office so they could message them through the display and beat everyone else,” he said. Private landlords are pulling out of the student sector and moving to Airbnb Picture: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian She and her friends intended to stay for their graduate degrees next term. But earlier this year, their landlord suddenly increased the rent by £100 each, forcing them out of the tenancy. Walking past the building a few months later, McGill noticed a key ring next to what had once been her front door. Their student house was now a vacation rental on Airbnb. They had become victims of what campaigners call “silent evictions”, in which landlords force tenants out with unaffordable rent increases so they can turn their properties into holiday rentals. Last month, the University of St Andrews blamed a shortage of rentals for the rise in Airbnbs and advised prospective students to move from Dundee, about an hour away. Elle Glenny, spokeswoman for Scottish tenants’ union Living Rent, said the shortage was “the result of a housing market that prioritizes landlords’ profit over tenants’ need for a home”. “Landlords are raising rents well beyond affordable levels, forcing tenants out of their homes and communities, only to convert would-be homes into more profitable rental accommodation,” added Glennie. At the University of the West of England in Bristol, more than 500 first-year students have been put on a waiting list for university rooms after a “high volume of applications”. Students were offered rooms in Newport, across the border in Wales, with travel expenses. Bristol is another top site for Airbnbs, with hundreds across the city. Professor Steve West, UWE vice-chancellor and chairman of Universities UK, said Bristol was a “popular and vibrant city” with a severe shortage of rental accommodation. He explained that students are suffering from rising rent prices and the “sharp practice of landlords demanding half or a full year’s rent in advance”. The university is building 900 new apartments ready for next year, with more to come. But West said: “Bristol City Council has restricted where planning permission will be granted for student accommodation, which is putting pressure on new builds.” Ben Giles, managing director of the Balloon Letting Company in Bristol, said they have been receiving hundreds of calls every week from “desperate” students since early August. “When we set up a student property now the phone rings immediately and doesn’t stop for about six hours,” he said. “We even put students on properties in Bath.” Usually the student rental market is quiet at the end of September, with everyone focused on starting university and getting settled. But this year is different. Giles said: “I expect students to continue to look for properties in Bristol for the rest of the year.”
