Join Sarah and Deenie from The Property Marketing Strategists as they launch their latest piece of research looking at the global perspectives of student accommodation.
It was a really valuable discussion where we spoke about the following points in relation to international students:
👉 Profit and segmentation
👉 Evolving student needs
👉 Changing the PBSA model
👉 Getting students to collaborate with the sector
👉 Communication with international students
👉 The role of universities
👉 Importance of data
Thanks once again to all of our panellists: Saurabh Arora, CEO, University Living- our data partner, Joe Persechino, Chief Operating Officer, Yugo- our strategic partner and Martijn van de Veen, Chief Business Development Officer, ICEF, Simeon Anyalemechi, President and Chair of the Board of Trustees, University of Salford Student Union and Robin Walsh, Head of Residential Services Bournemouth University
Get the full report on The Global Perspective of Student Accommodation here: https://i.mtr.cool/sgromkvxei
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to this very exciting launch of our new research the Global perspective of student accommodation a big special thanks to our partners University Living who have supported us in the data and Yugo for being our main partner who without
Which we wouldn’t be here today so a really big thank you to you guys for supporting us we did a big piece of research in 2022 which which many of you um might have been involved in and read
And it was about what gen Z want from their student accommodation um but the majority of the responses came from a domestic audience so we were asked from quite a lot of people if we could provide Insight from International students and when we were looking for partners to support us
With this Yugo were the obvious choice with their variety of student accommodation across the globe we knew we could rely on them to provide their unique experience and knowledge with buildings in multiple Continence we were able to tap into their database to bring the international perspective to
The results um and with University Living we’d been looking for project to collaborate on for a for a while and when this idea came about and the opportunity came along they were just a perfect fit for for working with us on this data set um so together with both ugo’s database and University
Living’s database we’ve been able to um survey 2,000 uh Global students um full 60% of that coming from the University living database and 40% coming from Yugo um just so you’re aware for the purpose of this report and this webinar when we talk about an international student we’re talking
About a student who is living away from home um from their home country and a domestic student is those studying in the country that they were born and grew up in um so along with representatives from our partners um Joe from Yugo and Saurabh from University Living we also welcome Martin
From ICEF Robin Walsh from Bournemouth University and Simeon representing the student voice as the president and chair of Trustees from Salford students union sadly Rebecca roare was unable to join us today as she’s got called away to important Student Business at leads so big thank
You to Robin for stepping in last minute to ensure we had the university perspective in this session um please can we ask our panel to introduce themselves and also to share with us um what it was about the international student landscape that attracted you to be part of this report and
Webinar um let’s start with you Joe thanks Sarah and good afternoon everyone pleasure to be here today uh I’m Joe I’m the CEO of Yugo it’s pretty much the class leading Global student operator and brand um for globally for students and we are operational in around nine countries and over 110
Properties and this this the opportunity to be able to talk on this webinar and to be part of the report is absolutely fascinating for us uh as data is king and the more we can learn from
Our students about what they want and what they need that will certainly help us in terms of a the types of properties that are built in the future but also how how that can dictate the service that
We provide to those students so really excited to be here today and uh looking forward to the conversation thank you Joe um SRA would you like to introduce yourself sure thanks thanks everyone and uh look forward for our insightful learning session you know with with with all the great uh
Stars of this industry you know uh I guess I’m the most rookie in the in the ecosystem so it’s been 12 years been doing this uh love this to the core you know for my international student to someone who is trying to help International students with their accommodation uh been breathing eating and
Literally sleeping student accommodation all across the globe so can’t be more happy to be part of this uh this panel and we know this for last 12 years we realized that everyone is talking
You know we can do this we should do this but most of us need to take decisions and that’s where the data and and these reports and these sessions are important you know so thank you to Sarah and and
All the awesome work you’ve been doing of going out of the way literally walking the talk going to each cities meeting property managers uh speaking with platform speaking with students and putting across students um insights as well as what exactly is needed do we need those fancy cinema
Halls or do we need extra one square meter in the room you know and and both are important you know but uh if we have data points which can help take decisions you know I believe yeah so that’s what
Make me excited to part of this event and being data partner for for for SAR and Denny um I can’t I can’t forget s you know when we started early on Sarah was one of the very early supporter of
Unity living you know and it’s been you know a top SEC Journey for Marketplace wherein you know from a from a one country destination to probably 12 countries all across the globe you know from providing pbsa to home stays from providing shortterm to long term I I mean love the journey
And thank you for being part of the journey s and Denny over to you guys thank you sir that’s very kind of you um Simeon would you like to introduce yourself hello everyone lovely toet you all my name is Simeon I’m an international student myself originally from Nigeria a returning sabatical
Officer that was business and law officer last year but returned this year as president of the so students union have been a huge advocate for international students especially uh towards inclusion of international students and yeah what’s attracted me to this important project
Is we all know that universities are really ambitious towards recruitment of international students giving the contribution to University finances however not much thoughts has been put into planning for them especially given their unique circumstances and uh giv that they’ve
Traveled far to come study here in the UK the Baseline for their experience normally um uh for it’s normally the planning done for home students but in reality that’s not sufficient and does not meet their expectations this is why I’m really impressed with this research I wanted to get
Involved share my views on the findings based on my personal experience my experience as president of the S students union thank you and lovely to meet you all once more thank you in um let’s go
To Martin now would you like to introduce yourself yes thank you very much Sarah and DEA lovely to be here and be surrounded by such uh Professionals in accommodation and International Education I think that you know ISF is one of the leaders in international student recruitment so we provide
Publications on what’s happening in the market but we’re also very well known for our B2B networking events where we bring together the education providers who recruit International students and connect them with any organization that can help them do that and with anything around that
Which of course includes uh accommodation we have an event on that topic coming up in in London uh where you’ll be there as well Sarah and Dei but um you know technically anything that involves International students and accommodation has my interest and what I really liked about your
Report and your approach is that you are looking at students as individuals rather than a bunch of numbers and statistics um because in our sector the student recruitment industry the focus is always on the students individual needs and interest in terms of their study and their
Career opportunities and their Ambitions and I believe that we should also be more aware of the students individual needs and desires of in terms of student accommodation their their home away from home and I feel that your report is an important ingredient to help us be more aware of
Those individual needs so thanks also for putting that report together and for putting this webinar together on such an important topic I look forward to the conversation thank you thank you for joining us and last but not least least definitely not least Robin thank you um yeah as say stepping
In here um kind of at the last minute for Rebecca but um hopefully I’ll I’ll be able to to fill her large boots um I was coming along anyway so really interested in in this uh this topic so
I was going to be in the audience listening to the conversation so I’m really pleased to be able to sort of be be on the panel and be a part of the conversation um I’ve worked in the
Sector for over 20 years now for universities and for um private pbsa organizations um currently at Bournemouth University but I also sit on the the Cubo um executive board um they’re their lead for housing codes and standards so for people that don’t know Cubo they are a membership Organization
For um for the sort of uh University Services the sort of Commercial Services income generating that are non-academic so things like um retail catering conferencing Sport and then accommodation accommodation obviously is a really important um part of of of of what we do to support our members
Got 118 members 118 um institutions as members of Cubo um so yeah so you know I think let’s get into the conversation and uh see where we go great and thank you everyone and I’m sure the audience will
Agree that is we’ve got an amazing panel a lot of expertise and um we really appreciate you being with us today um and joining us um before we the discussion um we did just want to share some stats
Around those who responded to the survey um as just by signing up to this webinar you will all receive um an email into your box into your inbox shortly after this with the actual report um but
Just so you’ve got a bit of a a headline kind of findings about who has responded um we had of 2000 of the 2,000 respondents 40% of them were male 57% female 1% non-binary and 2% preferred not to SA um
55% of those that responded were studying um away from their home nation and 45% studying in their own country 25% of all the respondents were Indian um with 49% studying in the UK and they’re all currently living in different settings uh with 47% in a room with shared facilities 18% in a private
Apartment with no shared facilities 4% share of a room 24% in a shared house or apartment and 5% of living in a house they own or with their family um as de said at the valued audience you’ll all
Receive the report after the webinar um we are Keen to get the data in front of as many people as possible so please share it far and wide um however it’s a rather big document so we’d
Prefer it if you didn’t print it um so without further Ado we will begin our discussion on the global perspective of student accommodation um for international students if you’ve got any questions please use the Q&A facility um on your screen as we will keep an eye on on this and we
Won’t be keeping an eye on comments Until the End um so let’s start the discussion um so do you think the accommodation sector thus far has considered the needs of individual cohorts and their specific Lifestyles demands and budgets um this is about the segmentations of students
Rather than looking them as as one body who would like to start I can start um yeah you know to be honest I actually do believe that the accommodation sector itself does provide a wide range of of different housing formats and solutions but we have to ask ourselves to what
Level the accommodation sector can and should be uh considering each students specific lifestyle and demand I would argue that this is more of a joint responsibility not just of the accommodation providers but also and especially of the education providers the study abroad agencies and of course
Of the students themselves who find that that destination that school program and of course of accommodation that together as a mix provide access to to their different individual needs I I just think of amenities like a a gym washing facilities quiet study spaces a lot of these
Things that came in that I saw in your report uh areas for social interaction entertainment prayer facilities a lot of these are provided also by the institution the school the municipality the local library perhaps and they can be found in the the city center so you know to answer that
Question I I do feel that the accommodation sector in many cases does have an answer to the needs of individual students but it all comes down to it all comes down to price and many of those can be
Satisfied outside of the accommodation uh that is available yeah can I go yes sir so first of all thank you I mean again I feel so blessed and and fortunate to have a model which is by Design
And by choice you know have the opportunity to you know provide what students wants you know we are no one to tell that okay this is what you want to book we Are we always say that okay these are
The options take informed decisions you know by virtue of that you know at least you know we are fortunate even if we have Studios so we can give a student Studios a private room or home stay depend
Upon their location price point whatever they look for right so segmentation is very important and in fact one of the reason the sector has been doing well in spite and despite of Co inflations and depressions in last 15 20 years because we’ve been as a ecosystem been listening to students and and
And universities right so segmentation important and we’ve been doing it as a ecosystem and webinars and reports uh surveys like this ensure that we’ve been listening to the core you know we are not listening only one side of the ecosystem you know if you look for if we listen for
Investors of course we all need to have Studios because that give the best Roi if you look for University Partners they need most of the private rooms you know as as price point or budget that can be and still walking distant to universities not possible in this in this era and ecosystem so
With these segmentation surveys we all can listen to everyone and eventually we always say that we are happy only and only if students are happy you know as I as I mentioned that it’s not the
Market which is what a available but it’s always been run by a market what is needed so sooner or later in this market if if some investors are pushing Studios but if it’s not budgeted in the
Right location it will not be filled so they are forced to you know look out for option which is used by the students and universities you know so so yeah I mean this this is a market which is run
By demand then by the supply I’m roing I guess from your point of view um back to martine’s point I think what martine’s saying is that it’s not just about accommodation you have to look at the whole ecosystem and I guess probably that’s quite true in Bournemouth because you rely on
External providers your accommodation um and also it’s quite spread out amongst the city so I guess how how how much should the students needs be met through just accommodation I think from a from an accommodation point of view it’s um yeah it depends on it really depends on the picking up
On stup’s point of R about demand and you know I don’t my my view is I don’t think it’s by design that we are offering any kind of any sort of uh consideration for the individ you’re going actual question about the individual sort of needs and cohorts of these these particular different types
Of students I don’t think I don’t think anybody’s actually doing that by Design I think that what is driving this and what’s driving the bulk of of the accommodation offer is it is about return
On investment and it is about is it is a profit making or you know business and that that’s what it is you put the cards on the table that’s what private pbsa is and universities rely on
That because without private p SAA they wouldn’t be able to have got to the stage where they are now with regards to recruitment now I think that I think that maybe you know this is becoming more of a topical issue right now because potentially you know people have talked about sort of price
Tipping points for many years and maybe we’re getting to that point now where actually for for certain cohorts of students and we know that you know Simeon here from Nigeria I’m sure he can he can talk from that point of view there are different cohorts of of students who come
From different parts of the world who have very different levels of sort of budgets which means they have very different options and they’re going to be looking for different types of accommodation if there was if there was if if there were the options out there we wouldn’t be having this com
We wouldn’t be having this conversation I don’t think because there wouldn’t be any issues that we’re having this conversation shows that there’s a problem and I would Challenge and throw it out there that the problem is price now how we how you deal with that is a real is you know that’s
The golden ticket isn’t it nobody knows right now everyone’s talking about you know there’s this I I what I see now happening in the market is that since you know since covid you know everyone talks about sort of pre and postco no one was doing anything postco because you know inflation’s
Running High um you know everyone’s sitting on their money everyone’s sitting on their hands watching and seeing what’s going to happen to the market things are starting to ease up now that inflation’s coming down and you are starting to see interest coming back into the market however
That interest that’s coming back into the market is still on a preo model of what sora’s talking about you know it’s that classic mostly on suites with some studios and that still seems to be the model and that’s probably because that’s the model that investors understand and that’s the
Easy one to sell to funds but but actually it’s not what students need it’s not what universities need either and ultimately I don’t think in the long term it’s not what private companies need because you obviously need to you know need to provide a product that that that students want
And I think this the demand that the the landscape of students has changed now and it’s changed maybe you know again it’s a sort of it’s just a thought is that it’s changed and we’ve not realized it’s changed and we don’t really understand the extent of how it’s changed so you know we’re
Here having this conversation now which is a good thing let’s bring Simeon in because I’m sure based on that Robin what’s what’s your view from a a student per perspective you mentioned in your introduction that you feel like sometimes International students are may be not considered
As any different to domestic home home students you know how far should accommodation go with segmentation thanks Sarah and yes I completely agree with Robin that at the moment uh it’s about it’s about return on investment um there’s a demand and Supply issue and that takes away
The core focus of the experience students are supposed to get out of um accommodation and for me uh this is the first research I’ve come across that segments you know a minor a minority that’s most often forgotten and that’s International students um accommodations are mainly designed
Um you know with accommodations are mainly designed you know with with the core focus on profits is it is it making profits and all that so early this year I was on a trip uh to Europe on
A 1K trip we visited over 15 organizations across the baltics and Finland and I was quite impressed with the research driven approach taken by one of the organization we visited called HOAs HOAs is a housing accommodation originally founded by 16 students but currently what over um 429 million
Um sorry what over 587 million as its balance sheet and has a a turnover of over 82 million so uh the the government is subsidizing this scheme but one thing that’s intriguing about it is the inclusivity by Design like how they include students in the design how they consider
The diversity of their student population and how it’s done with and for the students so uh maybe if we solve the demand and Supply issue uh then I I know I I’m confident that this important piece of work would be would inform you know decisions of universities um universities
And housing providers thank you that’s really interesting we we’ll look those up that sounds really interesting I guess Joe nothing really exemplifies segmentation of different National than the Yugo product because you don’t have the same product all across the globe you know we I
I know that personally I used to to work with you at Yugo um there’s not one product that’s the same in in you know in every country because you’ve been able to to kind of look at the individual
Needs in each country yeah that’s right Sarah and when we use the segmentation word I think we need to be need to be careful that you know we’re here to to be inclusive for all students as as everyone
On this panel is we want to Ure that all students are served catered For and and have somewhere to live that’s appropriate for them and for their needs and I think the the difficulty we have as
An industry is that when you start to segment you know it’s it’s not an easy thing to do um you know you’ll know yourself s industry a long time that way back when the first sort of Internationals that started to flourish and come through were traditionally regard as the Chinese they were
Wealthy so suddenly you were catering for that that high wealth Chinese cohort then we’ve seen the rise of the middle classes um from Asia and then now we”re seeing the working classes rise through so you look at the international students and the stats and where they’re coming from and
Those numbers are changing we’ve seen you know Sora will will attest to this that India is growing exponentially versus China in terms of student numbers each year but now you’re seeing Vietnamese Indonesian African students that are you know there’s more more coming through the
System and so to segment to a particular type of student is very difficult because you can’t just say that all Indian students want cheap rooms non- on Suite bunk beds for example versus Chinese who
Only want Studios it’s not as simple as that so you throw that into the mix and it makes it very very difficult to be able to build something and operate something for everybody because the needs
Are always changing and you know put on top of that layer on top of that you’ve got gen Zeds will be moving into gen I gen AI in the next four years what are the what are their needs going to
Be and if you’re building today and then it won’t be open for another three or four years you know potentially your your room mix is already out of date or your service offerings out of day so we’ve
Got to be really mindful about the key themes that you pull out from what students want to be able to build something that is as close to what they want whilst obviously being profitable like like Robin’s mentioned but enabling a you know a true offering for everyone I think it’s very difficult
And you know the biggest thing that certainly I’m I want to avoid is that you you create one type of housing or student housing for a particular cohort and then suddenly you’ve almost you know I don’t know if you’re attracting Indian students or Chinese students and suddenly your whole building
Becomes populated by those Asians or Indian students the whole point well I think that you know big a large part of being an international student is that you want to immerse yourself in in the culture and the community of a different country and I’m not sure that putting all Indian
Students into one building for example is really going to encourage that and you know certainly at Yugo we want to so we we’ve been pushing through our through our pillars that we have to to ensure that we get that connectivity between different cultures between students from different countries
To to ensure that that that mixing happens because that’s that’s part of the journey isn’t it of life and being able to understand different cultures and and where people are from and and making new friendsross borders so I think we need to be careful about segmentation and how we actually
Apply that in real life come in if that’s okay just some thoughts Ste I thought that um I think you’re right Jo I mean I couldn’t agree more Joe about about sort of um you know social kind of
Engineering I can’t be more against that you know I think that um I think yeah students part as part of their student experience it should be about about sort of you know additional to their kind of academic it’s about broadening the experience and meeting people that you know that you’re never
Going to kind of probably meet that broader range of people anywhere else you know um even within the workplace so so that’s a really important part and I agree with that part I think that um I think
The the key thing here is that this this is not a problem that it’s it’s not PBS’s um um problem to solve you know PB private pbsa are limited to what they can do to increase the supply of of of of of
A broader range of accommodation you know the UK itself is struggling you know across all tenant classes you know the students are just one and and actually and actually pbsa is you know you it would be really interesting and we’ve talked about this many over many years be really interesting
For somebody to come up with a different type of model for pbsa that could you know could could offer a a broader ladder of rents within within a property you know um so you could it could be more
Appealing to to students who are on a on a tighter budget who could have that pbsa experience and all the great things that Joe has talked about that you get within pbsa because it’s it’s a fantastic
Product and and and a lot of students love it but because of the model the kind of commercial model of PBS is not going to be for every type of student so rather than than thinking about having the conversation around sort of different cohorts of students around the different nationalities
More this is about kind of budgets really when it comes down to the Brass tax of what students can actually afford if they can afford to go to pbsa they can go and explore enjoy all these on-site gyms and Cinema rooms and roof Terraces and 247 maintenance and you know residential life programs
And all that great stuff that you get within those you know but but the the the the hard fact of it is a lot of these students can’t afford that so they need a different type of accommodation and
That’s not as say that’s not pbsa problem to solve that’s a broader issue around the lack of um housing in this country and you know and and that and that goes back to central government doesn’t It ultimately and local authorities you know universities I think have a have a
Much stronger position um you know they they they they they should be playing their hand much more strongly in in for what they do you know talking to local authorities and there are some some good examples out there of how you know um universities are now starting to take take those take those
Conversations to local authorities um but yeah but really you know Central government’s the one that that needs to get a grasp with this and they are just not you know I mean they’re looking to they’re looking to to bring in this renters perform act which is you know Cubo and many other
Sector organizations can’t tell them more directly what what the what the potential consequences are bringing this renters Reform Bill is going to be on the HMO sector we’ve seen it in Scotland you know the HMO sector has been has kind of massively reduced in after 2016 when the Scottish government
Brought in their new tendency they’re looking to do this very similar thing in England and you know and that the HMO sector unfortunately that’s where you that’s where a lot of the the students on these lower end budgets are they look to go in because they control their costs more you know and
They can you know two to a room and or three to a room I don’t you know they do they they they find a way um they shouldn’t have to find a way but they do no and that’s probably a good point to
Bring signing because I think we can talk a lot about kind of what’s happening in the UK but I know from kind of our recent travels this summer across Europe that it’s not just a UK problem
In terms of housing it’ be interesting to hear you your Viewpoint Martine from kind of the the global persective of people struggling with this housing and and where good ideas might be working yeah it’s it’s such an interesting point because you know the in student accommodation crisis is of
Course major Topic in all major study destinations and I hear a lot of these conversations and wears where people are pointing fingers at um well the accommodation sector is not doing enough of ABC or the government should be more flexible and their new law has has made things worse or the
Education providers and everyone’s pointing their fingers and what I like here in the Netherlands where where I live is that the the government here who has also been criticized on many fronts um and let’s not talk politics it’s go there but what they have done is they actually have set up
A steering committee with a um with one person’s called the uh beautiful Dutch word uh student and house festing regur which is kind of the kind let’s say the director of this of this project his responsibility is to actually bring together the stakeholders in um in international student
Commodation in student accommodation so you’ve got your your pbsa providers you’ve got your student housing associations you’ve got representatives of public universities and Comm and um and private institutions student unions uh government bodies local governments all coming together and uh so
Rather than having these separate conversations with groups of people from the accommodation sector complaining about all the others or you know actually everyone was in the room and you know some some interesting Solutions come out of that but my M main point here is that um it’s one
Thing to talk about oh we can’t do this or that is so bad I think as a sector and as as stakeholders in the sector we need to look at ourselves and see what we can do to improve the situation so
Obviously we need to be aware of what we cannot do but it’s more interesting to see what can we do and how can we help influence the other areas where we are not that what we can’t do how can we
Influence those areas so my recommendation is really that actually like you’ve done on this webinar you bring together different stakeholders representing different perspectives in this very important topic thank you and Simeon I don’t know if you’re able to talk a little bit about
What you’re involved in at University of sford as part of the wider kind of Manchester sort of I guess housing task force so yeah um I I suppose you want me to talk about the work we’re doing at
The greater Manchester level on housing right yeah if you can okay great so uh well well as we all know accommodation is a challenge in manchest not just in Manchester but across U major is um in the
UK and in my first term as officer uh we wanted we wanted a greater Manchester solution to this and we visited Nottingham to learn from the experience of what a good example of proper planning and coordination between the university and the local community uh looks like and how we can
Also design a similar strategy so uh We’ve also we’ve also drawn Insight from uh uh our visits to the baltics as well specific reference to the Student Life strategy at temp um yeah I I would double check that but mainly um what’s happening in Nottingham is a bit of information sharing that
Would help shape the plan the future of planning in terms of housing provision availability cost safety other amenities and you know just basic issues like noise sustainability so we’ve come back with good insights um students in Manchester have United and we formed what we call the greater
Manchester student partnership and we meet about five times a year with the mayor of Manchester where the legitimate voice of the students here in Manchester but early days some of the outcomes of this is that we’ve been able to feedback on the good landlord chatter consultation and the the
Mayor has made a commitment in his Manifesto to co-create a student living and staying strategy with us uh we are working you know alongside the universities and uh the greater Manchester combined authority to write a blueprint for the general public on what students need on housing uh
Safety and transport in Manchester um yeah I don’t know if that provides good Insight on what what we’ve done at the greater Manchester level that’s really interesting yeah I think that’s really positive you know it’s great to hear it’s great to hear those stories I you know I know I know the
Nottingham student living strategy quite well um you know we’ve um we’ve done a we’ we’ve done a um accommodation strategy group presentation when we had we had the Unis and the local Authority come along talking to the rest of the Cubo members about that Durham’s also another really good
Example of of of where they’ve worked very closely with their local Authority um and they’ve they they’ve you know they they’ve managed to to to pull together a whole whole broad range of data around the the student accommodation Supply to try and understand the um you know exactly how
Many beds they’ve got across all the different types of accommodation so not just pbsa but all the hmos as well and they’ve been able to gather all of that and and use that to inform their their student number strategy so there’s some there’s some really good stuff you know in in Bournemouth
We are you know we’ve you I’ve been reaching out our local our local council is currently doing it it’s draft local plan um they have just employed for the first time a pbsa planning officer you
Know so I’ve met with them you know essentially kind of brought them up to speed on from the point of view of the the three universities that are in Bournemouth three universities in Bourn withth people don’t realize that so all three of the universities have been sort of involved
In conversations with that and and we’ve informed and influenced um the the policy there so there is some good stuff here and you know this isn’t and and going back to kind of Martin’s Point around sort of finger pointing I don’t believe I don’t think this is finger pointing I think this
Is what what you need to do is State the facts of where the problems lie because if you don’t then then you know you’re kind of bang banging your head against a brick wall or you just you just
Blinkered and you’re just trying to you you know and I think and I think that that that really does you know there’s there’s a fundamental problem with in the UK um around the around the housing strategy the long-term housing strategy we’ve had somewhere in the region 15 or 16 housing ministers
Since 2010 how can you have a long-term strategy it’s great to hear in the Netherlands that you guys can get together and you know you’ve got a much more collaborative um sort of system of government over there you know we’ve got first P the post majority Le what you know two-party
System that is fundamentally flawed for long-term planning and and strategy you know if you’ve got you need collaboration you need cross-party consensus on things like housing Education Health we just don’t have that and that’s not pointing fingers that’s stating the facts actually I think
One thing we’ve all we’ve kind of mentioned a lot and and it seems to be Global is that the the housing crisis crisis in inverted Commerce I mean from a Global Perspective how how aware are students inter you know globally aware of that and how is that driving their behaviors regarding
Booking you know is that driving Panic you know should we be looking at more of an organic kind of you know less of a cyclical you know boom and bust kind of you know book booking system you know
What’s what’s kind of I guess the view that you all have from how how International students are behaving when they’re booking accommodation so you can probably take the lead on this one so first of I’m very happy again that now we all talking about student hous student housing and
But it pains that we talking about housing crisis so there’s no housing crisis crisis happens when there’s no solution it’s not housing crisis you know of course there’s a real journalism happening all the media been talking about housing crisis but there’s no crisis there’s a solution and
The solution is panel like this you know last week I was speaking London in one of the panel wherein there were there were all the ministers in the house so Robin you will be happy you know there are ministers who are talking about you know taking a stand on housing crisis or even
Po post study Visa or Indian or International students rights you know in UK so they are aware of course this year is very interesting with elections and let’s not talk about politics Martin but that’s a fact you know so there’s no cing crisis but every have faced last two years
That it’s real you know I mean I’m the last one to say about this because I was the last why the stupid guy came in Nottingham back in 2011 didn’t book my accom stay in a hotel you know of course
I’m not complaining now because I’m making a you know CER out of that but not the right way to do it you know you need as much as you book take time to apply two universities housing needs to be sort out and that’s where education Partners education agents universities platform like us
You know education accommodation Partners needs to talk about housing you know but there’s no housing crisis and it’s all across it’s not in UK same is in US Indian students or international student don’t over housing till then they don’t get Visa I don’t blame them that’s where the education needs
To be done same thing happened Australia I still remember you know um someone booking accomodation in Melbourne looking for 15200 AUD per week the the market price is of 400 500 AUD you know and I don’t blame students because nobody talking about housing and nobody telling them that you
Know don’t don’t have that UNR expectation because that’s where the Western interest of universities and education partners are but eventually if collectively we come together eventually if student apply to a university and then he or she struggles for recommendation they’re not
Coming to that City we all know what happened to glasow right so there’s no housing crisis we all need to educate the ecosystem and these are the ways we can educate there you don’t need to have lavish parties you know we don’t need to encourage housing crising happening in any part
Of the world there’s no crisis there’s a solution we have been forced I’m a big big evangelist of pbsa but if you know if there’s a limited pbsa we need to add hmos you know if student looking home
Stay we need to add home stays like if people are looking for flexible contracts not only fixed contract you know we need to add if you only believe that okay this is a solution and
We try to push across the throat that okay this is a solution book it I mean either they will not come to that City or they not coming to that country choice is our so so high time talk about
Housing crisis and there’s no housing crisis over to you I I would strongly disagree that obviously there is a student housing crisis as long as we still have students that need to go go camping
As long as we have students that on our Bridge as long as students need to sleep on a couch as long as give up their dream no no I’ll get i’ll get where I agree with you yes but not in UK not in
London not in let’s agree to disagree I think you know clearly there is a road to a solution here but you know I guess I guess it starts with uh I think the question also start with that with being aware that there should at least be transparency to International students about
Student accommodation issues or opportunities that exist in the different study destinations I see all too many institutions happily recruit students without considering the fact whether that student will indeed have access to to any type of accommodation um you know any institution that
Doesn’t offer any type of housing solution or that doesn’t work with any type of housing provider a booking platform or Worse even stays muted on the topic of accommodation while shame on them because it’s really important that the students is at least aware and then it’s of course in the end
It’s the choice of the student as long as they are transparent um but accommodation should be part of any student recruitment process from the very beginning um and transparency so you know so I share your optimism there are solutions out there but we’re still dealing with a lot
Of issues that need to that need to be addressed uh by this industry and the stakeholders all all together yeah I’d agree I think that um talking I think universities have have a really Prime leading role to play here around providing that information um to in in a in an accessible way
You know if they’re using if they using agents to recruit overseas then those agents need you know they need to have the right information and we need to make the universities need to be making
Sure that the agents are you know are using that information in the right in the right way at the right times and not over promising um and um you know and also as well accepting accepting that and
I think actually from my experience certainly over the last few years you know we’ve seen definitely you know universities sort of stepping up and um and and and um improving the information that they are using because it’s in their best interest ultimately um so I think we’re heading in the
Right direction on that but also you got to accept that you know you’re dealing with you’re dealing with people who who are applying to come to a a new country potentially for the first time um you know leaving their families you know they’re going to be bombarded with information and pick
On sora’s point you know we see it all the time International students coming they’ve had all the information sent to them they’ve not opened a single email uh or if they have they’ve not understand understood the language that that we’re using in those emails you know
We’re talking about we’re talking about a housing housing sector that’s that’s completely foreign to them um and using terminology that they just don’t understand we at Bournemouth we run um we we run housing workshops um that where basically just you know we just invite students in and and just take
Them through everything around explaining what an as is you know explaining you know that you can’t just leave a you can’t just kind of hand over a property to somebody else you know when when you
Move out and you know there all these things you know and you hear this stuff around sort of you know you know oh back in my country it works like this and it’s like yeah you know get you
Know we get that so that people are coming with these with the with the you know the it’s a lot for them to take on board so I think universities kind of you know they need to they’ve got a big
Job in in in trying on that Journey at some point you know trying to sort of make sure that those students kind of get the information they need in the most accessible way um but yeah you know it’s
Uh it’s an ongoing challenge particularly going back to the cyclical Point around that that you were making I think that at the moment we are universities most universities that I’m aware of are going year to year right now you know they they’re forecasting you know you know gone of the
Days you know 10 years ago again pre-co a lot of universities would have sort of 10year student number plans and they could pretty much you know with some some confidence say yeah that’s that’s that’s a trajectory of travel on you know right now I think all of that for a lot of universities
Has pretty much gone out the window and they are going year to year right now um and when that and then obviously that has a huge impact on accommodation because you know a couple of years ago Nigeria was seen as as one of the big growth countries you know the naira has
Completely tanked the economy is flatlined all of a sudden the Nigerian Market has dried up and everyone’s going we’ plan to bring in X number of Nigerian students suddenly they’re gone you know so so you know the international market is is very you know you’re exposed to lots of
Different risks as a university and you can’t you can’t build a strategy around that and Joe what are you seeing you’re across the the the globe what are you seeing around those cycles and the shifting changes across across the world I think it really does differ by Market by country um and
How how students behave in terms of when they book how they book how early or late they book uh and it’s suppose it’s a wider question because a lot of factors come into play such as government
Policy if you think about visas for Internationals how long do they take to process when do they get that certainty that they can actually come in you know how are they allowed are they allowed to to
Hold rooms until they wait for those visas or not um it’s it really does vary so and also whether they they’re happy to book just online or whether they need to visit because as as we’ll all know Europeans for example Southern Europeans will be more likely to visit whereas Internationals
From Asia will be predominantly online rather than flying all that way to visit so you’ll get each market will react differently in terms of the types of bookings they get and when they happen in
The cycle um and I’m not sure you can even from our perspective how you can plan when a certain cohort from a certain country will book I think it is it’s very difficult to do that and it depends
On you know the level of re Bookers and renewals that you have in country as well as to to skew the numberers so you know I said at the start the data is king and the more information we can get
Year on year and and you know surveys of this type that you can build upon and start to see Trends and what’s happening will will influence decision making going forward I think Robin and and and martine’s point that they just made you know from my perspective who who do International students
Trust the most it has to be universities has to be that’s where they’re enrolling for the course or wish to go to for the course and and Robin said that you know it’s universities need to do a lot
More in terms of informing International students we can’t make them open emails or Robin can’t make them open emails that’s true but you know how do how do we get through to them and if we think of pbsa it’s it’s just one option it’s just one option across the many different options that
Are out there whether it’s HMO co-living private sector BTR whatever it may be we you know students don’t just live in pbsa there are other options out there like and and sorup mentioned the point
As well it’s just figuring out are they fit for purpose and I think you know what we all want is a is a standard where every student feels safe and secure in that home and is able to study properly
Um and have that that that space to be able to to get their head down and study as well as you know not worry and you know the mental factors come in um as well in terms of that pastoral care element
And well-being element so it it’s a far greater problem than just putting it at pbsa door like Martine said and that collaborative approach um which Simeon outlined earlier I think is is certainly the way forward you know we’ve seen it in other cities in Milan for example the the
The new not new now but the the the the planners and the mayor that are in place there are really consultative on that and they talk to universities they talk to local businesses they’re looking at how they divide up the city of Milan and where can they put student housing normal housing
Affordable housing um and Commercial and really trying to sort of create a fabric of a city where everything is sort of intertwined you don’t create ghettos of just students only for example you know more that collaborative approach is really needed moving forward and you know hence why certainly we
Do and other pbsa providers are always trying to partner up with universities and it’s not necessarily just about nominations agreements but it’s you know offering that awareness of the product that you have that the universities can then pass on to to students because I come back
To my first statement who do the students trust in its universities Simeon how prepared do you you think students are about the options available to them when they’re coming to a particular country
To study guess what you’re on mute again well for me I’m really sorry um for me it’s um sorry I just remember that my mentor always say don’t say sorry yeah for me is fundamentally about looking at the entire student journey and what would mean value for money for students especially International
Students that you know pay huge amount of money um to get the education here so for us the first few weeks of the student journey is is really crucial to the entire student experience if they
Don’t have a good experience within that first few weeks then um you know they would not forget they would always remember and regardless of what happens later because you know the first few weeks they get to integrate themselves into the Community find friends join a club and Society get
A part-time job and and you know that cycle of the student Journey so the question I usually ask is Imagine going to traveling to Lagos and you’ve got nowhere to stay um for us you know culturally it’s
It’s extreme very extreme for us and um uh the work we’ve done is to get the University reflect on messaging um transparency is key a message like this is the current housing situation in
X City or Y City and uh this is what you need to do to get a space of you know these are the spaces available and this is what you need to do in terms of Readiness from their home country as you know
International student would need a different level of support to you know that pre Aral support uh you know at the start of the relationship until they arrive until they integrate to their studies you know they leave they need a different level of support so for example if the communication is
Not right there’s a lot of scam accommodation scam going on a lot of money is lost in that and any student that loses a huge amount of money to scamers would not forget that would be like a turnaround in their experience in in a negative way so um for us it’s about transparency
Communication to uh in international students and some level of resourcing and responsibility from the University specifically for accommodation for international students so um for example uh I I don’t know if it’s Scotland that I don’t know if it’s in Scotland where the government has
A certain level of response not the government but you know it’s a policy that the university is has a certain level of responsibility for housing International students uh cuz you’re sponsoring the student and you know uh they need that extra layer of support to be able to settle
In to have a good experience 10 years ago it was different from what I heard you know International students arrive and they are put in student accommodations now is it’s it’s it’s changed it’s a different story totally so yeah that’s my view thank you Sim and there is a a comment really
In the Q&A Box about that quite often students are only told very very late on that they’ve got a place at their University so I guess from their point of view the the kind of the mechanism of of booking accommodation probably comes into their mind quite late because they haven’t been given
A a secure place at University we’re not going to solve that problem on um on this webinar but it’s um it’s an interesting point and it comes back to that jointed up approach really that collaboration that you know understanding the relationship that universities have with accommodation with
The wider city as well and and from what we’ve heard so far it does sound very much like there are some really positive conversations starting to happen Citywide so you know if we were to
Have this same webinar in um you know in a few years years we we would hope that things have have improved massively for international students um can I just make one point I know we’re nearly at time I think that I think again just about collaboration you’re absolutely right I think
It’s really there’s a there’s an open goal for universities and pbsa to work together um you know regardless of whether there’s nominations or leases in place you know direct lets as well you know it you know as a university you know they are the pbsa are right there they’re in your city you
Know your students are in them go and talk to them and develop a relationship with them you know you don’t have to have a nominations agreement or release with them you can do this with direct they’re your students you should work with the pbsa and pbsa operators they need to reciprocate
And give give their site teams the space and time to be able to develop those relationships and not just bombard them telling them to sell all the time so there’s a bit of given there’s two things that universities and pbsa need to do the big problem is the students who don’t live in
Pbsa where do they live you know and there’s a big problem you know students who who who go and live in different cities and commute because they’ve got friends and family they’re you know they’re the ones they’re the they’re the students who are out there and not benefiting from these kind of
Residential life programs well-being support that the pbsa and the universities can offer in in in partnership with each other that’s the big area of kind of concern for me um is is where those students are and what kind of experiences they’re having yeah absolutely really really good point
Thank you for raising that um as Robin said we are out of time time um it was an amazing discussion thank you to our panelists and everybody who listened um we hope that the points that have
Been raised here is is just the start really um you know for us certainly with the report that we’ve we’ve produced in partnership with Yugo and University living it’s the start of a conversation um and we didn’t solve any any issues today but we certainly started the conversation so we hope that
You take these away to your peers within your own organizations and hopefully um when you receive the report very shortly you will add to those considerations as well the report will be sent to everybody who registered for this webinar um and there’s also a link that has been posted in
Our chat um so you can share the link with anybody that hasn’t registered so that they get it um as well um it’s a free report we’ve created it to add value to the shared living landscape so we’d love
To know what you think once you’ve digested it and finally a big thank you to our partners Yugo and University living for sharing our vision and helping to bring this research to the sector we really appreciate your help in um making it happen and I know I’m pretty sure the sector will and
Everyone that’s watched will so a really big thank you to that um as marketers we do believe that you can’t communicate your product your audience if you don’t really understand what they’re thinking feeling and doing um and the product can’t evolve in the right way if you aren’t
Engaging with your customers um along the way and Consulting with them um and that’s for us where the Strate strategists come from in the property marketing strategists um it’s about the who the what the why the where and the when um and we hope that we can continue to have these discussions and
Work with many View and and help the sector to collaborate because I think that is is a really key point and one that is only going to be the way that we solve the crisis or not crisis however we
Want to uh want to view it um so thank you for those um who value the Insight we provide to the sector and we look forward to seeing you all next time and thank you so much for joining us