All Student Vote (Autumn 2019)

Give Students Returning from a Compulsory Year Abroad their On-Campus Accommodation Back!

This Motion looks to mandate Warwick SU to lobby the University to guarantee students returning from a year abroad to guarantee on-campus accommodation until 2023, to put this on to the website as well, and to lobby the University of Warwick to provide a hardcopy which states the following in the motion below. 

This Union Notes:

This section should include any facts, figures or statements that you believe are relevant to the topic of your policy. Remember in this section clear and effective referencing is important.

1. That the University of Warwick has provided guaranteed on campus accommodation for students returning from a year abroad that is a compulsory part of their degree course for several years.[1][2][3]

2. That the University of Warwick has decided to stop guaranteeing on-campus accommodation for students returning to the University of Warwick from a compulsory year abroad starting from the academic year 2020/2021.[4][5][6]

This Union Believes:

This section should include opinions or supporting statements for your policy.

1. That the University of Warwick is putting students in an impossible position by forcing students to find accommodation when they are not even in the UK if they are unsuccessful in the ballot. It is simply not possible for students to visit estate agents, view homes, sign contracts when they are studying or working full-time abroad. Additionally, this would be compounded by the fact that students would have to coordinate their efforts with students who are doing a year abroad in various other countries in order to form housing groups.

2. That the University of Warwick would not be able to mitigate this problem by attempting to claim that it would instead provide assistance students returning from a compulsory year abroad. There is evidence that the support provided by Warwick Accommodation to help students find accommodation off-campus is generally inadequate and ineffective.

3. That the University of Warwick would not be able to mitigate this problem by attempting to place students in off-campus accommodation managed by the University of Warwick. Students returning from a compulsory and, frankly, vital year abroad have been away from campus for an entire year thus need to get their bearings back and an opportunity to settle back into university. Denying students a place to live on campus also denies them access to support provided by on-campus accommodation, such as accommodation tutors. The compulsory year abroad brings a unique set of challenges and hardships that can only be fully understood by completing a compulsory year abroad. This puts students returning from a year abroad in a particularly vulnerable position mentally compared to other final year students which is made worse by the University of Warwick’s decision to deny them on-campus accommodation.

4. That the University of Warwick may have deliberately misled students by making this change for students who are already studying at the university and may have chosen to study at the University of Warwick because of promises given to them by the university (e.g. at open days) that they would be guaranteed on-campus accommodation upon returning from a compulsory year abroad. This may be a violation of consumer protection law.

5. That ensuring that on-campus accommodation is guaranteed for first-year students is not an acceptable excuse for the University of Warwick to use. The University of Warwick should instead focus on keeping to its guarantee of on-campus accommodation for first year students by adhering to a sustainable limit on its intake of new students. It is clear that a lack of accommodation is not the only problem caused by an excessively high intake of new students. For example, there is clearly a lack of study space and seats in lecture theatres which reduces the quality of teaching that the university can provide.

This Union Resolves:

This section should be about how you want the SU to react, the outcome of this policy. Remember to mandate specific departments/sabbatical officers; this will make things easier for future accountability

1. That the President of Warwick SU and the Democracy and Development Officer of Warwick SU must, on behalf of Warwick SU, lobby the University of Warwick to guarantee students returning from a year abroad that is a compulsory part of their degree course on-campus accommodation for all students currently enrolled at the University of Warwick.

2. That the President of Warwick SU and the Democracy and Development Officer of Warwick SU must, on behalf of Warwick SU, lobby the University of Warwick to:
   • Guarantee on-campus accommodation for the entirety of the 2020/2021 academic year for students who completed a year abroad that was a compulsory part of their degree course during the 2019/2020 academic year.
   • Guarantee on-campus accommodation for the entirety of the 2021/2022 academic year for students who completed a year abroad that was a compulsory part of their degree course during the 2020/2021 academic year.
   • Guarantee on-campus accommodation for the entirety of the 2022/2023 academic year for students who completed a year abroad that was a compulsory part of their degree course during the 2021/2022 academic year.

3. That the President of Warwick SU and the Democracy and Development Officer of Warwick SU must, on behalf of Warwick SU, lobby the University of Warwick to state on the University of Warwick website that the University of Warwick will:
   • Guarantee on-campus accommodation for the entirety of the 2020/2021 academic year for students who completed a year abroad that was a compulsory part of their degree course during the 2019/2020 academic year.
   • Guarantee on-campus accommodation for the entirety of the 2021/2022 academic year for students who completed a year abroad that was a compulsory part of their degree course during the 2020/2021 academic year.
   • Guarantee on-campus accommodation for the entirety of the 2022/2023 academic year for students who completed a year abroad that was a compulsory part of their degree course during the 2021/2022 academic year.

The President of Warwick SU and the Democracy and Development Officer of Warwick SU must, on behalf of Warwick SU, lobby the University of Warwick to ensure that this information can be freely accessed by students of the University of Warwick, staff of the University of Warwick, and members of the public who are not members of the University of Warwick.

The President of Warwick SU and the Democracy and Development Officer of Warwick SU must, on behalf of Warwick SU, lobby the University of Warwick to ensure that this information stays on the

University of Warwick website until Saturday 1^st July 2023.

4. The President of Warwick SU and the Democracy and Development Officer of Warwick SU must, on behalf of Warwick SU, lobby the University of Warwick to give Warwick SU a hardcopy statement, which will also be signed and dated by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick, which states that the University of Warwick will
   • Guarantee on-campus accommodation for the entirety of the 2020/2021 academic year for students who completed a year abroad that was a compulsory part of their degree course during the 2019/2020 academic year.
   • Guarantee on-campus accommodation for the entirety of the 2021/2022 academic year for students who completed a year abroad that was a compulsory part of their degree course during the 2020/2021 academic year.
   • Guarantee on-campus accommodation for the entirety of the 2022/2023 academic year for students who completed a year abroad that was a compulsory part of their degree course during the 2021/2022 academic year.
   • State on the University of Warwick website information (which will be freely accessible to students of the University of Warwick, staff of the University of Warwick, and members of the public who are not members of the University of Warwick) relating to the above guarantees until Saturday 1^st July 2023.

5. That the President of Warwick SU and the Democracy and Development Officer of Warwick SU will be responsible for carrying out the actions outlined in the above four points. They must carry out the actions outlined in the above four points by Friday 29^th November 2019. (They may use the arguments put forward in this motion to help them do this.) They must lobby the University of Warwick to give Warwick SU a response by Friday 10^th January 2020.