Postgraduate accommodation application fees abolished

The Warwick Accommodation application fees imposed on postgraduate students have been abolished, it has been announced.

After a campaign led by Warwick Student’s Union postgraduate officer Nat Panda and president Isaac Leigh, Warwick Accommodation have scrapped the £250 application fee they have required from postgraduate students looking for accommodation up until this point.

Undergraduate students have never had to pay an application fee, a key argument in the calls to abolish the postgraduate fee.

The Warwick SU website has said on the matter: “We have argued strongly that these application fees unfairly targets postgraduates and act as a barrier for those applying to postgraduate study who do not currently have funding.”

The statement continued: “We are pleased that the University has decided to treat all its students (and prospective students) equally in this regard, and hope that the scrapping of postgraduate housing fees is one action as part of a wider PG accommodation strategy that respects and meets postgraduate students’ needs.”

The removal of these fees was on Nat Panda’s manifesto in the 2015 Sabbatical Officer elections, meaning he has achieved one of his aims for the year.

Nat Panda commented: “I am delighted with the outcome and the removal of this financial disincentive for current and future postgraduate students.

“We already know that postgraduate fees are expensive so such additional barriers only serve to dissuade those already least able to afford study.”

He continued: “However, the removal of this fee can only be seen as one step towards the University providing a more postgraduate-focused accommodation offer.

“Without a long-term strategy for postgraduate housing we will see the shameful postgraduate housing crisis of the past three years become a permanent feature.”