New models in student accommodation

Australia’s unique higher education student profile has driven demand for new models of student accommodation in our capital cities. By Sarah Buckeridge and Geoff Hanmer In Australia every year, there are about 200,000 international students looking for places to live. This number equates to 30 per cent of higher education students in Australia coming from overseas, compared with less than 10 per cent in the UK, the US, or Canada. By contrast, the vast majority of domestic HE students living away from home go home during at least some of their semester breaks. This pattern of occupation is typical of the accommodation offered by a university college. Despite their many strong points, a college can be a lonely place for an international student to live during holiday periods and the food offerings may not suit international tastes. In Melbourne, international students have driven demand for new forms of student accommodation, including student apartments built for purchase, and managed by private organisations focused on students. Until now, these apartments have been financed by the private sector. Changes in the market since the GFC have made this more difficult, but there are a number of ways that these issues can be overcome. The key elements are: 1. Demand: There are nearly 100,000 international HE students living away from home in Sydney, and about the same number in Melbourne. 2. Performance: Studies show that students living near or on a campus in accommodation designed for students perform better than their peers who live off campus. 3. Land: Nearly every university in Australia bar UNSW has land that could be made available to support student housing. UNSW has about 35,000 equivalent full-time student loads (EFTSL) across 35 hectares, or 1000 EFTSL per hectare. The University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne achieve approximately half this intensity. Some suburban campuses, including La Trobe, Monash Clayton and Macquarie, have enormous amounts of under-utilised land. There is plenty of land owned by universities on or near campuses that could support student housing. 4. Safety: Pastoral care, even very basic pastoral care, improves student safety and convenience, provides parents with an increased level of comfort and is something that parents will pay for. Sydney and Melbourne represent the bulk of the international student population, with 70 per cent of international higher education students in Australia attending university in Sydney or Melbourne. The ‘big four’ are, UNSW, the University of Sydney, Monash University and the University of Melbourne. All of these universities have more than 35,000 equivalent full-time student loads with more than 20 per cent made up of international students (closer to 30 per cent at UNSW). Aleem Nizari, president of the Council of International Students Australia, says that the uncertainty of a new city for international students is compounded by the fact that they do not know where they will live. “Most overseas students find accommodation to be one of the most stressful aspects of their university experience. Shortage of student accommodation has led to substantial increases in rent. This has led students to seek alternative shared housing, often inferior, unsafe and far away from their institution. In most cases, students are not aware of their rental rights and fear to report their landlords for any misconduct,” Nazari said. Many first- and second-year students and parents would prefer a place in some other form of supervised accommodation if it was available. Furthermore, many have money to invest; if they can afford to send their child overseas to study at full fees, they will not be poor. Most university management teams recognise the need to increase student housing provision either on campus or near to campus, and many have tried but, the delivery of major student accommodation projects has proved difficult. In Sydney and Melbourne, for example, universities provide less than 10 per cent of potential demand; there are fewer than 10,000 university beds in each city. If we consider the demand profile for student accommodation, together with university-owned land, and combine it with developers and architects who understand student housing, thousands of beds could be built in Melbourne and Sydney at a price that many students could afford without any call on university capital. Hayball, an Australian architecture and design firm, has designed approximately 1500 student accommodation units since 2002, under a private development model. This model involves development of self-contained studio units typically ranging in size from 20–25 metres square, which are built by private developers and sold off the plan to investors as managed student accommodation. The use is usually limited by a section 173 agreement, which restricts occupation to enrolled tertiary students. There are a number of design elements and attributes within the private developments that have contributed to the feasibility of this model and which could be successfully applied to a viable university delivery model. The Canada Hotel project in Carlton close to the University of Melbourne is notable for the spaces it provides for interaction, both planned and organic. The laundry is cast as a social hub, a lecture theatre space caters to gatherings and film events, and a café becomes a shared space. At another student apartment development in Box Hill, each level has a break out zone for shared study with good access to sunlight and co-located with the vertical circulation encouraging incidental meetings and interactions. These spaces do not add significant extra cost to the development, but take full advantage of place making opportunities within tight spatial parameters. Carefully designed apartment interiors offer reconfigurable spaces while reflecting the role of technology in students’ lives with high level data capability and international cable television. Storage within bathrooms, sliding panels which reveal extra shelving and customised furniture which can create extra storage space opportunities are all important features which increase the functionality of these small spaces. With universities currently providing less than 10 per cent of the required student beds in the major capitals, there remains significant opportunity to apply the lessons learnt from successful design and commercial delivery of high density models to on-campus and near-campus accommodation.