Students grilled senior leadership on the housing and cost of living crises at the Student Voices Forum held on 12 March.
The semesterly event chaired by EUSA allows students to engage directly with a panel of university leaders.
Tensions ran high as students honed in on student homelessness, the lack of affordable housing, and student support.
One student shared that “we’re doing a full week of studying and often a full week of working just to pay rent – it’s quite bleak.”
Another student shared her experience becoming homeless during her studies.
The discussion came amidst the City of Edinburgh Council declaring a housing emergency in November 2023 as the number of homeless households reached record highs.
The concerns also preempt the expiration of Scotland’s emergency rent cap and eviction moratorium, which ends on 31 March and may see rent inflation rise beyond the previous 3 per cent ceiling.
READ MORE: “This will literally make me homeless”: 3% cap on annual rent increase set to end in March
Members of senior leadership highlighted University efforts to curb the impact of the crises in Edinburgh: VP of Corporate Services, Catherine Martin, said they had “made strides” in recent months with the acquisition of a new site which added 400-500 beds to the Uni’s emergency accommodation stock.
However, a representative from Slurp (Students for Action on Homelessness) took issue with the University’s failure to adequately advertise emergency accommodation last academic year. This comes after Slurp data found that one in six students were without accommodation by the start of the semester in 2023.
Martin said of this year that: “It’s not perfect, but we’ve started our information dissemination [earlier].”
The Slurp representative later told The Student:
“We found the senior leadership’s responses to our questions unsatisfactory.
“The University has previously appeared open to Slurp’s suggestions (of homelessness data collection during matriculation, for example) but failed to follow through on this.
“We fear that any suggestions of progress from the University will only amount to the initial suggestion without actual progress.”
READ MORE: Mathieson grilled at student Q&A as satisfaction at an all time low
The representative also voiced wider concerns about the university’s emergency accommodation guarantee.
For homeless students, emergency accommodation is available through the University, but after this offer has been made the student must either accept or find alternative arrangements. The offer – which usually entails a bunk in a shared room – may not be suitable for students with accessibility needs or a shared room preference.
Slurp elaborated to The Student that:
“There is a clear barrier to this accommodation regarding failure to meet accessibility needs. In a similar fashion, some queer students may feel unable to accept certain emergency accommodation offers on the basis of feeling unsafe in a shared room.
“This is a clear accessibility barrier based on a protected characteristic, and another failure that the University must address.”
Former EUSA president, Niamh Roberts, shared similar concerns at the forum, acknowledging that it must be “frustrating [for senior leadership] to hear negative takes” but emphasising that “the uni experience is not what it used to be or what it is advertised to be.”
READ MORE: Edinburgh Council set to declare a housing emergency
Responding to Roberts’ comments at the forum, Vice Principal Students, Colm Harmon, defended the Uni’s student support model, saying: “What we’re doing – we can tell from the endless meetings we have with institutions who want to copy it – is sector leading,” but conceded that “none of you feel it. And that’s a concern I have.”
Roberts later commented to The Student:
“I don’t think the panellists answered questions in a way to inform students or start a dialogue, they answered to try and gain students’ favour and improve their reputation.
“I wish that the University was more willing to treat feedback sessions like a learning experience and not an exercise in optics.
“In my experience [as EUSA president], the University will never, ever, choose to prioritise a student-facing project if it means they have to take a financial loss, because they operate like a business. We’ve seen that with the 8 per cent rent rise this year.”
The end of the Forum saw a demonstrator deliver an impassioned speech regarding concerns about the University’s response to gender-based violence.
READ MORE: Less than half of sexual misconduct cases upheld by university, FOI reveals
Deputy Secretary of Students, Lucy Evans, responded tearfully saying, “I think we do an awful lot as a university to try and support survivors of gender-based violence.
“I will continue to work. I do think we try to do a lot for people. I accept that’s not enough for you, but I think we do.”
Image via Maryse Bots