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!

When SC went a few years ago it cost an extra £3k for an ensuite room! £3k!!! I’m tight so would have shared to save that. It’s a big chunk of change

I thought the same as you and advised eldest dd according. I think she wished she had had an ensuite though as the toilets and showers in her flat were filthy apparently. I think in the 80s they were cleaned every day whereas now it is once a week.

You must be a bit of a shit parent if you think parents should give DC everything they want.
18 year olds can want, parents don't have to give.
You also don't seem to understand that there are multiple configurations of en-suite. in a shared room for example it's two people to a bathroom.

Personally I wouldn't want to share with more than 3 others and if it's between that or en-suite I'd happily take the latter.

Also... never underestimate how much other people can dirty a bathroom!

I grew up in a house with 10 people, one bathroom. Nobody dirtied it though or they'd have felt the full wrath of my DM/GM. Even I won't share bathrooms with loads of strangers.

Yeah it's so they can rent them out easier the holidays for conferences etc. Would you go and do a work course and have a shared bathroom? I wouldn't. My student slumming days are long over.

I gave my son a choice between basic shared, premium shared and premium plus shared or basic ensuite. I didn't give him the option of premium en suite which was also available as that was crazy money. He went for premium plus shared which was still less that basic ensuite. Thank god he did as it's not exactly luxury so god knows what basic was like 😂.

Also shared bathrooms get cleaned once every 2 weeks, the ensuite they have to clean themselves so he instantly saw the benefit of shared. Some say it's more sociable too as you interact with people in the halls etc. A friend is worried about their daughter who doesn't seem to have left her ensuite room yet in fresher's week.

I agree, it's a bit pampered but if I'd been offered it I'd probably have taken it.

Why were you indulged with a cleaner? Couldn't you have cleaned your own bathroom?😃

@Octavia64 oh, mine wanted one, and put them as her first choices. (They had to put 7 choices) She wasn't allocated one though. I think at her uni they are about £30 extra a week.

Not all Unis have cleaners to clean the shared bathrooms Birmingham doesnt.

Why on earth would I do that? I'm on holiday, not a student!

God help all these students who have to share a bathroom when they move out in the second year into a shared flat or house and for probably the next 10 years after that. Students aren't on holiday.

University, you say? When we were kids our dad used to slap us about the head with a copy of Encyclopedia Britannica.

I’d pay extra towards my child’s accommodation for an en-suite if the option was there. Sharing a bathroom with complete strangers , especially when some folk are just minging - no way if there’s a choice not too.

This.

Plus they had to pay cleaners when it's shared facilities.

This way you charge more and probably spend less as well as renting out out of the semester.

Many universities prefer to have at least some cleaning of communal areas otherwise they become disgusting. Of course, people should clean, but they don't.

If you want shared rooms, bunk beds and horrid shared loos though you can travel the world staying in hostels for the genuine 80's student experience, it's still available!

God help all these students who have to share a bathroom when they move out in the second year into a shared flat or house and for probably the next 10 years after that. Students aren't on holiday.

They'll know those people. And they can choose to share with only women.

Dh was in the nice halls at our uni so he got his own shower room. His halls also had a common room with a tv that had a decent signal, a laundry room and lockers for post so you didn't have to go to the post room that was only open in the mornings to get the post for your corridor. My uni place was dependent on me getting my GCSE English resit so I couldn't send my form off straight after the alevel results came out. So I was in the older halls where you had to haul your washing across the campus to the shared laundry room and we shared a bath, shower and 2 toilets between 6 of us. We were also further away from the pub. I didn't mind about sharing though because we had a bath and I didn't have to buy my own toilet roll!

In with you OP. My lad's just moved into halls. No luxury ensuite. He wanted to save money and get himself accustomed to sharing with others which seems sensible since he plans to join the Army at some point in the future. Proud of his maturity and resilience !

Why not, surely it's a suitable comparison - it is just the ongoing improvement of living standards

Do you really think students should deliberately be forced to suffer low standards because that is what people of the past had to endure

Exactly!

I remember the shitholes I lived in when I was a student as well! Doesn't mean I'd be happy for DD to live in the same, times have moved on. DD does have ASD / sensory needs, but even so, it's up to her how she wants to live. I think it's nice.

I HATE having to share a bathroom and would never voluntarily do it. Going away for a night with friends when i was younger and sharing a room was my worst nightmare. Now I'd just book my own room.

We have 3 toilets at home for 5 of us & sometimes that isn't enough!

My DC are the same and would never want to share a toilet or shower facilities with anyone other than family (would obviously prefer their own en suite at home too!).

I think it should be standard for all halls
The amount they pay for staying in halls too means the building managers can afford it too!

I think you might have mis-quoted me. I'm not a shit parent for not paying for the en-suite option for my two Uni student DC? Just dropped my son off at Uni where his rent is £170 p/w (no ensuite) not in London or Oxford/Cambridge - and there are two loos and two showers per landing of 5 rooms. I think he can survive. The ensuite option is £210 p/w.

I had an en-suite in 1997! Sharing the kitchen was rank enough, no way would I want to share a bathroom. Pampered princess that I am. I did work 18 hours a week all through my degree though.

Lower living standards? Sharing a bathroom with two or three other people?

You said:
"I don't really have a problem with it unless parents are having to dig deep to spend more than they want to because 18 year olds expect an en-suite."

But they don't. Nobody does. No parents needs to spend more than they want to because of what their DC expect. They give as much as they want to. End of.

You still have a problem with it, which is why you started an entire thread about it.

And universities...? What's all that about, then? In the 80s we left school the Friday we were 16 and were down the pit or in the biscuit factory on the Monday morning.

I didn’t even have a shower in my Halls. Just 2 huge old baths on each floor of 30. <reverie>