Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association

The hostel, or hall of residence, is the popular choice of most first year tertiary students around the country when deciding where to live, as they venture to new cities to engage in full-time study. These hostels, although coordinated by the Universities, are most often under private ownership, usually by large domestic companies, private trusts, even multi-national corporations. Victoria offers six major halls of residence to its prospective first-year students, and a number of minor hostels. Of these, only one is under direct ownership by Victoria University, the others by private enterprise. This private ownership of student accommodation has led to the inevitable outcome; further profit-driven exploitation of an already vulnerable sector of society.

When a hostel is acquired as an asset by private enterprise it is instantly corporatised, providing the lowest quality service possible to minimize cost and maximise returns. In 2008, residents of the popular student hostel Unicomm (now known as Ustay), staged a protest campaign in response to substandard living conditions and high fees. Consisting of three individual hostels – Mckenzies, Cumberland, and Education House – Ustay currently houses just over five hundred residents, and is owned by the Dutch transnational finance and asset company, the ING Group. With a total revenue of over 76billion Euros last year, ING is this year the ninth largest corporation on the planet. With assistance from VUWSA, residents of Unicomm were awarded over 100 thousand dollars in compensation by their corporate landlords in 2008.

Campaigning for better student accommodation has long been a priority for VUWSA. Student flats are of notoriously poor quality, in Wellington and other student centres all over the country. The financial strain of funding full-time study often forces students into low-value housing. Expenses such as power bills are difficult to service and many students will go cold before turning on a heater. VUWSA liaises with various community organisations annually to coordinate a Warm Student Flats campaign to raise awareness of student hardship and the negative consequences of cold flats. VUWSA also sporadically coordinates an event known as Box City, where students are given the opportunity to build houses from cardboard boxes on campus for prizes. As well as being fun, the Box City campaign helps to raise awareness about the poor quality of student housing. In addition to supporting disgruntled residents last year VUWSA is this year conducting research into how the student hall system may better serve students, and is developing means of raising awareness around issues relating to student hostels.

VUWSA has developed a good working relationship with Ustay management this year, and appreciates the steps Ustay have taken to help provide a good level of accommodation to students.

If you have feedback on your hostel or landlord, VUWSA would like to hear about it. Contact Seamus Brady at president@vuwsa.org.nz or on 04 463 6986.