A fifth straight year of rises in university halls
Campus rents have risen by an average of a third in five years, with the cheapest room at one university now costing 53 per cent more than in 2022/23, as students face a fifth consecutive annual increase they describe as unjustified. Halls are marketed as the secure option, and on these numbers they have been the fastest-rising cost in a student’s budget. Finding student housing covers weighing halls against a house.
Reform retreats after threatening a university’s funding
Splits have appeared among Reform politicians after the party’s shadow home secretary threatened to pull funding from Bangor University when its debating society banned a Reform MP from speaking. The threat has been withdrawn. It is a useful marker of where the free speech argument now sits: a society’s decision drew a funding threat from a national party within a month.
A students’ union president elected on standing up to the far right
Warwick’s students’ union has elected Ollie Chapman as president, pledging to show the far right they are not welcome, in an election otherwise decided by narrow margins. Union presidents hold a paid sabbatical post for a year, sit on the university’s governing body, and control the union’s budget — which is more power than the turnout usually reflects. Students’ union explained covers the role.