Up to 88 students could move in to the “Festival Gardens” temporary student village on Sunday, being built to house people without long-term accommodation, with more cabins set to arrive in the following days.
The cabins, which measure 3 by 3 meters, can house two people. Chris Spendlove, registrar at the University of Lincoln, said that there would be “by the middle of next week 100 cabins on the site”.
In an interview with BBC Lincolnshire, he said the waiting list for accommodation consisted of up to 200 students, which could all be housed in twin cabins but did not expect that all of those students would need them – and that people would have cabins to themselves “as soon as humanly possible”.
“Our aim is to get as many students in to single occupancy as we can and we expect that a number of the individuals on that waiting list have actually found some alternative accommodation but not yet informed us,” he said.
Spendlove said parents should feel confident as they’re “doing something to take care of this”, and assured that everybody who arrived on Sunday would have somewhere to stay. He said: “I’m not apologising for taking care of every student who needs to be provided with some accommodation at the University of Lincoln.”
There will initially be “sufficient capacity for 88 students in this village”, with others staying in hotels, but the number of students staying there will not be known until Sunday.
He claimed the university has “housed everybody in permanent accommodation who’d applied to us by the 21st August”.
The Linc approached the university on Thursday to confirm details about the cost per week to students and how long they have been booked for, but was told they “can’t confirm these finer details at the moment”.
The installation of the cabins began on Thursday, and are fully powered, heated and include two single beds, two desks, a flushing toilet and shower.
Photos posted by a student on Facebook show the interior of the cabins, but before they have had any decoration from the university.
Is this a joke!? Good to see that University fees are being but to good use.