1 December 2015 New accommodation planned to meet high demand

Lincoln University is moving to meet high levels of demand for student accommodation, creating 65 new beds by commissioning new relocatable buildings and refurbishing existing ones.

It is intended to create the extra capacity by semester one next year.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic Quality and Student Experience, Professor Sheelagh Matear, says the University is working hard to make sure any student who wants to stay on campus can be accommodated.

“It is part of the ‘Lincoln experience’ to be on campus with other students, and more students than ever are saying they want to be here.”

She says it is positive having such demand but it is a challenge to meet the logistics of it. However she is confident the University’s plan, coupled with other efforts already underway to house students, will mean that the University can now make offers of accommodation to more students.

Student applications are at a high level for this stage of the year with students able to indicate earlier, after an enrolment system change, they want accommodation, Professor Matear says.

She says being relocatable, the buildings can be re-purposed when a more permanent solution to future accommodation needs is decided, which is being worked on. The houses will be constructed off-site. 

The accommodation features 30 beds in six houses. There will also be two 10 bed student accommodation blocks, also relocatable. They will be placed in existing accommodation zones on campus.

Options to upgrade the University’s Union Annex to add 15 beds to the overall capacity are also being explored.