www.thecourieronline.co.uk Tuesday 3 March 2015 Issue 1307 Free
UNION ELECTIONS All the runners in this week’s scramble for power p. 13
“No-one chose Hendo. Most didn’t even know about this place”
The Independent Voice of Newcastle Students
Est 1948 Photo: Cat Schroeter
As the Uni unveils plans more new halls, we look at what life is like for residents in accommodation at the end of its lifespan By Mark Sleightholm Online News Editor
Just 77 students are living in the University’s forgotten student accommodation site, three miles away from campus. The University has been planning to shut down Henderson Hall for several years, but shortages of student accommodation elsewhere meant that it was still needed, until this year. Now just Old Hall is occupied, and the rest of the buildings are empty. Most of the on-site facilities, including a TV Room and Bar, are housed in the other blocks, mostly built in the 1960s. Some of the rooms in these blocks contained warning signs for asbestos. A spokesperson from Accommodation and Hospitality Services confirmed that currently available to students at Henderson Hall are Reception, TV Room, Computer Cluster and Laundry facilities. The majority of rooms currently occupied in Henderson Hall are en suite, and are considerably cheaper than any other en-suite rooms available to undergraduates, at just £102.48 a week. This price reflects the remoteness of Henderson Hall from both the University and the city centre. A bus service connects the accommodation to the city centre, although the journey takes about 20 minutes – longer than most first years have to spend travelling to university. Henderson Hall’s isolated position is compensated slightly by a large Sainsbury’s nearby, but on site facilities provided by the University are limited to a laundry room, computer cluster and TV room. Sam Busby, a first year Maths student, said: “I’d say it was cheaper than some of the other places but I think it’s still overpriced because we didn’t get WiFi when we came here, we don’t have a TV license or anything, and we’re only paying a fraction less, really.” Another student, Yasmin McConnell, said of the distance from University: “Now that I know my way around it’s not so bad, because I’ve walked before
and it only takes me half an hour or 40 minutes, which I don’t mind, but I know that some people really don’t like the distance.” She continued: “It’s a bit less social because the lounges are so separate from the kitchen... My friends live at Ricky Road and it’s really open so they see their flatmates all the time and I feel like I hardly see mine... But I think it’s good, I still like it here.” Of the 77 students currently living at Henderson Hall, 9 have applied for a room transfer since September 2014. This works out at about 12%, a far higher percentage than at other undergraduate accommodation sites, where the request rate is generally between 3% and 6%. The proportion of postgraduate students requesting room transfers to other sites is higher, at an average of about 9%: still lower than the figure for Henderson Hall. Yasmin continued: “Most people I’ve asked, no-one put this as their choice at all, they didn’t even know about this place.” Sam added that it was his last choice of accommodation, although both students stated that they are happy there, describing a “community feel”. From next year Old Hall will be used solely as postgraduate accommodation, with 71 en-suite bedrooms costing £102.48 a week and 6 rooms with shared bathrooms, that will cost £85.68 a week, making it some of the cheapest postgraduate accommodation at Newcastle. Much of the existing postgraduate accommodation is on small sites, such as Grand Hotel, which houses just 66 students, although the majority is much closer to campus than Henderson Hall. The remaining buildings are set to be demolished, although the University has not yet decided for definite what it will do with the land afterwards. One suggestion is to put in all weather pitches. Nothing can be done, however, about Henderson Hall’s location. As Yasmin pointed out: “Most people... are happy with the accommodation itself, I think it’s the distance why some people don’t like it, because it’s so far.”
Uni crash to second successive Stan Calvert defeat Reports and analysis in 8-page pullout inside