NUS Student Accommodation Survey launch

I went to the launch of the NUS Student Accommodation Cost Survey at the Marylebone campus of Westminster University yesterday.

The survey is intended to define accommodation costs for UK students and to improve the value for money that they get, be it in institutional accommodation, private halls of residence or privately rented housing.

The aim of the survey is a valid one and will hopefully lead to significant improvements in the standard of student accommodation. The talk was interesting, with the ever-entertaining Boris Johnson pitting the Tory point of view against Bill Rammell, the Higher Education Minister.

Veronica King, the NUS VP for welfare, was also on the panel and she made a strong case for the need for action to ensure students are not frozen out of higher education by spiralling accommodation costs. Despite the success of the debate I came away from the event wondering how much difference the NUS is actually capable of making.

Nobody could deny that it is very good at organising events, rallying support and getting its message across, but as with the march against increasing tuition fees that Rachael and I covered for Smoke News, I'm not convinced that the government takes it seriously enough.

As I'm writing this I can find no evidence on the internet that the Admission:Impossible campaign earlier this year has prompted any revision of government policy. I hope that's not a pattern.