03 February 2016 
Matt Sisson, Projects and Membership Manager
When universities consider their accommodation issues they’re normally thinking about student residences. However there’s an extensive article in the Times Higher this week on the challenge facing universities in providing suitable and affordable local housing for their staff. For those in the areas that the article primarily focuses on – Oxford, Cambridge, and London – this will come as little surprise, but the article highlights the difficult decisions facing potential recruits when weighing up whether or not to take a job offer in desirable cities.
While there are concerns for the ability of universities in those cities to recruit top academics, William James, pro vice-chancellor for planning and resources at Oxford, says that it is early career research staff who are worst affected. “Anxiety about unaffordable rents and the unsuitability of cheap rooms is good neither for them nor for their research”, he comments. The issue extends to support workers such as ‘bus drivers, nurses, and teachers’, as well as students themselves. “London Assembly’s housing committee warned that those from “ordinary families” risk being priced out of the capital, where average weekly student rents reached nearly £160 a week in 2012‑13: a rise of 26 per cent in three years”, the article adds. Ultimately the article fears that the UK could lose out on students and staff to cheaper cities in Europe, the US, and beyond.
With national house prices showing no signs of cooling off, does the local housing market need to become a key strategic issue at more universities?
