to think University students without particular needs do not need an en-suite shower room?

[LindorDoubleChoc]

I'm so surprised that University Halls of Residence now offer this as an option to more or less all their students. What the hell? How many of you are indulging your offspring with this poncery and why? (exceptional needs aside of course).

When I went to Uni in the dark ages of the 1980s no one had an ensuite. Almost no one had a wash basin either. Is it a money making exercise?

New build houses are the same. Not every bedroom needs separate washing/bathing facilities. The first world's gone mad!

Yep, nail on the head. Typical of "some" older people who want to pull up the drawbridge after all the benefits they've enjoyed, yet expect today's youngsters to live back in the dark ages. I genuinely thought people would want things to be better for their children, but apparently not, they seem to get their jollies out of making life harder for them.

Unis with ensuites can hire them out for £100-300 a night during vacations and graduations. Those with blocks without (like LSE) make do with £20-40 that they need to refund when someone catches noro.

I think there’s a lot of well off people who want their middle class children to suffer like ‘poor people’ as some twisted means to push them as well. ‘Look darling, en suites are for naice people, you want to shit in your own bathroom in the future? Then remember having to share two vomit stained toilets with the common people. We’ll talk more about it when me and Daddy are back from our Med cruise where we most certainly not be sharing the facilities with the *shudder staff’.

I had a basin in my room (except in my first ear) and we shared bathrooms/showers/loos. But the cleaners came in every morning. The trick was to time your bath/shower for late morning, so you'd be sure it was freshly scrubbed. And avoid going in after the boys!

who's outraged here?

You are "surprised" and your following points are rather unpleasant, I am surprised you are surprised.

I can't for the life of me understand how anyone would study better because they have to share bathroom facilities.

It sounds from your posts that you are miffed other parents pay for an ensuite when you are not, and your kid "survives". Of course he survives, why wouldn't he. Then we are back to my original question, why does have anything got to do with "surviving"? What's wrong with having some standards?

quite.

if the standard is "you didn't die", it sounds like a pretty grim life.

For me it is nothing to do with pulling up any drawbridge nor wishing misery on my children. It is about living within one's means and not wasting money.

My son pays £830 pm for a tiny room with an ensuite. Yes, for that pisstake fee he can have a shower room. I'd be delighted to have shared showers and half the rent though.

It's not "half the rent" though is it? The rooms we saw when our DS was looking at Unis were basically only about another £20/£25 per week, typically £125 for shared bathrooms or £150 for en-suite. I think if they genuinely were half price, then more would actually think the misery of a sharing a shitty/sicky bathroom would be just about acceptable.

This is exactly what I feel.

Some universities offer accommodation which is half the price of other accommodation. It’s a vast difference.

Quite often, those needing to work lots of hours or with big loans are those choosing the en-suite. I just wonder about their choices and how finically savvy they, or their parents advising them are.

I shared 4 showers with 21 other students!

How many people have spoken to 2nd and rd year students about this? They tend to say that the shared bathrooms weren’t nearly the issue many thought they would be. They say they realise the benefit of having more cash for other stuff and often better location accommodation. They also mention sharing bathrooms in their off campus shared houses and it all being fine.

This thread starts to make me wonder if actually it’s parents who have a horror at the idea of shared bathrooms who are driving their kids to develop this worry and which help them feel that it is impossible to consider shared bathrooms.

But then, those going to top unis which often have lots of older accommodation with shared bathrooms just get on with it. Those who’ve done lots of DofE and Scouting, taken a year out and travelled or perhaps been in Boarding Schools seem far less bothered. I’ll probably be shot down, but is it those who are simply a bit more anxious about going aapway from home who have this fear of shared bathrooms?

It's not "half the rent" though is it? The rooms we saw when our DS was looking at Unis were basically only about another £20/£25 per week, typically £125 for shared bathrooms or £150 for en-suite. I think if they genuinely were half price, then more would actually think the misery of a sharing a shitty/sicky bathroom would be just about acceptable

Exactly. They're a complete rip off, but as they've commercialised it to suck every penny possible of profit out, they might as well get decent accommodation for it.

University has become a complete joke. My daughter will end up with a £40k bill and my son (the academic one doing a masters) will be more like £55k.

I can't believe people are complaining they have a private shower instead of realising young people are getting a completely shit deal!

My University was free. I bought a flat at university for £23000 with no deposit and lived in that for pittance. Young people have it CRAP now.

I shared them with 18, mixed sex. There was one guy who couldn’t control his bowels - he had a fixed shower that nobody else used. Otherwise it was fine. Having said that back then the price difference was huge. Now the difference between ensuite and shared is only £30-40 a month so not worth it

@WombatChocolate

How many people have spoken to 2nd and rd year students about this?

2nd year onwards, they tend to go into house shares with people they've made friends with in year 1, so they're usually with people they know, rather than random strangers as in year 1. That's quite a difference.

How many people have spoken to 2nd and rd year students about this? They tend to say that the shared bathrooms weren’t nearly the issue many thought they would be. They say they realise the benefit of having more cash for other stuff and often better location accommodation. They also mention sharing bathrooms in their off campus shared houses and it all being fine.

That's because they are sharing with friends and not complete strangers.

We visited six universities, five of which gave you the options to choose accommodation. You couldn't choose flat mates but you could choose when type, ensuite, catered not catered etc etc. All at different costs.

You had cleaners, I didn't have a cleaner, well clearly you had it far too easy 🤣

Our kids were both randomly allocated accommodation. I think it depends on the university, but certainly my son's uni is St Andrews and there were kids pitching tents to sleep in because there's a shortage of student accommodation. Absolute madness.

St Andrews is such a small town. The Uni is expanding numbers to get fees etc but are not providing accommodation for rent. Hence some students are having to commute into St Andrews. It is also a tourist and golf place so they have to compete with those rates and demand.

I don’t understand why this is even an issue or a thing for the OP. If there were penthouse suites with their own butler and infinity pool what does it matter as long as they’re paying for it?

Shared toilet bothers me as all the boozy students being sick in the bathroom and missing the loo. OMG brings me out in a sweat thinking about it

Because she's clearly a bit jealous and bitter that life has generally improved for adults paying c. £40k over three years to go to uni.

She seems to think that for the privilege of being in debt for years in order to try and better your opportunity and society, you don't need basic privacy or should demand a private bathroom in shared accommodation.

But if you're an adult paying for a hotel room, then obviously you can't be expected to share bathroom...eew gross.

Because unis are ramming kids in now. They don't care there's no accommodation, it's just about bums on seats and 💰💰💰

So many overseas students too because even more money.

Uni near me doesn't have big enough teaching spaces now because of the huge increase in students. They're squeezing 150 students into rooms designed for 100. They've built temporary rooms, even a bloody marquee!

Commuting in is fine, plenty of students do that. Uni near me had buses going 20 miles away to get students, and they're always jam packed.

It's not compulsory to live in/near the university.