Students’ Preferences

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31221, 19 November 1966, Page 18

Students’ Preferences

Living at home is preferred by 23.5 per cent of students, in university flats, by 22.1 per cent, in halls of residence, by 18.8 per cent, and in private flats by 17.1 per cent. Boarding is preferred by only 11.3 per cent, and hostels are the least popular. These are the findings of Dr. C. H. Gray and Miss Barbara Croy, of the sociology department of the University of Canterbury, after surveying a wide cross-section of 332 of the 2650 single, fulltime students at the university. The investigators found that 75 per cent of the students interviewed lived at home or boarded, the remainder being split fairly evenly between flats and halls of residence. Living Costs Living costs (including means, gas, electricity, food, travel and rent) for students living at home were less, with a median of £1 8s 5d a week, compared with £5 12s for halls and £4 4s for flats. The overall median cost was £3 14s lid. “Those at home are the most content and those in halls the least so,” says the report. About 85 per cent of students rated their present facilities as good or excellent, but specific points of dissatisfaction, according to housing type, included “heating and eating” in halls and study problems in private board. Students living away from home preferred university flats and university halls (about 27 per cent each), private flats (20.2 per cent), and board (17.5 per cent). Of these more men preferred halls and more women preferred flats. Gauging Demand In attempting to gauge the demand for various types of housing the survey indicated

that for halls, university, flats, private flats, and hostels demand exceeded the supply, but that in opportunities for board and living at home the supply exceeded the demand. ■ In the total sample the positive demand for univer- i sity flats was three times as great as the demand for halls , of residence, possibly because university flats did not at present exist. “Only university halls have positive demand and there is a negative

demand for church halls," the report says. The report notes that the demand for halls is high in the students’ first year at university, whereas flats become popular later. The survey says that in terms of student preferences, church housing could have empty beds in 1980. However, a warning is given that further research is needed to determine the stability of preferences.