When I ask my peers about university student accommodation, nearly all call it a “character building moment.” No one thinks it’s great.
During my first year of university, I was allocated to Sciennes as my student accommodation. I didn’t expect much and it matched these low expectations, especially after my flat mates and I had to deal with a silverfish infestation in the second semester. While I would like to say that this did not affect me, everyone in the flat was constantly paranoid of finding tiny grey bugs in their bed. Our shower broke constantly and through some unorthodox testing, we also discovered our smoke alarm was faulty. The only benefit of Sciennes was its proximity to George Square campus and Cowgate. Student halls just barely met my needs; I had a bed and a kitchen to cook food in.
The university tries its best to help incoming first years to make friends with lots of Welcome Week activities. But if you want to be friends with your flatmates, you literally have to go through a lot of doors. Fire doors are fitted into every room except bathrooms, so by extension you get accustomed to the noise of them slamming shut quickly.
This safety feature of accommodation unintentionally increases the difficulty of making friends, as opening new doors into a stranger’s personal space is daunting and has you nervous. What if they don’t like me? What if they’re busy? What if I mess up introducing myself? These kinds of thoughts can rattle through you as you stand outside the door of a flatmate who just moved in a couple hours ago.
This, combined with the nearly hostile environment of your accommodation leaves many students feeling isolated. For many, it is their first time living away from home as an independent adult and as you deliberate about making the scary first move of saying “Hi” to someone you don’t know in front of an imposing door that screams “go away”, the comfort and safety of your room and bed is tempting.
I don’t suggest that university accommodations should abandon fire safety, as that would be a recipe for a disaster. Yet there needs to be a change that welcomes and encourages new and green freshers to get to know one another. That one person you never got to know in your first year flat might’ve just needed that.
“Student accomodation at Montrose Terrace, Edinburgh (November 2023) 02” by Pretzelles is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.