To think these university facilities are shockingly shite?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

Before you all start I know it's not my battle to fight and DD is accepting of the facilities but, hey, I've just been deserted by a child and I'm allowed some leeway to be disgruntled.

Moved DD2 to university recently to her dream course, that's all wonderful.

She didn't get any of her 3 accommodation choices and has ended up in a very old (30+ years?) block which is actually materially better than we expected.

BUT there's 15 girls (university doesn't mix sexes ffs) across 2 floors sharing 2 showers 2 loos. Meh that's sort of bearable. Even though you have to buy your own loo roll.

The kitchen is obviously a converted bedroom. So you can imagine the size of it .

There's 6 cupboards (2 of them wall so very shallow). And 3 drawers. So there's not even a cupboard shelf each.

There's one fridge freezer.

One undercounter fridge and three undercounter freezers.

Not even half a fridge shelf each.

Plenty of freezer space though.

2 free-standing cookers which is probably manageable.

No table. Obviously. As the room is a student bedroom.

There's a breakfast bar tucked in between
Bedrooms in the corridor with room for two people to sit at. But there's only one stool .

No common room or any communal space in the building. Nowhere to bond with flatmates really.

If she'd just have been allocated the same block but two flats across there would have been 8 to a large kitchen with a fecken table . This was the block open in applicants day and I counted 5 cupboards in that so still under resourced but definitely doable in comparison.

She's happy and doesn't want to swap as people are all lovely which is the Main Thing and I'm so relieved she's content - i don't want to interfere or achieve anything. And she's 18 - she'll adapt as hundreds of students have in this Halls before her.

Just want my AIBU to be:

AIBU to think these facilities are fecken pants?

You are not unreasonable. The room in halls which my son had a couple of years ago in a red brick university should have been illegal. Shoebox with no windows.

Sounds pretty standard to me. Ot was THAT long ago when I was at uni and we had 16 of us girls (each floor was also single sex) sharing 1 toilet and 3 showers, with a tiny kitchen. There was such a mix of courses that we had our first lectures of the day at different times, so was never too much of a problem to get a shower. We had 2 fridges and 1 freezer between us, so less than half a fridge each. We all bought these little baskets that fit perfectly, so just had a basket in the fridge each.

*It wasn't THAT long ago when I was at uni

It does sound a bit crap but as long as she likes the people she's with it will be fun. They'll have corridor parties or hang in each other's rooms. Crappy student accommodation is part of the experience.Gives you funny stories when you are working and in a posh place! She could be in the nicest hall in the world but if she didn't like the people it wouldn't matter. The people make the hall.

No communal space is a terrible idea. I’m quite despairing sometimes about uni accommodation. There is a big problem for many young people at uni, everyone’s told it’s great fun, but for many it’s very isolating and that comes as a horrible shock.

YANBU. But it’s a little reassuring we aren’t the only one. Very different from the carefully selected open day show flats

4th floor no lift, 5 to a single toilet/shower, one cupboard shelf (high cupboard not even deep enough for saucepans, half a fridge shelf.

Would be semi ok with a basin in ten room for teeth brushing/washing but don’t even have that.

I guess you have to keep some food in your room or there simply isn’t space.

The thing is that if there's no communal space the socially confident ones may knock on flatmates' doors, and suggest room hangouts - but the spaces should be being designed to encourage social interaction for everyone - including the shybies - not to make it harder. A reasonable sized kitchen with a table chairs and sofa does that - nothing fancy required!

Then if you add a communal sitting room for the whole of the hall with a tv and a coffee vending machine you make it relatively unintimidating for people to wander in casually and maybe sit down and watch tv in a group.

Whatever the value of a degree, universities are to some extent able to attract people to spend 3 yrs of their life and incur huge debt (yes I know about it not being a debt really etc, but..) because of the expected social benefits - lovely group of friends, loads of fun, blah blah. So there is a certain responsiblity - I think the accommodation should not be designed in a way that makes that difficult for the less socially accomplished. Number of showers is less important - though not loos! Easier if the rooms have their own washbasins but there is something a bit, um, unappealing about that as well!

YANBU however I was in the worst accommodation at my university and I wouldn't swap it for the world. I had fabulous flatmates I'm still friends with many years later. It gave us something to bond over. The nicer halls were a bit soulless as everyone sat in their nice rooms. We all squashed into 1 (all 18 of us) to watch films etc. We had 2 showers 3 loos and 1 bath. Between us all you end up in a routine.

I was thinking about my student halls earlier this week and they sound similar.

Biggest problem was that food cost a fortune because our fridge space was so tiny (and no freezer) so single pints of milk, bread would go off in 2 days. No space for fruit or veg.... it made catering as a student far more expensive than it needed to be, just at the exact point where you can’t afford it most.

yanbu. Not in the slightest.

I'd agree with others that lack of communal space is probably the bigger concern. There was an interesting long read article in the Graun at the end of last week www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/27/anxiety-mental-breakdowns-depression-uk-students

DS2 has just started Uni and is fortunate to have a really good communal and kitchen space. Whilst I'd agree accommodation is ultimately about the people, having a space where they can easily interact, that is designed for that express purpose, should not be an unrealistic expectation.

OP the description you've given is identical to my halls from quite a while ago when I was at university - she's not at Liverpool is she?!

It seems that some of the accommodation offered to students hasn't kept pace with higher expectations young people would have nowadays? And yet the cost of it has increased way beyond inflation.

That's terrible I can't believe they only have 2 loos for 15 students!
But good that she likes the other students!

Hi folks

OP has been in touch - this is a duplicate! We're going to close this one now. If you'd like to continue contributing, the other thread is over here.