Student Halls: why we are onto a winner

Followers of this blog will have noticed that we have talked about student accommodation several times over the past few months.  This is because students are very much in the news.  In the UK, numbers are rising dramatically, fuelled the inordinate stress placed these days on academic forms of education and reinforced by recession-based anxieties.  This makes many people want either to ‘re-skill’ and acquire new qualifications, or to postpone the moment of entry to the job market.

Work patterns are changing, too, and so is the profile of the student.  She or he (for there are more women than men in higher education) is more likely to be a few years older than previously and to have extensive work or volunteering experience.  We are changing our idea of what it means to be a student and ‘lifelong learning’ is becoming the norm.

This year, according to The Independent (19th August 2010), 674,037 people have applied to start undergraduate courses this autumn.  Postgrad numbers are swelling as well.  Many will be moving away from home, often for the first time, and will need affordable,  safe and clean accommodation.  This is why student accommodation has become such a great investment opportunity – and a public service into the bargain.  It is a new frontier, as we predicted, and as our success with Beacon and Streatlam House has shown.  And it is a frontier with flexible borders.

You read it here first …

Written by: Aidan Rankin