Accommodation Question - Room Sharing?

[Cranmer]

My DC has chosen a London university and, because money is tight, back in February when accommodation for September was released they chose a shared room. (Single rooms, self catered, were £280+ a WEEK).

As most universities are moving to online lectures to be socially distanced what will happen to shared rooms? Some rooms are doubles and some are triples. I know Durham and Edinburgh also offer shared rooms too.

[Phphion]

I would imagine that with the expected fall in student numbers, the double rooms will just be used for single occupancy initially, with the proviso that the single occupant may be required to share at a later date, depending on changes to social distancing and overseas students coming to study in person, etc.

An alternative would be to just designate them as single rooms and say there are no doubles and everyone has to pay a single room rate, but I think universities would be keen to avoid that as it would leave some of the poorest students unable to afford accommodation.

Back in the day, I lived in a very unpopular intercollegiate hall in London and the occupants of double rooms were offered the option of both remaining in their double or splitting up and one either moving to a vacant single (and paying single room rate) or moving to a vacant double (and paying the same as if they were sharing) with the understanding that anyone in an under-occupied double essentially had a vacant space in their room that could be filled if the hall managed to find anyone to take it (they never did).