How can universities address the student housing crisis?

At the root of this problem - as with inctreasing homeless numbers, extortionate privater rents, 20+s who can't afford to leave home and start families - is widening wealth inequalities. The wealthy invest in property, and bid up the price of Mayfair penthouses from 15m to 30m, in turn the price of 6 bed houses in St Albans rises from 1m to 2m, and 4 bed houses in Harrow get dragged up from 400k to 800k, and 3 bed semis in Enfleid rise from 250k to 500k. Basically - house price rises trickle down fast from the top 0.1%, but income wealth from them trickles down to the bottom 99.9% much mich slower (if at all). Tw ways to solve this, 1) a maximum Wage, say 10x Min Wage, enforced by 99.9% income tax rates, but this would require complex intetrnational co-ordination, 2) Just Bring back Decent Council Housing. That would set a ceiling on rents and therefore on house prices. The uberwealthy would squeal hard. Let Them.

Some things don't change. I arrived as a mature student with my wife in York in autumn 1969. Could not find accommodation easily - slept in a borrowed car for the first few nights. With help of the President of the Student's Union - he persuaded the Rector of one college to let us use her college apartment (she lived elsewhere) - which had been flooded, carpets uplifted, damp and only a single bed. Admin charged us full rent. We found little help from University authorities and little understanding of married/mature students. That did change later when they realised the change in the student market.

Student housing cooperatives offer one helpful and practical solution for developing good quality accommodation with secure tenancies and social rents. Access to capital is the main issue for expanding this model, but given the value of the assets such co-operatives manage, universities might consider investing 'deposit' capital in such projects in return for appropriate security. This would make leveraging commercial finance possible for the co-operative, and give the university a supply of accommodation that would be attractive to prospective students. The other issue with this model is limited understanding of how it works and hence the possibilities it offers to create good quality student housing at scale, but that can be fixed more easily: see https://www.studenthomes.coop/ for more about this pioneering student housing model.

The UK is short of suitable, affordable, domestic accommodation and has been for more than 20 years. The demand for more student accommodation has only made things worse. Part of the solution is for more young people to go to their local universities and live at home and for fewer young people to go to University and for more in this age group to apply for local apprenticeships and live at home. The pressure could also be lessened by making better use of "excess capacity" in local family homes with more bedrooms than people and by promoting "house swaps". The "house swaps" would come from allowing those households who have "lost" a student who has gone to study in a new location, to accept a new, different student from out of town to occupy their vacated room. A tax free cash incentive / rent could be paid by the "visiting" student for occupancy of the "vacated" room. This could be a win / win for many. Would be empty rooms become filled rooms.

In my university at least, the recent increase in the problem is due to: The enormous increase in home students due to the post covid grade inflation. The University appears to be happy with the new norm and there is no sign of a return to the pre covid intake numbers; The greed of the Unversity for foreign student tuition fees, upwards of £20K a year, and the amount many foreign students can afford to spend luxury accommodation, food from univerisity outlets etc. This will only get worse with the new student visa rules effectively giving permanent residence to anyone with a UK university degree. This was a Government bribe resulting from concern about a future fall in foreign student applications. When there was a suggestion by some MPs that these new rules were a tad generous, universities were out in force supporting them, spouting the usual guff about needing the best brains working in the UK - as if being in the top 40% of your age group makes you indispensible to the future prosperity and quality of life in the UK. I'm afraid universities don't care about the student experience of UK youngsters.

@J_H_B - the Graduate Route does not count towards residency unless it's 10 years long term residency. However, it has been a big incentive which many institutions have benefitted from. That plus the Home Office have restricted dependants only being able to apply if they are already in the UK as a Student dependant, means you have increased demand for accommodation. Nevertheless, there is a wider issue here regardless of nationality as outlined in the first response. The only way that universities won't rely on international fees is to increase the government funding received for UK students. If we don't want universities to over rely on international markets and focus on the UK student experience, it would probably be to the detriment of some of the issues where strike action is being taken at this point in time.

Maybe its time for universities and students to rethink the assumption that housing is part of the university experience and provide further incentives for students to study at universities close to where their existing home. Reserve campus accommodation for students who have no choice but to commute - yes that will include internationals - they are already paying higher fees. Reducing pressure on the private rental market could also help other member of society by increasing availability of rentals, ending student "ghettos" Delaying "flying the nest" for a couple years may be a small price to pay. This pattern works well elsewhere for example Australia