Judging panel rejects all nominees for Student Accommodation Awards in protest over 'extortionate' rent prices

The judges condemned award nominees for 'putting shareholder satisfaction above student satisfaction' and blamed them for causing 'social cleansing in education'

Students living in UCL halls of residence staged a number of protests as part of a lengthy rent-strike last year (Glenn Michael Harper)

A panel of judges for this year’s Student Accommodation Awards has refused to select a winner in protest over “unaffordable” rent prices.

In a letter addressed to prize ceremony organisers, the group of student judges said they could not award any of the named candidates because their rents were too high.

The 10-judge panel, made up of students from across the UK, were invited to assess a number of entries of student accommodation service providers for the category of Student Experience.

Instead, the judges slammed the entrants for “putting shareholder satisfaction above student satisfaction” and blamed them for causing “social cleansing in education”.

The letter said: “We regret to inform you that the panel could not come to a decision to award any of the entrants.

“Unfortunately, none of the entrants could demonstrate that they are meeting the urgent need of students to live in accommodation that will not force them into poverty.

“We are not ‘satisfied’ knowing our student debt is lining the pockets of millionaire shareholders.”

Average rent in student accommodation in the UK is £146 per week, according to National Union of Students (NUS) figures, a rise of 18 per cent in the past two years.

The group pointed out that many of the entrants charged rents of more than £300 per week – far beyond that covered by standard student maintenance loans, on top of administration fees of up to £400.

The student group also claimed that one of the accommodation providers listed had been found charging hundreds of pounds to act as a student guarantor, profiting from the inability of migrants, poor or estranged students to provide details of a guarantor as needed to secure a room.

This term, students from 25 university campuses around the UK attended a series of workshops on how to hold a rent strike at their university.

Widespread interest in withholding rent follows a high-profile rent strike won by UCL students last year, where hundreds of students refused to pay their accommodation fees over a lengthy dispute with accommodation officers.

The NUS has since called for a system where at least one quarter of university rooms are offered to first-year students at 50 per cent of the maximum amount of the maintenance loan available, in a bid to make the cost of university more affordable.

Speaking to Student Accomodation Awards organisers, the student judges made a number of recommendations, including urging the sector to lower profits, reduce rents and support the call for greater financial support for students.

Jenny Killin, Welfare Officer at the University of Aberdeen Students' Association and panel member, said: “It is time the student accommodation sector got a wake up call: students are not happy about their despicable exploitation.

“The real 'student experience' is too often a choice between paying bills or buying food. We are getting into huge levels of debt, only so private businesses can make huge profits.

“Asking us to hand out an award when so many students are being pushed into poverty makes a mockery of what is a very real crisis.”