Students from University College London (UCL) have been awarded nearly £300,000 in compensation by the university, just one month after another group won £100,000, following a dispute over noisy, rat-infested accommodation.
Last week, UCL’s complaints panel awarded 238 former residents of the student accommodation at Hawkridge House, in Kentish Town, around £1,200 each, the equivalent of nine weeks’ rent.
The students had been embroiled in a dispute with the university over living conditions described as like living on a construction site, caused by building work that disrupted their sleep and ability to study for their exams, as well as rodent infestations.
Freddy MacKee, a former master’s student at UCL and Hawkridge House resident, said: “It was really difficult. You couldn’t study in your own room if you wanted to because of the noise. I wasted a lot of time because I’d have to go somewhere else to study and spend time complaining.”
Some students complained that works began before 9am, outside of the contracted working hours.
Some also feared being watched in their own rooms, with many resorting to closing the curtains during the day as construction workers would be directly outside their windows.
Andres Morales Interiano, a postgraduate student who also lived in Hawkridge House during the dispute, said: “After several weeks of poor treatment in the residences and months of fighting and waiting for an answer, I feel this was a positive outcome.”
The building work began in January but was originally due to have been completed by then. Students withheld their rent payments in May and held a demonstration in June after becoming dissatisfied with the university’s response to their concerns.
Angus O’Brien, UCL union’s halls and accommodation representative, said the outcome highlights “the strength of student organising”.
He added: “The residents were ignored for months, treated merely as consumers with no real control over their own homes, but their actions have forced a change in dynamic between resident and university.”
The university’s complaints panel criticised UCL’s handling of the latest case as “demonstrating a lack of empathy towards the students’ circumstances” and said the living conditions were unacceptable.
In a letter addressed to O’Brien, which closely mirrors that sent to students in October, Rex Knight, vice-provost responsible for operations and chair of UCL’s complaints panel, also spoke of “insufficient consideration ... given to the likely impact on students of the building work ... there was no plan to mitigate the level of disturbance.”
He said the information provided to students before taking up their accommodation failed to give sufficient detail of the demolition works to enable students to understand the full extent of the nature of the works prior to moving in.
The high cost of student accommodation is becoming a frontline issue in higher education. Anabel Bennett López, an activist from UCL’s Cut the Rent campaign, said the protests by the students at Hawkridge House and Campbell House showed their willingness to take direct action.
She said: “This victory comes just as pressure is ramping up on UCL to drop rents across the board. This shows that they are capable of doing it and that mass rent strike action is the effective and democratic way that we can force down the cost of living in London.”
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