Accommodation at Bedfordshire University

Accommodation at Bedfordshire University in the United Kingdom

The University of Bedfordshire in the United Kingdom has a defined system of accommodation, which gives students a chance of choice for the area and form of accommodation. This might be from the private or the school based program. However, the school-based program of accommodation is reserved for the first year students. In their subsequent years of study, the students have a chance of choice between retaining their identity as residential or non-residential. Some of the students remain within the university accommodation premises while some move out to find other private services that aid in accommodation.

In the school based accommodation plan, students live in halls run and managed by the administration. This gives the students room, and opportunity to interact with their peers. The students are required to pay for the halls per term, with an exception of major holidays like Easter and Christmas. Booking of residential halls within the university premises involves filling in of accommodation forms, which are approved upon payment of the required fee depending on the nature of the housing. The halls range from modern to state of the art units, which have varied charges

On the other hand, rental housing provided outside the university premises are mostly for continuing students, who include the second year, third year and the fourth year students.  This way of enhancing accommodation is vital since it acts as a substitute program to the strained facilities within the environs of the university. It also involves lease periods that tally with agreements reached from the stipulation of the proprietor or the agent and signed by the student. However, there has been a decline on the number of students taking up this private accommodation program due to lack of prior attachment. This necessitates a research that could lead to prior articulation of students into the private accommodation program, whose findings will be essential for the administration to use the recommendations to merge up the private accommodation program into the school-based program, through admission of first year students into the rental apartments, to encourage prior acculturation.

Problem of Study

The number of students taking up private or rental accommodation at Bedfordshire University in the United Kingdom is on the decline. This is due to lack of prior experience resulting from intake of most of the first year students into the school based accommodation program. This calls for need for a merge up of these programs in order to have more consummation of first year students into the private rental business. This could lead to familiarity with conditions outside the university; hence, an increased number of intakes since the school based accommodation programs do not settle the student deficit. Finding the reason behind this move could lead to documentation of evidence, which could help end the stalemate of internal and external housing as a merge up of the two. This would harness a harmonious program that could lead to more enrolment of students (Thomas & Tight, 2011).

Literature Review

The system of admission into education programs at Bedfordshire University in the United Kingdom is inclined on a system that gives the first year students priority to internal accommodation over the continuing students. This has led to a major setback in terms of acculturation to the external environment, which is a difficulty to most students along the way. This has led to a decline in the number of students seeking external accommodation in subsequent years. For instance, most of the students living in the school halls are more willing to renew their contracts within the university premises than seek private accommodation outside the university immediately after the first year privilege of internal accommodation.

Most of the students have difficulties in coping up with the challenge of articulation into the private rental accommodation after their first year honeymoon period within the university premises. This has led to an increased strain on the resources vested to students seeking hostage at the university. A new recommendation seeks to have a merge up between the residential and non-residential programs to give students room of prior articulation and subsequent take off rental accommodation outside the university premises. This can be possible through direct admission of first year students into the rental accommodation to increase awareness of such a program, a justification to this study.

Methodology

The first step was to sample the number of students, who have completed their first year program and have already moved to private rental accommodation. This gave the first sample of study as the first step towards knowing the figure for comparison against subsequent years. The next step was to seek documented evidence of lease agreement from landlords over the number of students who have been embracing private accommodation programs for the last five years, especially those who have completed the first year programs. This gave the trend of shift of students over a period of five years, for substantial conclusions of study.

The next step was to obtain statistical data from current students serving in the school based accommodation program that sought their willingness to venture into private accommodation program. This involved filling in of the questioners to give the sample that was willing to embrace private accommodation in subsequent years. This assisted in giving projection of the trend in the coming years since they are the same students, who would be living under the preferred conditions.

The next step involved seeking for statistical data from the school administration on the trend of students, who move to private accommodation managed by agents especially after completion of the first term, which is typically a school based accommodation program. This gave the projection of the trend in the shift of students to private accommodation after the first year of study since this is the time that most students seek for private accommodation.

This was followed by a review of the trend for the past five years to obtain a statistical data for the past five years. The next step was to find the reason underpinning the trend, where students were interviewed for information that clarified the cost of rental apartments against fear of acculturation as the reason for willingness or unwillingness to shift after the first term of study as fresher students.

The research went on to clarify the total number of housing units in the school-based program against privately owned houses. It also sought to give a predictive trend over the past five years from historical information from both the school management and the privately owned houses.

The research also sought the number of students starting their first year program with private housing. It went along to give the number of students willing or have already shifted into the school-based program. This gave a contradictory trend that opposed the normal trend of shift of students from external premises run by agents to internal services managed by the school administration.

The findings were then tabulated for the trend of shift of students from school-based accommodation into the privately owned houses, managed by agents. This was followed by plotting a graph of the number of students shifting against time. The period was backdated for the past five years, which gave a statistical trend. The reason underpinning the trend was also recorded as the cost of living against fear of acculturation to the external environment. The findings were then run through a computerized system software analysis program for decision-making process.

Findings

From findings, the first year students moving into the private housing units decreased for the past five years as shown in the table of results. According to Books (2011, p 20) the number of students willing to move to housing premises outside the university is on a downward trend for the past five years. In addition, the reason behind the unwillingness of this shift had a majority of students choosing fear of acculturation over the cost as an excuse against the shift. The number of housing units in the private sector increased over the period as more landlords put up apartments to contain the rising student population.  Information from the landlords stipulated a converse of the trend, the number of students seeking accommodation within the university premises after service from the private sector is on the low. This showed that after commencing the school program courtesy of private or rental accommodation, more students are willing to retain their identity as non-residents.

Analysis of Data

The accommodation program for first year students at Bedfordshire University in the United Kingdom is entirely school based. This gives students the opportunity to interact with each other and live according to the rules and regulations of the school administration. However, in the subsequent years, the students have a choice of retaining their identity as residential on shift to privately owned apartments as non-residential students. The number of students willing to embrace this shift is on the decline for the past five years. This is attributed to the fear of the acculturation process. Once the students are acquainted with the school-based program, most of them find it hard to shift their attention to private housing ( Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Business; Innovation and Skills Committee, 2011).

On the contrary, students who commence their programs within the private sector are also not willing to join the school based accommodation program. A plot of a graph of number of students taking up private accommodation after the first year of study against time in years gives a downward trend over the past five years. The trend is also the same as for students willing to take up school-based accommodation preceding a private program.

Most of the students gave fear of acculturation as the major reason for objecting the shift to the costs of housing and living standards. This means that a prior acquaintance to either program could lead to an increased trend. For instance, if more students were absorbed in the private owned houses at commencement of studies in first year, they would be more willing to retain their identity as nonresidents.  They would get used to the hustle and bustle with agents and landlords.

The finding of this research are essential in merging up the private accommodation with the school based system of accommodation to help direct absorption of first  year students into the private owned apartments. This could lead to prior articulation of students, and eliminate the subsequent fear of acculturation to the outside society.  Evans & Gill (2001, p 121) assert that this could give a rise in the trend of students willing to take up either form of residence, in order to eliminate the pressure on school based accommodation system. Consequently, this would meet the needs of accommodation to the ever-increasing number of students seeking to pursue a career at the Bedfordshire University in the United Kingdom.

The major setback of this analysis is that it uses approximate figures, although it gives a convenient trend.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the school-based system of accommodation at Bedfordshire University in the United Kingdom, which is managed and run by the school administration, is the most preferred system of accommodation. This is entirely because most of the first year students are acquainted to the program on admission. Shifting from the school based to the private sector of accommodation takes place in subsequent years of study; however, the trend over the past five years has been on a decline. This implies that most of the students are not willing to lose their residential identity since internal accommodation gives them room of interaction with peers. This threatens the housing facility in terms of housing units against the number students seeking enrolment into the university. The reason for objecting a shift from the school premises to the private sector is fear of acculturation, where most students find difficulty adjusting to the terms and conditions stipulated by the landlords.

A merge up of programs to include direct admission of first year students into the private owned houses would eliminate the barrier in need of shift in subsequent years due to prior articulation with the external environment. This would go a long way towards ensuring student safety, harmonized living whether outside or inside the university and eliminate the fear of acculturation to the outside society. LLC (2010, p 34) asserts that this is advantageous as it would lead to an increased enrolment of students without fear of strain on accommodation resources.