Rent for nothing : The impact of Covid on students

The lockdown put in place after Christmas has left many students at home unable to travel back to their accommodation because of the restrictions. While preventing students from travelling back to university is understandable, it has also left many students paying for accommodation they are not living in. This is a problem experienced in both university-owned accommodation and in the private sector.

The University of Sheffield has given refunds to student living in its halls of residence which covers two weeks rent before the Christmas break when students were instructed to return home by the government during the ‘travel window’. The University has also provided a refund for the rent taken between 4th January to 22nd February. However, students living in the accommodation argue that this simply is not good enough and over 100 students have now gone on rent strike in retaliation.

One of the leading students of the strike stated that the University has ‘failed to support isolating students’ and reported that students had been told to ‘clean their laundry in the kitchen sink’. One of the demands of the strike is a rent refund of 30% for the entire year, a similar demand to those seen in the strikes which took place at the University of Manchester in November last year. This is not the only rent strike either. Other universities across England are also seeing students go on rent strike and the general message is that support for student during the pandemic has not be sufficient.

However, the forgotten students within this situation are those currently living under private landlords. With families to feed themselves, landlords appear to be less reluctant to give out refunds and so these students have a more difficult battle to fight. Furthermore, since this is the private sector, the decisions of the landlords to refuse refunds is out of the control of the universities so if there was a decision made to refund students, those living in private accommodation will not benefit. Therefore, more must be done to provide support for students during this pandemic.

The lockdown restrictions have a had a clear impact on the mental health in England with one student dying of suicide every week during the first few weeks of term. If refunds are not rewarded, then something else must be provided to students to help them with their studies.

As for me, I am currently completing the first year of my degree, at home, and on my kitchen table since I am not permitted to return to campus. This is the reality for many people and not just students. However, at the beginning of the year we were promised an education and social life that was as close to the normal standards as possible. The first year at university is a difficult year for many and so social activities provided by the university usually help these people to settle into a life away from home. But I had very few opportunities to meet other people on my course and so settling in was a lot more difficult than it would have been pre-COVID-19. At home, the opportunities will be even less frequent. I know that I am not alone in thinking this and so it clear that some compensation is owed to students, like me, who clearly did not receive the standards of support that was promised before arriving at university.

Edited by Victoria Sales