Glasgow University students protest 'ridiculously slow' action on housing

Students at the University of Glasgow have plastered windows and bus stops with posters to protest the current accommodation situation at the higher education institution.

It comes as huge numbers of students have struggled to secure housing since the start of term. Many have been placed in short term hotels or are sofa surfing with friends.

The posters put up near the main University of Glasgow campus read: “Glasgow University does not welcome you.”

One of the students involved in the protest told STV News: “We’ve done this because the university’s action has been ridiculously slow and ridiculously minimal.

“Prospective students and their parents need to know what environment they would be coming into if they came to this university.

“They need to know they’re entering an incredibly difficult housing market, and they will be students at a university that fails time and time again to support its students properly”.

A number of students have lodged a formal complaint against the institution for their handling of the accommodation shortage.

Rents in Glasgow have soared in recent months, with a one-bed flat available for £900 per month receiving more than 500 applications earlier this month.

The University of Glasgow maintains that student numbers have not significantly increased and say they have 25% more housing available for students this year.

A spokesperson for the University of Glasgow said: “Regrettably, due to a significant contraction in the private rental market, demand for rooms continues to be substantially ahead of expectation in Glasgow and more broadly across Scotland and the UK.”

But the University of Glasgow has been condemned over its lack of accommodation provision, after students were warned not to enrol in courses or travel to the city if they were unable to secure a flat in advance.

Last month, the university pulled a “guarantee” on offers of flats due to an “unprecedented number of applications” from those arriving on campus.

It has left many frantically applying to letting agents and being forced to “sofa-surf” with friends.

One student group told STV News that some 70 students had reached out to them for help with homelessness.