To any students watching this. Always remember you are not a student, you are a customer buying a product. This helps a lot cutting through the shit the unis try on you. 17 years ago I managed to sue derby uni for their piss poor course I’d spent money on. You can do this!
Yup always remember to try and push the onus BACK onto them. When at uni they'll LOVE to try and make it seem like YOU are lucky to be there and it's at their wishes. This isimply not the case.
When they raised the University fees from £3k a year, to £9k. I and other students protested on behalf of future students against it, we could see exactly what was happening, and now we're here. Universitys are now painfully obsolete anbd basically just a money making factory with no care for the people who attend.
Education should be an entitlement like health care. Society directly benefits from a worker accessing as much education as they want to get where they want to be. I hope in the next few years we are the younger lot who start real movements for change focusing on the root issues. I hope by 2048 we have something real to show for our hardwork and not just debt.
This is the real reason why UK was removed from EU. So they could allow themselves the leeway to treat everyone like shit. This is the result of utter lack of maintenance and infrastructure. So seeing as the past decade plus was "tighten our belts, we're all in it together" so why is the answer more Austerity?
students need to understand that if you want to get at the university to resolve your accommodation problems you should go after the student satisfaction surveys for your courses. This measure is major part of university rankings. If you crash the surveys you crash the rankings and will damage the university by pushing them way down the rankings. It’s a very sensitive measure and a small fall in the values pushes them disproportionally down. They fear this more than you not paying rents. They hold all the cards with that one as if you owe them money they won’t allow you to graduate, so if you don’t settle the debt you don’t get a degree. You need to organise a mass “score zero when you rate your course”. This will be unfair to good academics and good courses but it will hurt them considerably and it will also horribly mess up their staff appraisals process.
All of the 3rd years did this on my course a couple of years ago and the program lead actually started crying in the lecture over it. The program droped down a couple of rankings after that.
@@tariqbahoussain1442 maybe just maybe thats why they went to uni? So they can get a good job? Some areas have absolutely shit pay for what they expect of you, now im lucky in the job im in now that i sniped as soon as it appeared but if i were fired id be fucked.
I went to this university and instantly recognised these halls of residence. So gross. Had to work all weekend and some evenings to pay my way through university and it was insanely stressful. Good on these students.
@@BolanleJenny me i love manc i keep coming back here it is a great city , i really love working in the uni , its inspiring and i know things are tough but you gave it a go and that gets my respect ,i hope next time you choose to study again that things are better
@@tomfinney3416 rat infestations are often not to do with the cleanliness of the building, but that there are points of entry for the rats due to the buildings age and/or poor design.
@@makslargu5799 is there no way to get in touch with housing services and ask them to do something ? It is a two way street , we want you to prosper in study and you cannot do that with rats mould etc , we have the crew that cover over 96 buildings , whatever the problem hygiene wise we have very skilled folk to deal with it , I say we , it is a cracking crew , im just a part of it
Education for those who want it should be untouchable by the corporate business world. But like nearly everything, it has not escaped the cold hand of the profit vultures. These students are clearly being ripped off and this is symptomatic of the wider problem, greed.
Problem is, education means people working and education is also allowing you to work in some field... this field may yeld dividends that many people want, so its a circle of greed and impossible to get out in many cases. But it could be better..
Yeah but tbh the posh shits can dwell on their mistakes while the government do what they should be doing and fixing the real renting issue of seriously bad conditioned property given to families with young children most these uni students on strike still probably have a bedroom back at mums and dad's ready and waiting anytime they're just throwing toys out the pram despite having the choice of where to live unlike most in this situation
It's very unfair on the current students. I did uni about 10ish years ago. It was way too expensive but the loan didn't kill me in the end. It's heartbreaking to hear that these kids aren't getting to partake in the key university experiences.
@@BOZ_11 I don’t think the internet is going to give you a degree which is verified by a certified institution. Except the open uni, which is a university. Universities still have their place in society.
@@BOZ_11 with the NHS and the civil service alone, that figure would be inaccurate. Someone with just a secondary school education would fail miserably at many of these jobs.
@@ACRLZ you don't require a degree to be a public servant in back office roles like IT, HR, Payroll, administrative positions, accounts clerks and a whole heap of others. The overwhelming majority of graduates in the private sector especially are working in office jobs that never required a degree. Moreover, most graduates are performing roles that have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with their degree. You must be living on Mars to be so unaware
This doesn’t apply to the children of the wealthy, of course. I lived in Oxford for many years, and I met many students who lived in a house that “Daddy” bought and had ‘done up’ for them.
When I was in university-owned accommodation, they took a hefty deposit. If you left your flat unclean you just didn’t get it back. Unfortunately, for many people it meant that wealthier students just packed and left their crap behind, not caring about the loss, and poorer flatmates had to clean up after them or lose what they could not afford. This is standard practice in the UK. The university should certainly be inspecting between tenancies and cleaning up if need be.
I genuinely got most of my crockery and cookware from students with money who just left them behind because they were so rich they didn’t value it. I would have had to dispose of it as well as all of the other stuff they left behind and cleaning that wasn’t done. Has lasted me 12 years so far.
It's hard enough to get good grades and learn your industry but add having to work all the time you should be studying and don't have a safe clean place to live and study is appalling in this day and age. Students are investments in our future and should be respected and supported
My accom has mold issues, security issues where some people were given master keys, missing banisters on the stairs, windows where the frame is cracked halfway up and they're hanging off, when wiping the window frame in the kitchens it came off in my hand and it turns out its all rotten and only held together by paint. And this is in central London
I lived on-campus at University for several years. Zero care and concern given about living conditions until, several years after me, someone contracted Meningococcal Meningitis while living there and sadly passed away in hospital some time later. The living areas have been vacant for many years since.
uni's dont seem to want to get involved at all with accommodation issues. last year, mushrooms grew out of the interior walls of my accom. there was mould everywhere and insects coming out of the carpets everytime it was disturbed with hoovering. i asked the uni for help on what i should do/who i should speak to because im from the channel islands so didn't know how the system worked here. i had lost 15kg out of stress, my periods stopped, i was fainting constantly and unable to eat. i contacted the university to ask for advice and was directed to their advice team. the university's support advisor suggested that all my issues were due to diet and suggested i had an eating disorder, which was untrue. they literally don't care about their students
It's been this way for at least a decade. When I was at University, just over a decade ago, it was impossible to live on the student loans. The halls of residence were, per year, more than the amount in student loans. The loans didn't even cover the cost to live and study. Yet the University highly discouraged students from working more than 8 hours a week. They said those who did suffered in their overall grade, but the reality was if you wanted to eat food, you HAD to work. This was 10 years ago.
@@IAmDevtube when, though? Did you get any help from your parents? I managed in my own way but my friends/colleagues at university were stuffed. As I mentioned, the university themselves were suggesting no more then 8 hours a week, otherwise your studies suffered (which they had data to show). Yet, as mentioned, rent for the halls was £100 more per semester than we received in loans/grants. So you were £100 down before you even started. The students were right. Universities are more a for-profit venture. They have lowered the requirements for entry into most courses to get feet through the doors because they know 1/3 will drop out before their third year, but they get their tuition fees regardless. I don't see how kids can go to university these days without help from parents. If you're a mature student, without savings, you're knackered.
@@MattBooth absolutely zero help from parents, they were not in a position to help (if anything it was the other way around, even as a dirt poor student!). I worked my ass off in the holidays and didn't get to go to backpacking in Bali for 3 months, as so many seem to. I was initially raised in Africa where there is zero 'help' from government and you're expected to carry as much as you can from an early age. If you don't work you don't eat, no matter how much you complain. Despite these "tyrannical" restrictions, everyone was much happier than those I've encountered in the first world. Nothing makes a man happier than achieving his days work and providing for himself and his family. I can also tell you, unequivocally, that my classmates from Africa are all relatively successful now - in stark contrast to my A-level classmates in the UK (speaking generally). There is a level of entitlement in the UK that absolutely boggles the mind. I don't think you can really know this until you've lived abroad where there is no safety net, aside from family and friends. Just to be clear: I'm not sh*tting on the British but simply saying that a culture of "gimme that for free" erodes the willingness to work for what you want.
@@IAmDevtube it's not for free, though. Students here spend 20 years repaying those loans and since you are economically successful, you're a boon to the state as you generate tax revenue. You may have misread me, too. I didn't say it, but I hinted that university should have harder entry requirements so that students are overall more successful when they do attend. They're not asking for something for nothing here, they're asking for a rent freeze and for the facilities to be maintained. Personally, I think a student who's worked hard at their A-levels to get into University should be given the opportunity to put all their efforts into their university work and not have to maintain a part-time job.
@@MattBooth I totally agree that if you've paid for something then you have a right to it as contracted. Students always have the option for a small claims court case - all it takes is a copy of their contract, a few notes and photos of conditions and they'll easily get a judgement. The uni won't even waste time defending it. In terms of your state getting more tax revenue - the state should not be involved in our personal lives and choices. If you earn more income after uni then you'll make the logical choice yourself - you don't need the state to 'help' you make it.
@@Jay_Johnson they still pay plenty of tax, import tax that raises the prices of goods in general, taxes on legal recreational drugs like alcohol and ciggys, taxes on their cars, road tax etc which all goes to the gov and by relation the council.
Trust me as a student, private accommodation can be even worse. My flat had mould for months and they have offered no solutions or fixes. Many broken parts and stuff with no solution. Also my uni accomodation was around 6-7 grand a year.
@@eh1702 I know. I’m just saying it gets worse later on if you rent from landlords or companies. My current flat is significantly worse than that accommodation shown and is more expensive. I’m a student also…
Reminds me of 1960s sit-ins in the US colleges and universities. The students protested against issues like housing and other expenses and the lack of democracy within the university systems. It was not only all about anti - Viet Nam war and the environment.
I had to drop out of college due to the state of the dorms. Thankfully I qualified for a full bursary so I didn't pay but granted if I did, they were going to charge £7,700 a year. This place... often had no heating or hot water. What i mean is that the pipes are apparently made of chocolate and would break like every other week, there was also no ability to do laundry on site, they had machines, they just didn't work. There was mold all over the walls and the place was literally falling apart in places. Oh yeah and when I first went there I had no chair, I had to pester them for one, and the one they gave me broke the first time I sat on it (I only weigh 50kg btw so I'm not fat), so I had to get another one that was still basically falling apart. oh yeah and the fire alarm system was extremely sensitive and semi-broken, like, tripping it once could break the system and make it not turn off or make it start going off like every hour. I put up with this for about 4 months before calling it quits. £7,700 a year...
Never forget the LibDems voted to raise fees from 3k to 9k right after campaigning to abolish fees. The moment they had their feet under the Cabinet table.
Tony Blair introduced this ridiculous American style system, absolutely loath him for it. I loath all the Tory PM’s for then increasing this outrageous fees and below par standards. The accommodation, I’m still furious. I had flat right next door to my lecture halls, had great flatmates who I dearly miss. However, accommodation was substandard, cold and clinical despite being the top tier. The other places in and around campus were gross. The better rooms 30mins away with en suite bathroom was astronomical, downside was a completely open building with shared kitchen, gross. Education no matter what age, should be free at point of use which is why we need a National Education Service. People are better of working an apprenticeship or normal job. Wish I never went to uni, in debt and a worthless degree which employers ignore anyway. My degree was worthless and out of date in my first month, only a couple of modules were relevant to what I wanted to do. I learned more in my job working in various shops in and around my local city which led to jobs in testing and developing.
Don't the universities realise that that these student or "customers" are tomorrows wealth and leaders, I'd like to remind them of the 60's Bob Dylan song "The times are a changing" especially one particular line "the first one now will later be last". Remember what goes around comes around and some day the university management will be sitting on the other side of the fence, and be in some way reliant on these students or "customers".
Honestly its you either leave home and have no money to actually experience the university life you went for, or you have to stay at home and completely miss out on a "university" experience. Either way you're losing
Everyone has a right to an education. However most of these uni degrees are pointless it's just the qualification you need so you don't get ditched by employers
My accommodation in 1st year on campus was £156. pw (I was allocated this). This was the third cheapest in 2020 and had a horrible experience. Now in my third year I pay £7200 Per year for a room in a student house riddled with mould and our student agency hasn't done a single thing (Worse than shown in this). Next year the rent is going up to £9800 per year, thankfully I am finishing but that is even more than the Maximum student loan yet the average cost of houses for 23/24 where I am based. Working 4 days a week (25 hours) just to get by at uni is insane and my grades and mental health have 100% been affected by this overall. It's criminal that we are paying 9k a year for this.
Contact Environmental health, email your concerns evey week, every other day if you have to. Go to the housing ombudsman, make sure your medical records are updated with what is exacerbating your stress
My university accommodation in 1978 was £14 - which seemed like a fortune. But it was heated and free of vermin and mould as well as serviced weekly. We also occupied university areas but because of ethical mismanagement from what was relatively an ethical university. As someone raised in Manchester, I think Manchester University should also try to be more understanding of students and values.
Considering they're away from home without parents/guardians to look after the place, surely they shouldn't be treated like this. I wasn't in the right position to go to University, but for those that can, should be treated better, so they can eventually contribute to society. The person turning off the heating, was not contributing to society.
I used to work for a company that installed the plumbing and heating into new-build student accommodation blocks across the midlands. One job was in Nottingham which had 139 Flats. The boilers which were in the kitchens had a manufacturers fault and I had to go round all the flats two months after they were occupied and change a part in the boiler. Of those 139 kitchens I went in there was one I might have risked having a sandwich in. The rest were like a scene from "The Young Ones". There was a job in Birmingham which we did. Exactly the same - except they also had rats after 3 months. The students though it was great fun to fire off all the fire extinguishers - until they all lost their deposits.
several things are wrong with the university’s statement: •44 students have told credit control, others have been instructed to ignore calls and emails from them - 44 is not an accurate figure for strikers •complaints about accommodation are not dealt with “immediately” as demonstrated in Sophie’s flats •there has been a safe fire exit out of every occupation, that has been made clear by occupiers, and occupations are disruptive by definition so calling them so as a negative thing is meaningless
I love how the university also revealed that they seen university as a service provider calling the strikes disruptive to service provision. Disgusting that they see education as a fir profit enterprise rather than a right
I remember in 1985 having to clean my Uni owned flat from top to bottom as it was so grubby and inhospitable. The mouldy shower curtain in a heap in the bottom corner of the shower showed how much they cared even back then!
So nothings changed then. When I was an undergraduate way back at Exeter University in the late 1980s, the houses were health hazards, fungus, woodlice, mice and people even get electrocuted from the fridges. The landlord was a lecturer (from the Music department) and I remember him joking about the mice peeking up over the fridge. We were not treated in anyway like customers.
MESSAGE TO ALL STUDENTS ! IT DOESN’T GET ANY BETTER ONCE YOU FINISH YOUR EDUCATION. YOU ARE THEN IN SO MUCH DEPT THE SYTEM OWNS YOUR ASS FOREVER. Ps see how it’s ok for the university to complain, but you guys & gals can’t.
Not really, at least not in europe. UK is probably the worst in terms of student debt terms in the whole Europe and yet still you practically pay nothing until you can afford to pay very little - but yeah for your entire life. For mainland Europe, countries like the Netherlands, Germany or Poland - Uni is either fully free or practically free, and the debt you take to cover cost of living is also negligent and reimbursed in a major part by the government.
This is exactly what began around the late 90s. They make it nearly impossible for normal people with low to medium incomes to attend university and will complain of a skills shortage. What a load of rubbish. My advice: don't bother wasting your time and money on education in the UK. Move to another country and leave the rest to fester and waste away. The system is fundamentally rotten.
Privatisation only benefits the few while causing significant disadvantage to the majority of people who are seeking to improve their lot in life. One must care for the ground and the roots if the forest is to is to flourish.
This has a major impact on the uni's bottomline, by forcing their students to pay more, they won't be able to pay for the things that encourage potential applicants to apply - such as nightlife and student societies. I support the strikes. viva la revolution
persons that have mold are in 90% of time,the ones to blame for it.... allmost everytime I see mold at my customers, it is their fault..... they cook,they dry their clothes and not have any fresh air inside... every appartment that does not have modern ventilations should be aired out at least 1 time per day for 5 or 10 minutes....and have windows cracked open when cooking drying or washing your clothes... even more so in the winter if your building is old and does not have insulation... walls get cold and steam/humidity than condense on cold walls,wich is great for mold to grow edit: and to be fair I am not an expert on rats, but AFAIK rats are where there is food for them...people leaving their food scraps all around the counters ,not taking out trash, etc are the ones that make rats love this place.... some basic higiene is needed to be learned by some of the residents...
I don’t know the last time you went to a University accommodation but alot of the ones nowadays have absolutely poor ventilation in the rooms and kitchens, most have those crooked openings windows (to prevent people jumping unfortunately) which means that there is very little ventilation in rooms, these rooms get awfully stuffy during summer and there is really not much that students can do about it, the rooms are outdated and designed poorly
This report is really missing quite a lot of detail that would help to understand this situation objectively. - How much are students paying now vs. before? (one student says it's "gone up to 450", but what was it before?) - What is and is not included in accommodation rents? (e.g. cleaning service) - Does the student accommodation bathroom have a working ventilator? Is it being used regularly? - Have the students seen a rat? (or are the traps perhaps working?) - How long have the traps been down? (temporary or permanent measure?) - What comment does the University have about the mould and rat complaints? Context matters. For example, if the students are contractually expected to keep the property clean, then one of those many vodka bottles could instead have been spent on mould cleaner and rubber gloves - *poof* the mould situation is tackled and no more worries about what you might be breathing in. But if there is a broken or lack of ventilation in humid areas, it's on the landlord to address it as the mould will only come back. The report doesn't dig at all into this and just takes everything at face value. I'm sympathetic that the rents seem to have increased by a lot, but it's hard to fully sympathise when the report is so lacking in journalistic insight. Joe is usually better than this.
i can help out with some of this! 1. he said it’s gone up by 450 for his specific halls, and it’s gone up on average by 100% since most of the students were born. 2. cleaning is included 3. the bathrooms have no windows, and in terms of ventilation there are extremely low quality fans which turn on with the light. clearly they don’t work 4. there have been numerous rat sightings by numerous students, and when reported have been ‘resolved’ with some lousy traps which have been unsuccessful 5. these are temporary measures which don’t work and are never escalated beyond when they do nothing 6. the uni has stated that they respond to every report until it’s resolved however students disagree with this as many of the problems have not been resolved. while they are expected to keep areas tidy, students are not expected to clean any shared areas as a cleaning service is included. mould is definitely not something that students should be/ are even capable of dealing with themselves. unfortunately some students haven’t had their issues sorted and have felt they had to resort to buying expensive products to tackle the mould themselves because the uni’s negligence has lead to ongoing illness. hope this helps
they have to work to simply pay their rent, it is perfectly reasonable that every now and again they may want to have a drink. cleaning product isn't an issue for most of these people, the huge rent increase and poor quality of accommodation is the problem as it adds to the stress of simply living when this is supposed to be one of the highlights of their young lives.
@@tomdh8394 It's household income not a single household member. She could come from a mullti-generational household with 2 or 3 working members. 20-30K is below the national average. If she has 3 or 4 siblings still living at home. 60k household income isn't going to go far. One of my friends who is at uni has a multigenerational household of 2 grandparents, 1 working parent and 3 working age siblings. Thankfully that 1 working parent is very well off so they are fine but it is not uncommon.
I think they need to end the (rather elitist) expectation that everyone will go to uni - it is over-stretching the system. We know in advance how many people with various degrees we need. There should be a broad scholarship program that allows the best people to go to uni and very likely 70% of people should not be going to uni strainght out of school - they should be going into work and learning a trade with the option to go back to uni later if their job would benefit from them getting more skills. I would also suggest that government support for apprenticeships should be significantly increased. Our current system has far too many young people quite thoroughly wasting the best years of their lives doing pointless and expensive degrees.
It's when the kids with the rich parents or ex rich parents or ones who have less liquid income get lower maintenance grants that a lot realise how life is and then they're also segregated from the other people in the top accommodation costing over £6000. Like with the person here getting £1500 means either she didn't give the details or her mother has a lot of money because it can go up to £10,000. She's probably in some of the cheapest accommodation in the country, and a lot of city universities just don't go that low at all.
Seconded there, I lived in a practically condemned end-terrace student house in my 2nd year, it was practically falling apart; plaster dropping of the walls, the old kitchen extension had been boarded up as it had such a bad damp problem and we had to do all cooking and eating in the downstairs back room. As far as I know it was demolished and the land brought by the neighbours for a larger garden. Rent was about £50 a week in 1990, equating to about £145 in 2023 money.
Im living in student accomodation. My university dosent have halls so im paying a reduced rate of £230 a week one room in private student accomodation. during the winter the boiler broke and it took 8 days for the management to call out someone to fix it, and there was no drop in rent or renumeration for it. thats only one of the countless issues we've had (including maintenence people letting themselves into rooms unnannounced and without any forewarning)
Legally they have to do something about that boiler within 24 hours I believe - keep every text message, get every thing writing, get the exact dates of complaints and actions. Go to citizens advice and see if you can get legal aid and sue them for your rent back.
Well i dodged a bullet, a few years ago i wanted to study at a manchester uni but they doubled my requirements just weeks before exams due to sudden high demand, im glad they fucked me over now.
Universities would rather have foreign students who have money, they pay more than British students. That is why we have very few British doctors, lawyers etc in training. Halls or Residence at Liverpool Uni are £7,000.00 per year.
Having a similar situation here at Aston University and Unite Students, the lift has been broken for 3 months, I am unable to walk due to some injuries and Aston and Unite have ignored all my complaints and pleas for some assistance/help, furthermore, on 4 different occasions in 2023 we had been left with absolutely no water and flush, it was absolutely vile and unhygienic and after each time not once did they bother to update us or issue any form of communication or apology, there are rats and mould everywhere which Unite simply dont care about. Aston University hasn’t even bothered to intervene and help us but instead they send their automated emails claiming to have mental health services available despite them not actually listening to our concerns, its an absolute joke and a huge disappointment because most of us have enjoyed other aspects of the University experience including many of the lectures, even then in 2023 most of them have been cancelled due to strikes. It’s come to a point where you have to ask whether we are getting our money’s worth at all.
I'm currently a student and I've also worked as summer cleaner cleaning student housings and flats, it's almost always the students fault, they live at home with modern parents and have no skills or patience or tolerance to clean after themselves, I can tell you from that whiteboard in the student kitchen that they're not the kind of students to clean and only cleaned for the cameras lmao.. also that mould in the bathroom is because it has no extractor fan and you could literally wipe it down with a throw away cloth and some bleach in 5 seconds, cost like £3-5. Students have zero living standards and zero living skills and this is why halls get like this, I'm not complaining though because it's such a shit job cleaning up after these kind of students they offer £15/hr to clean up after them, it's easy summer money everytime :)
That’s what I’ll do for sure. By the time I go to uni, I’ll have had two years’ experience cleaning a professional kitchen so hopefully people think I’m capable.
Welcome to Manchester.. All the Residents flats are moldy in the middle to low income brackets because they like the Students flats were thrown up with no real care what so ever. You can see they weren't meant to last and not much thought was put into design and how it worked. Honestly they were hoping for a big boom in University because the amount of pubs and clubs with flats they threw up was insane. I'd say skip University no one can really afford it unless they're funded by mum and dad. Just go Ibizia for a month and that's what University is like to be honest. Majority of your work won't be ready the teachers are never prepared everything is outdated anyway. apprenticeships should be the way to learn and teach in my opinion in small groups learning from someone who actually does the job you want to get into
It's surprising given the £9k a year turns them into businesses trying to make money. You can understand doing things like not given lecturers a permanent job to cut costs as the customer wont see it, but to offer substandard accommodation which will be noticed, makes little sense. The university is likely using the £1bn for future buildings and such large purchases rather than borrowing. They're not in dome southern university buildings, which was first planned in 2016. As part of a master plan to bring all the building into one are, likely those in Oxford road.
I am not a student. I booked LSE student accommodation for 1 night, it was in Roseberry Ave London, I was meant to have 43 million makeover, 1 night was enough. Personally, I thought it was a dump. Definitely got a rodent problem, and the bathroom and toilets shocked 😲
Students need to get outside businesses to pressure to them. Stop going to pubs and other venues citing the inability to afford them and they will need to push University to find a resolution.
I have alot of sympathy for students, but tbf - if you're living in accommodation, you're also responsible for general cleanliness just as much as the landlord. If your kitchen is a complete tip, it's going to attract rats. If you dont clean or ventilate areas regularly, you're going to get mould. Work together with the landlords and universities, not against them/expecting them to solve the problems for you.
Woah hold on there buddy! Everything is everyone else's fault. Don't tell me I can reduce the likelihood of rats by cleaning my own kitchen like an adult, how dare you.
I lived in those halls in 2008. They clearly have done NO maintenance on those already horrible little boxes. The university is absolutely responsible for maintaining the student properties and black mould is a result of poor building design.
That bathroom, is an internal room, adequate ventilation is a requirement by law for internal bathrooms, the ventilation that is provided is 100% the responsibility of the landlord to maintain. However these halls were built in the 60's & have had very little upkeep/upgrade since then.
Didn’t go to university myself, but the taps in the bathroom were what were in the school bathrooms of the school I used to go to around 30 years ago. Does that hint to how up to date that bathroom possibly is?
@@louise2209 built in the 60s with minimal upkeep since. Oak House is a notoriously bad place, in terms of the quality of the housing, but it's the centre of student life in Fallowfield, all the major student nights start in Oak Bar/Squirrels & it used to be pretty cheap to live in so no-one really complained...
I dropped out of my masters at Manchester this year due to not being able to afford the costs without a job (unfortunately my workplace shut down 2 days before all of my deadlines) and the disability services are entirely useless. Having graduated from another Russell Group uni last year, I was beyond unimpressed by Manchester as an institution. I didn’t give my previous uni the credit it deserved for how student led their policy making really is. We had a similar occupation in our student union a few years ago and all demands were met. Manchester felt corporate from the start. Solidarity with every student here ✊
How the fk can anyone hope to go to university these days with that level of expense and debt if you're not rich ... I went uni almost 20 yrs ago, fees were 1500 a year, loans and working 12-16 hrs a week was plenty to live on, and easy to slot working in between lectures and reading/writing
That halls at 4mins looks like the halls I was in on Owens Park 20 years ago, still the same decor, and it was grim then. Really feel for you lot there now, that's absolutely vile. NB: always wait til the end before commenting 😂 the halls are privately owned now... No wonder they're in such vile condition
Do you already live in a HMO? If not, you have that choice - and you can often find rent even cheaper than that. Not comparable to renting a flat or a house, obviously, and the money earned from HMOs is usually higher than standard rentals (so there is often a cap on how many are allowed to be used for this purpose).
@@gdwe1831 ohhh, sorry. It’s a real problem for you all at the moment! Society as a whole is struggling. I hope things get easier for you students and that it doesn’t impact your performance too much!
I’ve experienced this in a smaller scale having lived in two house shares (never again moving into one) people can be disgusting in their habits, 0 sympathy for the living conditions, the prices however are a joke.
My partner is incredibely well put together but even her as a student living with other students isn't able to keep the shared space clean. It takes one inorderly person to ruin it on a daily basis for everyone else. Living with people who you're forced to live with is very different to living with people you want to live with. Add to that the sorry state of the place by itself, and the fact that they have to study AND work overtime, and it is unfeasable to ask for a well-run household.
UoM i think took on too many , Manchesters housing stock couldnt cover all , We have some who turned up from China and India who had no place to call home whilst here ,,,,, so the issue isnt only accomodation but lack of it even , Not an easy situation , and obviosly the university is trying but the students are saying not enough , What more can be done as a solution to a problem is something we all want
All unis are doing this. the more students they take the more sacks of ~£15k per year they get factoring in accommodation and tuition. Here at York they ran out of accommodation so were bussing 1st years over from hull every day. (1h bus by the way) If I had been put in Hull in my first year I would have immediately dropped out and applied again.
@@Jay_Johnson that’s mad! I went to York and lived on campus in very basic accommodation and they were building loads of new accommodation too. How can they justify this?
@@Jay_Johnson J nox and Jay thankyou for taking time to reply ,here in Manchester students are getting housed in merseyside so it seems very similar to whats happening in york , I hope the universities stop over enrolling ,as this is the root of the problem of students lacking accomodation peeferably near the education centre they want to access
I do not blame them if they’re not going to pay rent or not, and they live in like that where there’s rat in Moulden. God knows what’s going on in that building. Why should I pay rent look what they live in and it’s disgusting
Fuck, if I was their age, I would just Open University route and live at home, I ain't sacrificing living in a shithole flat, and stressing over mould and still be short on the rent.
Hate to be guy but literally university means one of two things your parents bought your spoilt ass a place on a course which will be equivalent to nothing in the real world or basically you're stupidly chucking grands on a pointless degree that'll probably account to nothing in the end when you're overqualified for a mass of jobs and there's nothing going for that one job you wasted so much time on
Hall conditions are usually due to the habits of the students. I know this because I was a residential tutor at Manchester. I watched over multiple halls throughout the year and the kitchen you see at the start was actually a very clean kitchen, compared to most. In reality you cannot believe the amount of food (especially pizza crust) that gets left on the floor so rats are not a surprise. As for mould, that may be the unis fault if there is inadequate ventilation in the bathrooms, but don't know for sure. If there's mould in the bedrooms all they need to do is crack a window (heating's always on and free FYI). Also, student cleaning never happens and halls always stink. Communal areas are treated like the trash cans. By the way there is a cleaning team but that's once a week and if you feel sorry for anyone - feel sorry for them! They have to deal with the filth!
@dondoodat Home with your parents should be where you learn life skills like cleaning. Once you move out of that environment it's up to you to figure it out. I couldn't afford to go to uni but I left home at 18 and moved 200 miles to London and had to figure out what I didn't already know for myself. No point going off to university to study stuff like medicine or physics if you can't work out how to use a mop. I certainly wouldn't want to be paying £10,000 a year in tuition fees to be taught how to clean a toilet. Most people who clean toilets for a living don't need a degree in chemistry to use a bottle of Domestos.
Silverfish depends it can be the people living there however espcially in multiple unit accomodation it can be an infestation same with rats, that is no one's fault. Mould in the bathroom is a design flaw with the building. Rent being higher than student loan is not the fault of the students. All of these issues are the responsibility of the person who owns the building to solve.
@dondoodat if someone wants to pay my to tell them how to clean a bathroom I'd happily take their money. When you go to a university you're paying for education and how would you feel if rather than getting 5 days a week of your chosen subject you only spent 4 days doing that and were forced to spend one day a week being told how to clean your bathroom. At £10,000 a year in tuition fees I make that £2000 a year to be taught basic life skills. Give me 30 students paying me that and I'd make more than my current salary
@dondoodat It might not but if you're paying to be there would you want any part of your money to go towards someone teaching you how to do the things uneducated people do for a living or would you rather focus on your subject. If you're saying the university should provide something extra then there's going to be a cost to the university for that and that cost is ultimately going to be paid for by the students. All those people who can't afford to go to university some how magically learn to clean their own houses. I wonder how they cope without having an expensive university show them.
To any students watching this. Always remember you are not a student, you are a customer buying a product. This helps a lot cutting through the shit the unis try on you. 17 years ago I managed to sue derby uni for their piss poor course I’d spent money on. You can do this!
Yup always remember to try and push the onus BACK onto them. When at uni they'll LOVE to try and make it seem like YOU are lucky to be there and it's at their wishes. This isimply not the case.
To any student reading this. Get out dude it's a scam.
Well you did it apply to “Derby Uni”
Well you'll be happy to know derby still haven't changed their shitty, money grabbing ways - Alumni at Derby.
If you don’t pay clear off and go to open university, total scroungers
When they raised the University fees from £3k a year, to £9k. I and other students protested on behalf of future students against it, we could see exactly what was happening, and now we're here. Universitys are now painfully obsolete anbd basically just a money making factory with no care for the people who attend.
Education should be an entitlement like health care.
Society directly benefits from a worker accessing as much education as they want to get where they want to be.
I hope in the next few years we are the younger lot who start real movements for change focusing on the root issues. I hope by 2048 we have something real to show for our hardwork and not just debt.
I would say they're obsolete, except you need a degree to be considered for even entry-level jobs.
*universities
Never forget that this hike was not just the Tories, it was the LibDems too - who had actually campaigned on abolishing fees.
@@eh1702 Debatable as they barely held any real weight.
This is the real reason why UK was removed from EU. So they could allow themselves the leeway to treat everyone like shit. This is the result of utter lack of maintenance and infrastructure. So seeing as the past decade plus was "tighten our belts, we're all in it together" so why is the answer more Austerity?
The UK wasn't removed from the EU they left.
students need to understand that if you want to get at the university to resolve your accommodation problems you should go after the student satisfaction surveys for your courses. This measure is major part of university rankings. If you crash the surveys you crash the rankings and will damage the university by pushing them way down the rankings. It’s a very sensitive measure and a small fall in the values pushes them disproportionally down. They fear this more than you not paying rents. They hold all the cards with that one as if you owe them money they won’t allow you to graduate, so if you don’t settle the debt you don’t get a degree. You need to organise a mass “score zero when you rate your course”. This will be unfair to good academics and good courses but it will hurt them considerably and it will also horribly mess up their staff appraisals process.
smart
I approve of this protest method
Or go find a job
All of the 3rd years did this on my course a couple of years ago and the program lead actually started crying in the lecture over it. The program droped down a couple of rankings after that.
@@tariqbahoussain1442 maybe just maybe thats why they went to uni? So they can get a good job? Some areas have absolutely shit pay for what they expect of you, now im lucky in the job im in now that i sniped as soon as it appeared but if i were fired id be fucked.
I went to this university and instantly recognised these halls of residence. So gross. Had to work all weekend and some evenings to pay my way through university and it was insanely stressful. Good on these students.
im surprised it got to that state Erin as we have a very big cleaning crew on campus and most of them are really good at their job of cleaning
Same. I hated it there and ended up dropping out
@@BolanleJenny me i love manc i keep coming back here it is a great city , i really love working in the uni , its inspiring and i know things are tough but you gave it a go and that gets my respect ,i hope next time you choose to study again that things are better
@@tomfinney3416 rat infestations are often not to do with the cleanliness of the building, but that there are points of entry for the rats due to the buildings age and/or poor design.
@@makslargu5799 is there no way to get in touch with housing services and ask them to do something ?
It is a two way street , we want you to prosper in study and you cannot do that with rats mould etc , we have the crew that cover over 96 buildings , whatever the problem hygiene wise we have very skilled folk to deal with it ,
I say we , it is a cracking crew , im just a part of it
Education for those who want it should be untouchable by the corporate business world. But like nearly everything, it has not escaped the cold hand of the profit vultures. These students are clearly being ripped off and this is symptomatic of the wider problem, greed.
Hear fucking hear.
Problem is, education means people working and education is also allowing you to work in some field... this field may yeld dividends that many people want, so its a circle of greed and impossible to get out in many cases. But it could be better..
Gotta love a good rent strike. Especially for sub par housing. That bathroom need an extractor.
Mold can be a serious health hazard - that needs sorting straight away.
Yeah but tbh the posh shits can dwell on their mistakes while the government do what they should be doing and fixing the real renting issue of seriously bad conditioned property given to families with young children most these uni students on strike still probably have a bedroom back at mums and dad's ready and waiting anytime they're just throwing toys out the pram despite having the choice of where to live unlike most in this situation
It's very unfair on the current students. I did uni about 10ish years ago. It was way too expensive but the loan didn't kill me in the end.
It's heartbreaking to hear that these kids aren't getting to partake in the key university experiences.
for most people, uni is redundant now, thanks to the internet
@@BOZ_11 I don’t think the internet is going to give you a degree which is verified by a certified institution. Except the open uni, which is a university. Universities still have their place in society.
@@ACRLZ degrees are unnecessary for 90% of job roles in the economy, and completely unnecessary for registering a business
@@BOZ_11 with the NHS and the civil service alone, that figure would be inaccurate. Someone with just a secondary school education would fail miserably at many of these jobs.
@@ACRLZ you don't require a degree to be a public servant in back office roles like IT, HR, Payroll, administrative positions, accounts clerks and a whole heap of others. The overwhelming majority of graduates in the private sector especially are working in office jobs that never required a degree. Moreover, most graduates are performing roles that have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with their degree. You must be living on Mars to be so unaware
This doesn’t apply to the children of the wealthy, of course. I lived in Oxford for many years, and I met many students who lived in a house that “Daddy” bought and had ‘done up’ for them.
When I was in university-owned accommodation, they took a hefty deposit. If you left your flat unclean you just didn’t get it back. Unfortunately, for many people it meant that wealthier students just packed and left their crap behind, not caring about the loss, and poorer flatmates had to clean up after them or lose what they could not afford. This is standard practice in the UK. The university should certainly be inspecting between tenancies and cleaning up if need be.
I genuinely got most of my crockery and cookware from students with money who just left them behind because they were so rich they didn’t value it. I would have had to dispose of it as well as all of the other stuff they left behind and cleaning that wasn’t done. Has lasted me 12 years so far.
Solidarity. Same thing here in Durham. I admire these students and hope Durham students can see the example being set.
Isn’t there a serious shortage of accommodation in Durham?
@@seankilburn7200 Yeah it's awful and rent has skyrocketed.
@@WilliamAhlert Best of luck anyway
It's hard enough to get good grades and learn your industry but add having to work all the time you should be studying and don't have a safe clean place to live and study is appalling in this day and age. Students are investments in our future and should be respected and supported
My accom has mold issues, security issues where some people were given master keys, missing banisters on the stairs, windows where the frame is cracked halfway up and they're hanging off, when wiping the window frame in the kitchens it came off in my hand and it turns out its all rotten and only held together by paint. And this is in central London
Power to the students of Manchester uni. Full solidarity and power to you lot. More students should be standing up for their rights and basic needs.
I lived on-campus at University for several years. Zero care and concern given about living conditions until, several years after me, someone contracted Meningococcal Meningitis while living there and sadly passed away in hospital some time later. The living areas have been vacant for many years since.
uni's dont seem to want to get involved at all with accommodation issues. last year, mushrooms grew out of the interior walls of my accom. there was mould everywhere and insects coming out of the carpets everytime it was disturbed with hoovering. i asked the uni for help on what i should do/who i should speak to because im from the channel islands so didn't know how the system worked here. i had lost 15kg out of stress, my periods stopped, i was fainting constantly and unable to eat. i contacted the university to ask for advice and was directed to their advice team. the university's support advisor suggested that all my issues were due to diet and suggested i had an eating disorder, which was untrue. they literally don't care about their students
Which university did you attend?
It's been this way for at least a decade. When I was at University, just over a decade ago, it was impossible to live on the student loans. The halls of residence were, per year, more than the amount in student loans. The loans didn't even cover the cost to live and study.
Yet the University highly discouraged students from working more than 8 hours a week. They said those who did suffered in their overall grade, but the reality was if you wanted to eat food, you HAD to work.
This was 10 years ago.
I worked every holiday and managed quite easily. Perhaps teaching students to work hard is a good idea?
@@IAmDevtube when, though? Did you get any help from your parents?
I managed in my own way but my friends/colleagues at university were stuffed.
As I mentioned, the university themselves were suggesting no more then 8 hours a week, otherwise your studies suffered (which they had data to show).
Yet, as mentioned, rent for the halls was £100 more per semester than we received in loans/grants. So you were £100 down before you even started.
The students were right. Universities are more a for-profit venture. They have lowered the requirements for entry into most courses to get feet through the doors because they know 1/3 will drop out before their third year, but they get their tuition fees regardless.
I don't see how kids can go to university these days without help from parents. If you're a mature student, without savings, you're knackered.
@@MattBooth absolutely zero help from parents, they were not in a position to help (if anything it was the other way around, even as a dirt poor student!).
I worked my ass off in the holidays and didn't get to go to backpacking in Bali for 3 months, as so many seem to.
I was initially raised in Africa where there is zero 'help' from government and you're expected to carry as much as you can from an early age. If you don't work you don't eat, no matter how much you complain.
Despite these "tyrannical" restrictions, everyone was much happier than those I've encountered in the first world. Nothing makes a man happier than achieving his days work and providing for himself and his family.
I can also tell you, unequivocally, that my classmates from Africa are all relatively successful now - in stark contrast to my A-level classmates in the UK (speaking generally).
There is a level of entitlement in the UK that absolutely boggles the mind. I don't think you can really know this until you've lived abroad where there is no safety net, aside from family and friends.
Just to be clear: I'm not sh*tting on the British but simply saying that a culture of "gimme that for free" erodes the willingness to work for what you want.
@@IAmDevtube it's not for free, though. Students here spend 20 years repaying those loans and since you are economically successful, you're a boon to the state as you generate tax revenue.
You may have misread me, too. I didn't say it, but I hinted that university should have harder entry requirements so that students are overall more successful when they do attend.
They're not asking for something for nothing here, they're asking for a rent freeze and for the facilities to be maintained.
Personally, I think a student who's worked hard at their A-levels to get into University should be given the opportunity to put all their efforts into their university work and not have to maintain a part-time job.
@@MattBooth I totally agree that if you've paid for something then you have a right to it as contracted.
Students always have the option for a small claims court case - all it takes is a copy of their contract, a few notes and photos of conditions and they'll easily get a judgement. The uni won't even waste time defending it.
In terms of your state getting more tax revenue - the state should not be involved in our personal lives and choices. If you earn more income after uni then you'll make the logical choice yourself - you don't need the state to 'help' you make it.
Good on the students, keep going
Dodgy landlords, that's what they are. Why isn't the council not getting involved?
students don't pay council tax.
@@Jay_Johnson they still pay plenty of tax, import tax that raises the prices of goods in general, taxes on legal recreational drugs like alcohol and ciggys, taxes on their cars, road tax etc which all goes to the gov and by relation the council.
Trust me as a student, private accommodation can be even worse.
My flat had mould for months and they have offered no solutions or fixes. Many broken parts and stuff with no solution.
Also my uni accomodation was around 6-7 grand a year.
Universities have an overall duty of care to students.
@@eh1702 I know. I’m just saying it gets worse later on if you rent from landlords or companies.
My current flat is significantly worse than that accommodation shown and is more expensive. I’m a student also…
And where are you now in life? Sometimes you have to go through the mud to get to the gold.
@@oatdilemma6395 I’m content where I am
im on the highest rate (£12,500) and it barely covers my rent in london on a reduced rate through my uni, the prices go up next year so im stuffed
Reminds me of 1960s sit-ins in the US colleges and universities. The students protested against issues like housing and other expenses and the lack of democracy within the university systems. It was not only all about anti - Viet Nam war and the environment.
I had to drop out of college due to the state of the dorms. Thankfully I qualified for a full bursary so I didn't pay but granted if I did, they were going to charge £7,700 a year. This place... often had no heating or hot water. What i mean is that the pipes are apparently made of chocolate and would break like every other week, there was also no ability to do laundry on site, they had machines, they just didn't work. There was mold all over the walls and the place was literally falling apart in places. Oh yeah and when I first went there I had no chair, I had to pester them for one, and the one they gave me broke the first time I sat on it (I only weigh 50kg btw so I'm not fat), so I had to get another one that was still basically falling apart. oh yeah and the fire alarm system was extremely sensitive and semi-broken, like, tripping it once could break the system and make it not turn off or make it start going off like every hour. I put up with this for about 4 months before calling it quits.
£7,700 a year...
This country is BROKEN. Thank you Tories for f**king it up for millions of us
Never forget the LibDems voted to raise fees from 3k to 9k right after campaigning to abolish fees. The moment they had their feet under the Cabinet table.
Tony Blair introduced this ridiculous American style system, absolutely loath him for it. I loath all the Tory PM’s for then increasing this outrageous fees and below par standards. The accommodation, I’m still furious. I had flat right next door to my lecture halls, had great flatmates who I dearly miss. However, accommodation was substandard, cold and clinical despite being the top tier. The other places in and around campus were gross. The better rooms 30mins away with en suite bathroom was astronomical, downside was a completely open building with shared kitchen, gross. Education no matter what age, should be free at point of use which is why we need a National Education Service. People are better of working an apprenticeship or normal job. Wish I never went to uni, in debt and a worthless degree which employers ignore anyway. My degree was worthless and out of date in my first month, only a couple of modules were relevant to what I wanted to do. I learned more in my job working in various shops in and around my local city which led to jobs in testing and developing.
Don't the universities realise that that these student or "customers" are tomorrows wealth and leaders, I'd like to remind them of the 60's Bob Dylan song "The times are a changing" especially one particular line "the first one now will later be last". Remember what goes around comes around and some day the university management will be sitting on the other side of the fence, and be in some way reliant on these students or "customers".
Honestly its you either leave home and have no money to actually experience the university life you went for, or you have to stay at home and completely miss out on a "university" experience. Either way you're losing
Everyone has a right to an education. However most of these uni degrees are pointless it's just the qualification you need so you don't get ditched by employers
My accommodation in 1st year on campus was £156. pw (I was allocated this). This was the third cheapest in 2020 and had a horrible experience. Now in my third year I pay £7200 Per year for a room in a student house riddled with mould and our student agency hasn't done a single thing (Worse than shown in this).
Next year the rent is going up to £9800 per year, thankfully I am finishing but that is even more than the Maximum student loan yet the average cost of houses for 23/24 where I am based.
Working 4 days a week (25 hours) just to get by at uni is insane and my grades and mental health have 100% been affected by this overall.
It's criminal that we are paying 9k a year for this.
Contact Environmental health, email your concerns evey week, every other day if you have to. Go to the housing ombudsman, make sure your medical records are updated with what is exacerbating your stress
And yet people complain about student accommodation being built in Nottingham I'm with the students all the way
My university accommodation in 1978 was £14 - which seemed like a fortune. But it was heated and free of vermin and mould as well as serviced weekly. We also occupied university areas but because of ethical mismanagement from what was relatively an ethical university. As someone raised in Manchester, I think Manchester University should also try to be more understanding of students and values.
Considering they're away from home without parents/guardians to look after the place, surely they shouldn't be treated like this.
I wasn't in the right position to go to University, but for those that can, should be treated better, so they can eventually contribute to society. The person turning off the heating, was not contributing to society.
I used to work for a company that installed the plumbing and heating into new-build student accommodation blocks across the midlands. One job was in Nottingham which had 139 Flats. The boilers which were in the kitchens had a manufacturers fault and I had to go round all the flats two months after they were occupied and change a part in the boiler.
Of those 139 kitchens I went in there was one I might have risked having a sandwich in. The rest were like a scene from "The Young Ones".
There was a job in Birmingham which we did. Exactly the same - except they also had rats after 3 months. The students though it was great fun to fire off all the fire extinguishers - until they all lost their deposits.
several things are wrong with the university’s statement:
•44 students have told credit control, others have been instructed to ignore calls and emails from them - 44 is not an accurate figure for strikers
•complaints about accommodation are not dealt with “immediately” as demonstrated in Sophie’s flats
•there has been a safe fire exit out of every occupation, that has been made clear by occupiers, and occupations are disruptive by definition so calling them so as a negative thing is meaningless
I love how the university also revealed that they seen university as a service provider calling the strikes disruptive to service provision. Disgusting that they see education as a fir profit enterprise rather than a right
I remember in 1985 having to clean my Uni owned flat from top to bottom as it was so grubby and inhospitable. The mouldy shower curtain in a heap in the bottom corner of the shower showed how much they cared even back then!
So nothings changed then. When I was an undergraduate way back at Exeter University in the late 1980s, the houses were health hazards, fungus, woodlice, mice and people even get electrocuted from the fridges. The landlord was a lecturer (from the Music department) and I remember him joking about the mice peeking up over the fridge. We were not treated in anyway like customers.
MESSAGE TO ALL STUDENTS !
IT DOESN’T GET ANY BETTER ONCE YOU FINISH YOUR EDUCATION. YOU ARE THEN IN SO MUCH DEPT THE SYTEM OWNS YOUR ASS FOREVER.
Ps see how it’s ok for the university to complain, but you guys & gals can’t.
Did you go to university
Depends on what you study I guess, but if you are not sought after, yeah.
Not really, at least not in europe. UK is probably the worst in terms of student debt terms in the whole Europe and yet still you practically pay nothing until you can afford to pay very little - but yeah for your entire life.
For mainland Europe, countries like the Netherlands, Germany or Poland - Uni is either fully free or practically free, and the debt you take to cover cost of living is also negligent and reimbursed in a major part by the government.
University of Surrey has great accommodation, it's expensive but if they can do it well why can't Manchester?
This is exactly what began around the late 90s.
They make it nearly impossible for normal people with low to medium incomes to attend university and will complain of a skills shortage.
What a load of rubbish.
My advice: don't bother wasting your time and money on education in the UK. Move to another country and leave the rest to fester and waste away. The system is fundamentally rotten.
What the fuck? I can’t believe this is happening in the UK, a first world country. You will not see this in a big city in any Asian country.
Privatisation only benefits the few while causing significant disadvantage to the majority of people who are seeking to improve their lot in life. One must care for the ground and the roots if the forest is to is to flourish.
This country is in such a sorry state. We need to BeMoreFrench. They would not put up with this.
This has a major impact on the uni's bottomline, by forcing their students to pay more, they won't be able to pay for the things that encourage potential applicants to apply - such as nightlife and student societies. I support the strikes. viva la revolution
persons that have mold are in 90% of time,the ones to blame for it....
allmost everytime I see mold at my customers, it is their fault.....
they cook,they dry their clothes and not have any fresh air inside...
every appartment that does not have modern ventilations should be aired out at least 1 time per day for 5 or 10 minutes....and have windows cracked open when cooking drying or washing your clothes...
even more so in the winter if your building is old and does not have insulation...
walls get cold and steam/humidity than condense on cold walls,wich is great for mold to grow
edit: and to be fair I am not an expert on rats, but AFAIK rats are where there is food for them...people leaving their food scraps all around the counters ,not taking out trash, etc are the ones that make rats love this place....
some basic higiene is needed to be learned by some of the residents...
I don’t know the last time you went to a University accommodation but alot of the ones nowadays have absolutely poor ventilation in the rooms and kitchens, most have those crooked openings windows (to prevent people jumping unfortunately) which means that there is very little ventilation in rooms, these rooms get awfully stuffy during summer and there is really not much that students can do about it, the rooms are outdated and designed poorly
That's the key, they are a Russell Group University. Privately owned for Profit.
The majority of people going to uni shouldn’t be. Most courses are worthless and are never used when these people go into the working world.
My cousin did film studies so I suppose that’s a prime example of a worthless degree
This report is really missing quite a lot of detail that would help to understand this situation objectively.
- How much are students paying now vs. before? (one student says it's "gone up to 450", but what was it before?)
- What is and is not included in accommodation rents? (e.g. cleaning service)
- Does the student accommodation bathroom have a working ventilator? Is it being used regularly?
- Have the students seen a rat? (or are the traps perhaps working?)
- How long have the traps been down? (temporary or permanent measure?)
- What comment does the University have about the mould and rat complaints?
Context matters. For example, if the students are contractually expected to keep the property clean, then one of those many vodka bottles could instead have been spent on mould cleaner and rubber gloves - *poof* the mould situation is tackled and no more worries about what you might be breathing in. But if there is a broken or lack of ventilation in humid areas, it's on the landlord to address it as the mould will only come back. The report doesn't dig at all into this and just takes everything at face value.
I'm sympathetic that the rents seem to have increased by a lot, but it's hard to fully sympathise when the report is so lacking in journalistic insight. Joe is usually better than this.
i can help out with some of this!
1. he said it’s gone up by 450 for his specific halls, and it’s gone up on average by 100% since most of the students were born.
2. cleaning is included
3. the bathrooms have no windows, and in terms of ventilation there are extremely low quality fans which turn on with the light. clearly they don’t work
4. there have been numerous rat sightings by numerous students, and when reported have been ‘resolved’ with some lousy traps which have been unsuccessful
5. these are temporary measures which don’t work and are never escalated beyond when they do nothing
6. the uni has stated that they respond to every report until it’s resolved however students disagree with this as many of the problems have not been resolved.
while they are expected to keep areas tidy, students are not expected to clean any shared areas as a cleaning service is included. mould is definitely not something that students should be/ are even capable of dealing with themselves. unfortunately some students haven’t had their issues sorted and have felt they had to resort to buying expensive products to tackle the mould themselves because the uni’s negligence has lead to ongoing illness.
hope this helps
they have to work to simply pay their rent, it is perfectly reasonable that every now and again they may want to have a drink. cleaning product isn't an issue for most of these people, the huge rent increase and poor quality of accommodation is the problem as it adds to the stress of simply living when this is supposed to be one of the highlights of their young lives.
@@tomdh8394 eh I mean it's a lot but it may also not be if say you live in London with 2 siblings
@@tomdh8394 It's household income not a single household member. She could come from a mullti-generational household with 2 or 3 working members. 20-30K is below the national average. If she has 3 or 4 siblings still living at home. 60k household income isn't going to go far. One of my friends who is at uni has a multigenerational household of 2 grandparents, 1 working parent and 3 working age siblings. Thankfully that 1 working parent is very well off so they are fine but it is not uncommon.
Solidarity from a 64 year old NUS officer at Further Ed college in '75/'76.🎉❤
I think they need to end the (rather elitist) expectation that everyone will go to uni - it is over-stretching the system. We know in advance how many people with various degrees we need. There should be a broad scholarship program that allows the best people to go to uni and very likely 70% of people should not be going to uni strainght out of school - they should be going into work and learning a trade with the option to go back to uni later if their job would benefit from them getting more skills. I would also suggest that government support for apprenticeships should be significantly increased.
Our current system has far too many young people quite thoroughly wasting the best years of their lives doing pointless and expensive degrees.
Good on em! 👍
It's when the kids with the rich parents or ex rich parents or ones who have less liquid income get lower maintenance grants that a lot realise how life is and then they're also segregated from the other people in the top accommodation costing over £6000.
Like with the person here getting £1500 means either she didn't give the details or her mother has a lot of money because it can go up to £10,000. She's probably in some of the cheapest accommodation in the country, and a lot of city universities just don't go that low at all.
Ah Oak House. Yes it was shit but strap yourself in for the local student rental market chaps. Things can definitely get worse!
Seconded there, I lived in a practically condemned end-terrace student house in my 2nd year, it was practically falling apart; plaster dropping of the walls, the old kitchen extension had been boarded up as it had such a bad damp problem and we had to do all cooking and eating in the downstairs back room. As far as I know it was demolished and the land brought by the neighbours for a larger garden. Rent was about £50 a week in 1990, equating to about £145 in 2023 money.
@@therealchayd I remember my girl friends carpets being nailed down.
Universities sounds like landlords.
Im living in student accomodation. My university dosent have halls so im paying a reduced rate of £230 a week one room in private student accomodation. during the winter the boiler broke and it took 8 days for the management to call out someone to fix it, and there was no drop in rent or renumeration for it. thats only one of the countless issues we've had (including maintenence people letting themselves into rooms unnannounced and without any forewarning)
Legally they have to do something about that boiler within 24 hours I believe - keep every text message, get every thing writing, get the exact dates of complaints and actions. Go to citizens advice and see if you can get legal aid and sue them for your rent back.
Well i dodged a bullet, a few years ago i wanted to study at a manchester uni but they doubled my requirements just weeks before exams due to sudden high demand, im glad they fucked me over now.
Universities would rather have foreign students who have money, they pay more than British students. That is why we have very few British doctors, lawyers etc in training. Halls or Residence at Liverpool Uni are £7,000.00 per year.
Having a similar situation here at Aston University and Unite Students, the lift has been broken for 3 months, I am unable to walk due to some injuries and Aston and Unite have ignored all my complaints and pleas for some assistance/help, furthermore, on 4 different occasions in 2023 we had been left with absolutely no water and flush, it was absolutely vile and unhygienic and after each time not once did they bother to update us or issue any form of communication or apology, there are rats and mould everywhere which Unite simply dont care about.
Aston University hasn’t even bothered to intervene and help us but instead they send their automated emails claiming to have mental health services available despite them not actually listening to our concerns, its an absolute joke and a huge disappointment because most of us have enjoyed other aspects of the University experience including many of the lectures, even then in 2023 most of them have been cancelled due to strikes.
It’s come to a point where you have to ask whether we are getting our money’s worth at all.
I'm currently a student and I've also worked as summer cleaner cleaning student housings and flats, it's almost always the students fault, they live at home with modern parents and have no skills or patience or tolerance to clean after themselves, I can tell you from that whiteboard in the student kitchen that they're not the kind of students to clean and only cleaned for the cameras lmao.. also that mould in the bathroom is because it has no extractor fan and you could literally wipe it down with a throw away cloth and some bleach in 5 seconds, cost like £3-5.
Students have zero living standards and zero living skills and this is why halls get like this, I'm not complaining though because it's such a shit job cleaning up after these kind of students they offer £15/hr to clean up after them, it's easy summer money everytime :)
That’s what I’ll do for sure. By the time I go to uni, I’ll have had two years’ experience cleaning a professional kitchen so hopefully people think I’m capable.
Welcome to Manchester.. All the Residents flats are moldy in the middle to low income brackets because they like the Students flats were thrown up with no real care what so ever. You can see they weren't meant to last and not much thought was put into design and how it worked.
Honestly they were hoping for a big boom in University because the amount of pubs and clubs with flats they threw up was insane. I'd say skip University no one can really afford it unless they're funded by mum and dad. Just go Ibizia for a month and that's what University is like to be honest. Majority of your work won't be ready the teachers are never prepared everything is outdated anyway. apprenticeships should be the way to learn and teach in my opinion in small groups learning from someone who actually does the job you want to get into
It's surprising given the £9k a year turns them into businesses trying to make money. You can understand doing things like not given lecturers a permanent job to cut costs as the customer wont see it, but to offer substandard accommodation which will be noticed, makes little sense. The university is likely using the £1bn for future buildings and such large purchases rather than borrowing. They're not in dome southern university buildings, which was first planned in 2016. As part of a master plan to bring all the building into one are, likely those in Oxford road.
In the US it's normal to work while y ou study
It’s also normal for people to be shot in the US
@@RaveyDavey I can’t even see my original comment now so have no idea what you’re responding to
I am not a student. I booked LSE student accommodation for 1 night, it was in Roseberry Ave London, I was meant to have 43 million makeover, 1 night was enough. Personally, I thought it was a dump. Definitely got a rodent problem, and the bathroom and toilets shocked 😲
Students need to get outside businesses to pressure to them. Stop going to pubs and other venues citing the inability to afford them and they will need to push University to find a resolution.
I have alot of sympathy for students, but tbf - if you're living in accommodation, you're also responsible for general cleanliness just as much as the landlord. If your kitchen is a complete tip, it's going to attract rats. If you dont clean or ventilate areas regularly, you're going to get mould. Work together with the landlords and universities, not against them/expecting them to solve the problems for you.
Woah hold on there buddy! Everything is everyone else's fault. Don't tell me I can reduce the likelihood of rats by cleaning my own kitchen like an adult, how dare you.
I lived in those halls in 2008. They clearly have done NO maintenance on those already horrible little boxes. The university is absolutely responsible for maintaining the student properties and black mould is a result of poor building design.
That bathroom, is an internal room, adequate ventilation is a requirement by law for internal bathrooms, the ventilation that is provided is 100% the responsibility of the landlord to maintain. However these halls were built in the 60's & have had very little upkeep/upgrade since then.
Didn’t go to university myself, but the taps in the bathroom were what were in the school bathrooms of the school I used to go to around 30 years ago. Does that hint to how up to date that bathroom possibly is?
@@louise2209 built in the 60s with minimal upkeep since. Oak House is a notoriously bad place, in terms of the quality of the housing, but it's the centre of student life in Fallowfield, all the major student nights start in Oak Bar/Squirrels & it used to be pretty cheap to live in so no-one really complained...
Those apartments are nicer than anything in America.
Yet debt slavery entrapment with student loans & expensive indoctrination is un-disputed collectively ?
What they'll ultimately do is upgrade housing and then triple the cost to the student
I dropped out of my masters at Manchester this year due to not being able to afford the costs without a job (unfortunately my workplace shut down 2 days before all of my deadlines) and the disability services are entirely useless. Having graduated from another Russell Group uni last year, I was beyond unimpressed by Manchester as an institution. I didn’t give my previous uni the credit it deserved for how student led their policy making really is. We had a similar occupation in our student union a few years ago and all demands were met. Manchester felt corporate from the start. Solidarity with every student here ✊
Where did you attend before Manchester? Just curious
Mate its 10 hours of work a week. 10 hours gives you 100 quid plus the other 100 quid you get from the minimum student loan
I'm so glad I saw this. Now I know not to apply to Manchester. 😎
When ever we occupied an education building, we were quite happy with people filming us. Times change...
Well they will get kicked out if the university knew who it was. It's not the past where you'd get a slap on the wrist.
I wonder what kind of profits the share holders got the last few decades?
How the fk can anyone hope to go to university these days with that level of expense and debt if you're not rich ... I went uni almost 20 yrs ago, fees were 1500 a year, loans and working 12-16 hrs a week was plenty to live on, and easy to slot working in between lectures and reading/writing
Education is just big business and degrees are now becoming worthless
I mean it is terrible, but it was just as terrible 25 years ago there. When UMIST was separate they had better halls.
Good on 'em👍
A student not paying rent , now that is news worthy
The song at the start is by 'Black Noise ' I think
All by Tory design. Disgraceful.
Uni is a scam
Im doing something entirely different because other sectir was shit
Now loosing 350 pm in SL
Living costs money….welcome to the real world. Get a job.
Glad I don't go to uni
That halls at 4mins looks like the halls I was in on Owens Park 20 years ago, still the same decor, and it was grim then. Really feel for you lot there now, that's absolutely vile.
NB: always wait til the end before commenting 😂 the halls are privately owned now... No wonder they're in such vile condition
Only £110 a week!!!! Bet bills are included as well.
Fuck me I'd happily live there for that.
Do you already live in a HMO? If not, you have that choice - and you can often find rent even cheaper than that. Not comparable to renting a flat or a house, obviously, and the money earned from HMOs is usually higher than standard rentals (so there is often a cap on how many are allowed to be used for this purpose).
That's 5 grand a year. Base loan is 4.1.
@@perrymason866 I do not have that choice because I am not a student and I live in the south.
@@gdwe1831 ohhh, sorry. It’s a real problem for you all at the moment! Society as a whole is struggling. I hope things get easier for you students and that it doesn’t impact your performance too much!
Just get commission on the word 'like'
They got evicted today. 😢
my halls in 1998 cost more than that! i mean you gotta kinda expect a shithole for that price.
What these slaves don't understand is.... REPAIRS = LESS PROFIT.
Get with the program.
Just get get up there wash the mould off that take 5mins 😮😊
> Complain about rats
> Leave your kitchen in absolute shambles and never clean it
Students being students.
its probably shared by up to 12 people. uni halls kitchens hardly ever provide adequate space for orderly co existence
I’ve experienced this in a smaller scale having lived in two house shares (never again moving into one) people can be disgusting in their habits, 0 sympathy for the living conditions, the prices however are a joke.
My partner is incredibely well put together but even her as a student living with other students isn't able to keep the shared space clean. It takes one inorderly person to ruin it on a daily basis for everyone else.
Living with people who you're forced to live with is very different to living with people you want to live with. Add to that the sorry state of the place by itself, and the fact that they have to study AND work overtime, and it is unfeasable to ask for a well-run household.
UoM i think took on too many , Manchesters housing stock couldnt cover all , We have some who turned up from China and India who had no place to call home whilst here ,,,,, so the issue isnt only accomodation but lack of it even ,
Not an easy situation , and obviosly the university is trying but the students are saying not enough ,
What more can be done as a solution to a problem is something we all want
All unis are doing this. the more students they take the more sacks of ~£15k per year they get factoring in accommodation and tuition. Here at York they ran out of accommodation so were bussing 1st years over from hull every day. (1h bus by the way) If I had been put in Hull in my first year I would have immediately dropped out and applied again.
@@Jay_Johnson that’s mad! I went to York and lived on campus in very basic accommodation and they were building loads of new accommodation too. How can they justify this?
@@jcp513 The new accommodation they were building was delayed so they had accepted more people than they could actually house.
@@Jay_Johnson J nox and Jay thankyou for taking time to reply ,here in Manchester students are getting housed in merseyside so it seems very similar to whats happening in york ,
I hope the universities stop over enrolling ,as this is the root of the problem of students lacking accomodation peeferably near the education centre they want to access
Great Britain 2023?
I do not blame them if they’re not going to pay rent or not, and they live in like that where there’s rat in Moulden. God knows what’s going on in that building. Why should I pay rent look what they live in and it’s disgusting
Fuck, if I was their age, I would just Open University route and live at home, I ain't sacrificing living in a shithole flat, and stressing over mould and still be short on the rent.
the occupiers seem so cool
Hate to be guy but literally university means one of two things your parents bought your spoilt ass a place on a course which will be equivalent to nothing in the real world or basically you're stupidly chucking grands on a pointless degree that'll probably account to nothing in the end when you're overqualified for a mass of jobs and there's nothing going for that one job you wasted so much time on
yea ...it's called being a adult...sum wat I understand
Anyone know how they fixed the dartboard to the noticeboard?
What happened to those students who got fined for breaking COVID laws?
Hall conditions are usually due to the habits of the students. I know this because I was a residential tutor at Manchester.
I watched over multiple halls throughout the year and the kitchen you see at the start was actually a very clean kitchen, compared to most.
In reality you cannot believe the amount of food (especially pizza crust) that gets left on the floor so rats are not a surprise.
As for mould, that may be the unis fault if there is inadequate ventilation in the bathrooms, but don't know for sure. If there's mould in the bedrooms all they need to do is crack a window (heating's always on and free FYI).
Also, student cleaning never happens and halls always stink. Communal areas are treated like the trash cans. By the way there is a cleaning team but that's once a week and if you feel sorry for anyone - feel sorry for them! They have to deal with the filth!
@dondoodat Home with your parents should be where you learn life skills like cleaning. Once you move out of that environment it's up to you to figure it out. I couldn't afford to go to uni but I left home at 18 and moved 200 miles to London and had to figure out what I didn't already know for myself. No point going off to university to study stuff like medicine or physics if you can't work out how to use a mop. I certainly wouldn't want to be paying £10,000 a year in tuition fees to be taught how to clean a toilet. Most people who clean toilets for a living don't need a degree in chemistry to use a bottle of Domestos.
Silverfish depends it can be the people living there however espcially in multiple unit accomodation it can be an infestation same with rats, that is no one's fault. Mould in the bathroom is a design flaw with the building. Rent being higher than student loan is not the fault of the students. All of these issues are the responsibility of the person who owns the building to solve.
@dondoodat if someone wants to pay my to tell them how to clean a bathroom I'd happily take their money. When you go to a university you're paying for education and how would you feel if rather than getting 5 days a week of your chosen subject you only spent 4 days doing that and were forced to spend one day a week being told how to clean your bathroom. At £10,000 a year in tuition fees I make that £2000 a year to be taught basic life skills. Give me 30 students paying me that and I'd make more than my current salary
@dondoodat It might not but if you're paying to be there would you want any part of your money to go towards someone teaching you how to do the things uneducated people do for a living or would you rather focus on your subject.
If you're saying the university should provide something extra then there's going to be a cost to the university for that and that cost is ultimately going to be paid for by the students.
All those people who can't afford to go to university some how magically learn to clean their own houses. I wonder how they cope without having an expensive university show them.
@@binky_bun 100% agree.