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• 16 December 2011
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Accommodating a growing student population

As we look to grow the number of undergraduate and postgraduate students at Sussex, it is vital to ensure we can offer them good quality University-managed accommodation.

John Duffy, Registrar & Secretary

As I said in my presentations to Council and to Senate last week, we now need to move ahead rapidly to put plans in place to expand our student accommodation further – including additional accommodation possibly at Northfield, the redevelopment of East Slope and identification of suitable spaces in Brighton where we can. 

Part of what makes Sussex an attractive place for students is the quality and situation of the University. New students especially like being here and living on campus. As we attract more students from both home and overseas, we need to keep pace with what we offer in terms of accommodation.  

Particularly in the last decade, we have grown high-quality accommodation significantly, from 2,500 bed spaces 10 years ago to over 4,200 now. Lewes Court Phase 2, Stanmer Court, Swanborough and Northfield have all been added since 2001. And we have invested in other existing accommodation to bring much of it up to the standards students expect. 

We currently provide accommodation for around 35% of our students.  We want to maintain a housing guarantee for students holding firm offers and applying for accommodation by a fixed date in the summer, since that helps to ensure students opt for Sussex when making their final university choices. 

The demand is of course greatest from new first year students and overseas students. In response to demand, we accommodate just over 80% of first-year home and EU undergraduates, about 95% of first-year overseas undergraduates and about 75% of overseas students on postgraduate taught programmes.  Other new students choose to live locally, either at home or in private accommodation in the city. 

As we look now to increase student numbers from 12,000 to around 15,000 by 2015-16, we need to ensure that we have sufficient accommodation of an appropriate standard. If we did nothing now to develop our housing stock, we would be some 1,000 bed spaces short in meeting our housing commitments. 

There is no public funding to create student housing.  All of the new residential buildings have been self-financing, so that student rents – plus the income from accommodation when used for summer conferences – allow us to repay the cost of construction over 20-30 years.  

The lead-in time for planning and investment is of course a number of years.  We are looking now at the best options for both in Brighton and Hove and on campus.  Although planning permissions are still required and space within the campus is restricted, developments on campus are much more within our control and more popular with new students. It is also important that as we develop our accommodation we retain a range of rents with some lower cost housing for those students on more restricted budgets. 

The redevelopment of East Slope is something that has been part of our housing development strategy since 2004, with the current buildings now reaching the end of their life. We want to do that sensitively and in discussion with students, because we understand how well loved East Slope has been. We believe that we can use that space and land adjacent to it to add some 600-1000 bed spaces, depending on design and planning constraints. We are also looking now at a third development at Northfield, which would add a further 120 bed spaces. 

Within the city, we are actively working with the Council to look at options for developments, although this is not easy, since Brighton University also is looking for space for student accommodation, and indeed they have less dedicated accommodation compared to their student population than we do.  Finally, we are also looking to expand the amount of private accommodation in the local area which is managed by us. 

Altogether, this is a challenge created by the successful growth and development of our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. And it is one we must rapidly address.