Students turn to wifi and flat screen tvs as digs go upmarket
There once was a time when student accommodation meant mouldy walls, a broken toaster and a leaking shower, a time when students had to wear multiple jumpers in the winter to keep warm.
Parents might have been appalled, but the dingy student grotto used to be a rite of passage: a rejection of home and clean sheets and spotless ovens. Not any more. The launch this month of several high-profile luxury student studios, with wi-fi, a flat-screen TV and even a dishwasher is part of a new trend in university living: accommodation for the posh student.
Whereas private accommodation providers made up about 2 per cent of the full-time student accommodation market a decade ago, today the figure is closer to 10 per cent. Unite, the largest provider in the UK, has been opening an average of 13 student residences a year for the past seven years has and created 2,856 beds this year alone …