University halls of residence lost a cool $690,000 in 2020, due to the Covid lockdown.
Due to 2020 being the shitshow that it was, the Uni wasn’t quite able to cover all of their hall costs, and have since increased their intake of first-years in accommodation for this year. This is either to make back some money, or because now the gap year OE isn’t an option any more.
While the University did make $34,549,177 in revenue from halls of residences last year, it wasn’t enough to cover the operational costs of $35,239,610 across all halls. For those among us who haven’t touched maths in a while, that deficit comes out to around $690,000 (nice).
For reference, in 2019 the Uni took in a little under $37 million in revenue from halls, and $35 million in 2018. Part of the reason for this financial “underperformance” is the fee rebates given to students who were home over lockdown during 2020. We don’t know how much the Uni is forecasting in revenue for 2021, but we do know that they accepted nearly 5400 applications for 2021 entry into halls of residence, and after students were accepted, only 26 students were on a waiting list as of March 10 this year.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, Abbey College dumped all of their postgrads at the end of last year and was promptly renamed Caroline Freeman East, as an extension of the college across the road. Additionally, the fancy Executive Residence is now being used as part of UniCol, which is a quality of living that freshers absolutely don’t deserve. First years have also been slotted into Uni Flats or homestay accommodation, but thankfully the Uni didn’t go with the nuclear option of leasing a hotel for the year (imagine freshers getting pissed up at the Scenic).