Students put in motorway services
October 1, 2009
Hundreds of new students at a Leicestershire university have been put in hotels due to a room shortage.
About 300 people have been put in non-university buildings including budget hotels at a service station on the M1.
Families of the affected students complained the situation was both inconvenient and insecure.
A De Montfort University spokesman said there had been record applications for rooms this year but they were working to resolve the problem.
Kezzia Bennett, 18, from Sheffield, said she was shocked to find herself sharing a room at Leicester Forest East motorway services, five miles from the city itself.
'Spectacularly unsafe'
She added: "I was devastated, although the room is lovely and I would be happy to stay here under different circumstances.
"But as a new student it is not what you expect for what you want."
Her mother, Maria Fitzpatrick, said room allocation was "chaos" and felt the location was unsuitable.
"To get to the bus stop you have to go out of the back of the hotel, through the petrol station, up a forbidding slip road and over a footbridge," she said.
"It is an 18 minute walk in the dark, which is spectacularly unsafe never mind being inconvenient and stressful."
David Alder from the university admitted it was not good enough and moving students out was a priority but was unable to say how long it would take.
He said: "We completely recognise this is not what our students want and indeed it is not what the university wants for our students.
"However we are laying on lots of extra social activities for the people in hotels to absolutely ensure that their enjoyment of the wider university life is not impinged."