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!

I had an en-suite when I went to uni in 2001. I think it was an extra £10 a week. I funded myself through uni so no one was indulging me and it was truly more than worth every penny!

I went to uni in the 90s and every room in our 3 buildings had an ensuite. They were more than some of the other buildings and it meant the actual room was a lot smaller.
It was up to us to clean our rooms and bathrooms. The cleaners did the kitchen once a week.

@LadyGrinningSoul85

The only thing that bothers me is students should be allowed to live in purpose built student accommodation only

Unfortunately, politicians massively expanded Unis and encouraged 50% of our young to attend, yet didn't think about building accommodation for them, hence demand exceeding supply which inevitably leads to "family" homes being converted into student housing. Where do you think they should live if there isn't any accommodation for them? Tents? As usual, it's just poor planning by politicians spanning decades, as are all the other reasons for the housing crisis we face today.

I experienced an awful, horrible, traumatic bereavement at university. Having to leave my room in order to shower and go to the loo made it harder (the people in my corridor were just having a permanent party).

There is often enough purpose built accommodation for first years but beyond that most students don't want to live in it anyway and nobody can force them to.

Do you take a bath or shower in your bathroom? Why? I'm just asking because eeeeh, when I wer a lad, an all this wur fields, wid all gerrin tin bath in front o'th' fire. An by eck, it wur filthy after pa ud bin in, wot wi all coal muck an that.

You don't bathe in a tin bath used by all family members do you? No. Times change. Standards move on. Accept it.

The increase in students has little to do with 50% of British youths - it's international students! I say that as a former one myself.
Unis are allowed to charge them as much as they like and foreign students pay at least double that of local students.

Don't forget the cash cow Master's degrees which are extortionate and also a money making exercise...

I decided to save some money and dye my own hair. I now need a professional hairdresser and it will probably cost me a fortune.

I really need one much more than anyone needs an en-suite. I am totally unbiased in that judgement.

I am currently the human belisha beacon.

That might be a slight exaggeration.

People can have whatever they want. You just sound really jealous and annoyed that other people can afford something that you can’t 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Really? You don’t think there’s other considerations apart from “ I can afford it”?

You sound like a lovely stepmom. 🙃

I was in a few different places in uni. I never had my own shower or toilet. 1 place was 8 bedroom mixed sex apartment 2 toilets and 2 showers. Sinks in each bedroom but no sinks in bathrooms. 1 place was shared with around 50 other students. Female only, there was a shower block with about 10 showers and 10 toilets and the rooms were shared with one other student. 1 place was mixed with 4 other students, mixed sex with 2 bathrooms/toilets but one of them the door didn’t lock so no one really used that one.

I myself have hardly recovered from the experience of something euphemistically called a "long drop" at a school camp in the 1970s. The stench was nigh unbearable as basically there was a pile of excrement at the bottom of the long drop with a shack atop the long drop. My son in halls had an en suite and good on him I say. I am all for progress. I hope we never have WW3 and are stuck in a post-apocalyptic landscape eking out an existence with a long drop out the back.

Why shucks, thanks for noticing. I am actually 😇

I hope this thread hasn't been triggering for you!

Not sure why OP started this thread. Perhaps looking for validation, perhaps looking to boast a bit about how she is a superior parent and DS is a superior student for not going with the ensuite option.

Progress is meant to make life easier and more enjoyable. It's fine to be envious and wish you'd had those things, but trying to hide that by sneering at "poncery" and calling people soft is so transparent it's laughable.

I started uni in 2009. I had a flip phone and an iPod touch. It's hardly surprising that bathroom facilities have also upgraded in those 14 years.

For the love of fuck. I used the word "poncery" in what I thought was a tongue-in-cheek flowery use of language sort of way. I should have put the dreaded light hearted in my OP.

I've found the thread very interesting. I had no idea that so many Universities make money in the holidays from letting out their rooms. Interesting also to see everyone's different experiences with shared accommodation and ensuite accommodation over the past 40 years or so. It seems it really varies a lot!

And for the final time I am not jealous or envious. Even if we had another £20 or £30 k income per year I think I could find things I'd sooner spend it on than an ensuite shower room for either of my DC at University. That's just the mean-minded toxic old bag I am, I guess!

I think most people realise that the thread is lighthearted OP. I have found it quite interesting and it has made me realise that a lot of people seem to pay for the children accommodation which surprises me. I just gave my children the amount they would have received if they had a full loan plus a bit extra and let them choose what to spend their money on. One choice ensuite, the other didn't.

I think most people realise the thread was intended as a judgey smugfest and then the OP backtracked when called out tbf.

Plus ça change.

I've found the replies about Universities maximising their income by renting out rooms in the holidays to be very interesting - I hadn't thought about that.

Warwick has done that for years. When I was a child (I am now in my late fifties) my mother (a teacher) attended summer school run by Warwick.

They were in the halls of residence then. It isn't a new thing.

My DD1 went to Warwick. As far as I could tell most of the halls had ensuite rooms.

We're going to a uni open day next week, some blocks are all ensuite, in some blocks ensuite and non ensuite are the same price!
No idea if anyone would actively choose a shared bathroom in that scenario or whether you'd just be unlucky enough to be allocated one!

I was at St Andrews in the 1970s and they used to rent out the rooms in holidays. They were not en suite.

That was 50 years ago. The world has moved on. Lots of hotels etc didn't have ensuite rooms in the 70s! Now you're hard pressed to find hotels without ensuites. People paying for Summer schools, conferences, businesses, etc will expect ensuite.

Different standards of accommodation, different room sizes, different facilities for socialising, i.e. kitchen only or kitchen with living area/tv etc. Unis usually have a mix of older and newer accommodation, some with single beds, some with doubles, some are more modern and others are a bit run down, etc etc. Ensute rooms tend to be smaller due to the size taken up by the ensuite. Ensuites themselves vary, some have a bath or proper sized shower enclosure, some are smaller and basically a wet room. You really need to go on an accommodation tour to get the gist of all the variations.

Just to note: most universities depend on the conference trade these days, and during vacations, most student rooms will be used by conference delegates. This brings in a significant proportion of the universities' income. Therefore -apart from concern for the students themselves- universities seek to provide comfortable enough conditions to attract conference organizers and delegates. What's wrong with the students benefitting from these conditions?

Also, of course, the students nowadays are paying 9000 a year just for the fees, so have a right to expect reasonably good conditions.

And a higher proportion than in the past (over half) are female, and many of them live in mixed halls, so an ensuite becomes more important.