The endless march of building yet more student accommodation

[samssong]

i understand all that and you may be right, but the message put out by brexit to the world plus the potential loss of research funding, plus the growing quality and falling costs of universities in closer places like Australia / new zealand means students from the places you mentioned are starting to look elsewhere.. i work for the uni and they are worried at the min.

 

---------- Post added 29-01-2017 at 12:14 ----------

 

 

A lot of the land and disused factories were left empty because large developers bought them and sat on them for years just waiting for a time to develop. i used to rent rehearsal rooms in both areas and you'd be surprised how many were owned by the same company and were left. There are a huge amount of artists/ skilled people and bands looking for rehearsal rooms, studios and workshops in Sheffield. we had a great community almost going on in the cultural industries quarter. Now they've kicked us all out and it is impossible to find anywhere suitable at a decent price anymore, its all bloody apartments or soon to be apartments.

 

we now have 3 or 4 bands sharing one room because there's nothing else. This is the same with any artist or bands i speak to, unless you can spend £1000 upwards on a industrial unit or willing to cram yourselves into a room the size of a single bedroom for £300 a month your screwed. Some of our best music exports and artists started because we had places to do it, def leopard, arctic monkeys all started playing in factories and old workshops theres very few left.

The CIQ should have been set aside for cultural industries and protected. Who wants to live in a city center that has nothing but housing? where do we all go now?[/quote

Working mens clubs .

They all used to do audition nights that doubled up as practice sessions .

Members got mid week entertainment , the groups got practise and experience .

Ask around the clubs .

[drummer54as]

Working mens clubs .

They all used to do audition nights that doubled up as practice sessions .

Members got mid week entertainment , the groups got practise and experience .

Ask around the clubs .

 

 

( dunno why i posted that twice )

 

i think they are a dying thing WMC's. plus most bands these days want a room to lock up and store gear, plenty of places to gig around. finding somewhere to practice with access and storage is another thing. Only need a room and some plug sockets cant imagine how hard that is to find lol. Thanks for suggestion tho!

[The Joker]

How do you know that heavy industry will not return ( World economics change all the time and China and India's cheap (slave) labour will not last forever.

 

With a population of 1billion each, the Chinese and the Indians won't be running out of slaves for many years yet.

 

In the meantime, the good people of the fair city of Sheffield deserve homes.

[drummer54as]

Ok Drummer.

It sounds to me that your concerns regard postgraduate students who will be engaged in research. I am mainly talking about undergraduates studying for Batchelor's Degrees and most of their time will be spent following taught subject modules which are already established.

I don't know what proportion of the UoS student cohort are post grad, but I would expect that the vast bulk are undergrad.

 

Finally we have your suggestion that potential students might look elsewhere because of cost. However it has always been my understanding that foreign students come to study in the UK because a qualification gained at a UK university, studied in the British English Language is generally regarded as prestigious and gives them access to work in the whole of the English speaking world.

If they wanted to do it cheaper they could probably study in their own country, even in English as many countries have English language schools, colleges and universities.

 

I hope your right dude, as more students means more money for Sheffield and means better job security for me!

 

I'm just going by what Ive heard from above and the general chat from departments around uni.

 

A qualification gained at UK universities aren't as sought after as they once were, like i say there are English speaking countries closer by and a lot of their uni's are just as good as ours (unless you wanna go to oxford etc) but we are talking about Sheffield in particular.

Also the message put out by Brexit to the world (whether it affects anything or not) is that we aren't as open and welcoming anymore. There are also supposed plans to lower student visa numbers which won't help and again funding may be affected by Brexit, which might not have an impact on a lot of students but it does for the image of the uni and if research starts slipping behind others that has a worse impact as well.

 

If the university was expecting numbers to stay steady or rise they probably wouldn't be handing out redundancies and cutting staff...which is effecting every department. Anyway i hope you are right! more students is better for everyone! ...Moving back to the thread...Imo based on what Ive mentioned we probably will have enough accommodation once existing developments are finished, never mind any more.... my main concern really is how they look and what buildings they are replacing. They are Usually designed with minimal cost - max profit. that add nothing to the surrounding streets, just a long strip you walk past and barley notice.

 

I'm for more if they are needed, are designed better or at least interesting and don't replace buildings that have character or space that is used for bands/workshops.studios etc because we will be all busking on street soon with nowhere to go

[chriscalcite]

If the university was expecting numbers to stay steady or rise they probably wouldn't be handing out redundancies and cutting staff...which is effecting every department. Anyway i hope you are right! more students is better for everyone!

 

Although the Uni has a general recruitment freeze and has run a voluntary severance scheme, some parts of my faculty and my department in particular are actively hiring. All three of academic, admin and support staff. Student numbers (both undergrad and postgrad) are up and we need the staff to cope. Apparently not all subjects are worthless to employers

[drummer54as]

Although the Uni has a general recruitment freeze and has run a voluntary severance scheme, some parts of my faculty and my department in particular are actively hiring. All three of academic, admin and support staff. Student numbers (both undergrad and postgrad) are up and we need the staff to cope. Apparently not all subjects are worthless to employers

 

 

Good news!

[glennpickard]

I would have thought that a degree from an English university would still be a big plus. The city of Sheffield needs to promote itself to students all over the world esp. SE Asia, being aware of the heavy Chinese investments on the horizon. Are they still in the pipeline ?

 

Someone mentioned building quality. This is one thing that the city has consistently done badly at. It needs a massive boost

 

 

Re practice halls for bands. Yes most of the working men's clubs in the east and NE used to have a hall for the acts they brought in !

[Douglas J]

I would have thought that a degree from an English university would still be a big plus. The city of Sheffield needs to promote itself to students all over the world esp. SE Asia, being aware of the heavy Chinese investments on the horizon. Are they still in the pipeline ?

 

 

Like the plan to hand over the Central Library to become a hotel?

[AndrewC]

How do you know that heavy industry will not return ( World economics change all the time and China and India's cheap (slave) labour will not last forever.

 

This means if and when a turnaround happens all our City's industrial areas will be full of yuppi and student flats , flats that will rapidly empty when the student bubble bursts . and it will:help:

 

Whilst the student bubble may burst, that would in no way mean a return to the heavy industry of yesteryear, and even if some kind of industrial revival did happen in this country, I doubt the city centres would be the preferred choice of geographical location for new premises etc.

 

Look at the AMRC out at Waverley for an example of what happens when industry of a kind makes its return to a place like Sheffield. Large, land-hungry warehouses aren't suitable in high-demand, high-density city centres. Things were different 100 years ago, samssong.

[Revel]

Yes, there is too much student accommodation in Sheffield.

Yes, I would rather see more retail developments and flats that can be rented by everybody.

But, there just isn't demand for high-end apartments in Sheffield. It's not a bustling metropolis... Velocity Tower is apparently still half-empty, hence why the final few floors never got built.

 

At least the student accommodation sites are providing some regeneration to Sheffield.

This city would be a much, much poorer place without the two universities.

 

Also, if/when the student accommodation bubble does burst, they'd be easy to convert to normal apartments.

Edited January 31, 2017 by Revel