PALATINATE The UK and Ireland’s Best Student Publication, 2021
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Wednesday 28th September 2022 | No. 852
Satire ponder Rishi Sunak’s future
Profile talk to space engineer Sian Cleaver
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Freshers angered by college allocation delays Joe Rossiter Editor-in-Chief Incoming students have been left outraged by delays in accommodation allocation which left some freshers without a confirmed college until 16th September. A significant number of incoming students and parents spoke to Palatinate to express frustration
at the pace of admissions and enrolment at the University. Many complained that they had not been given a college, and so did not know where their accommodation would be, leading to delayed preparations for starting at Durham. The University had told incoming students that colleges would be allocated by 12th September, but this was pushed back to 16th September, a mere eight days before the start of
freshers’ week, when students arrive in the city. One incoming student said: “Durham waited until a day before the deadline to send out my offer and the decisions regarding four of my friends.” They described the process of registering with the University as “extremely stressful. Sending emails was seen as “futile, as I received the standard: ‘The decision will have
been made before the deadline’” response. The “lack of information available and the absence of communication” was thought of as “simply unacceptable” by the student. This led, they said, to a perception of Durham’s admissions team as “completely inaccessible,” aside from an online chat service, which the individual found “useless.” The student
argued that these delays and inaccessibility added “an extra level of unnecessary stress” to an already stressful process. They noted: “No one at any other university that my friends and people around me applied to have had to experience anything like this,” and said that they believed Durham “are relying on the prestige of the University to run their operations, Continued on Page 3
Private housing market “now at breaking point” Waseem Mohamed News Editor Durham’s private housing market is “now at breaking point,” Durham Students’ Union have said, as students face a double-edge sword of increasing rent costs and abnormally early housing releases. The annual rush to secure properties for the next academic year may have already begun this month, with over 100 private homes already being listed for the 2023/24 academic year at relatively high prices. Palatinate analysis has found that as of 24th September, there were 104 homes being advertised on the search platform StuRents, with only seven of these homes being priced at less than £120 per person per week (pppw). 70% of the homes currently listed are managed by the Durham branch of student lettings agency Loc8me. While most of their advertised properties do come with full bills included, students will have to pay anywhere from £124pppw to as much as £212pppw for one of their properties, depending on where
they choose to live in the city. Another letting agent, Complete Student Homes, is currently advertising nine priorities to rent in highly sought-out locations including The Viaduct and Elvet Crescent, close to the university’s main site. However, eight of these properties cost at least £185pppw and none of them come with bills included. Students living in private accommodation this year meanwhile are being warned of unexpected costs due to the rise in energy bill prices, despite the government recently announcing that household energy bills will be capped at an average of £2,500 this year. Those student with ‘no bills included’ contracts are likely to pay much more for their energy this year, but even those on contracts with ‘bills included’ are at risk if they breach their ‘fair usage’ policies, which allocate tenants a restricted amount of utilities they can use for the year. Victoria Tolmie-Loverseed of Unipol, a student housing company, Continued on Page 3
Floral tributes were left at Millenium Place after the death of Queen Elizabeth II (Adeline Zhao)
Getting involved with us: a freshers’ guide Welcome to Durham! We hope that your time at the University will be a happy one, and that Palatinate will be a staple of your termly reading. Any student, of any year, with any level experience, can write for the newspaper. Here’s how you can get involved:
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Vacancies
We regularly hire new members to join our team, and currently have a number of positions open. Applications close on Friday 30th September at 5pm. Full details are on page 7; contact us to ask any questions.
Meet our team
To welcome new students, we are running an event this Friday 30th September, 1-3pm in the Library Bar. Come along to meet our editors, ask us anything and learn more about our award-winning paper.