Manchester Met students offered halls 30 miles away from campus
Uni of Manchester students have also been asked to consider taking £2500 to not accept their place in halls
Last updated 3rd Sep 2022
Some new students starting Manchester Metropolitan University this month have been offered accommodation as far away as Liverpool and Huddersfield.
This is because the University has run out of rooms in the city to house the new students.
In an attempt to compensate for this, Manchester Met has offered to cover travel costs up to £100 of the freshers facing the 30 mile commute.
The University of Manchester has found itself in a similar position with oversubscribed halls and is currently offering all prospective students £2500 to not take up their accommodation place.
They say this will hopefully free up some spaces for those currently unable to get a halls space.
New Manchester Metropolitan student Joe Carman told us he has been offered a halls place in Liverpool but has since declined it.
He said: "No-one wants to live in Liverpool and go to Manchester University, all of our friends are going to be in Manchester.
"If you're going out with your friends, you'd have to get the last train home at 11, It's just not convenient at all.
"It's definitely made me think about deferring a year because I don't have anywhere to go and that's scary.
"I don't think this is something that a student excited to be going to uni should be feeling 2 weeks before starting."
A Manchester Metropolitan University spokesperson said on this matter: “Manchester is an incredibly popular student city and there is significant demand for accommodation.
"We have offered places to our target student numbers this year and planned our accommodation based on long-term experience of how many of those offers are likely to be accepted, while also building in a considerable cushion.
“However, significantly more offer-holders than anticipated have been accepting and meeting the conditions of our offer.
“The issue around accommodation availability affects around 2% of undergraduate students planning to join us in September.
“While we continue to work hard to secure accommodation for them in the city region, we are now providing temporary options with our private hall partners in Liverpool and Huddersfield. We will cover travel costs to Manchester for any students who take up this offer.
“We know that this will be disappointing for them, and we are doing everything we can to find them to rooms in Manchester as soon as we can.”