Fire alarms and leaking baths: Why Warwick doesn’t deserve a top accommodation rank

The University of Warwick has been ranked 15^th in the country for its accommodation; a real treat after we were deemed the least attractive students in the country. The Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey suggested a 79% satisfaction rate with Warwick Accommodation, but are we truly worthy of being in the top 20?

For starters, the state of the fire alarms is deeply troubling. How frequently they are tested is a real shocker if you’re still laid in bed trying to catch up on much-needed sleep. Is there really a need to test the fire alarms at 9:00am every single week? This is regardless of the fact that Rootes residents average a fire alarm a fortnight, having to wake up to other groggy and heavy eyed freshers in the car park at stupid o’clock in the morning.

Indeed, being the so-called “party accommodation” there is not going to be a first year without fire alarms. It’s just hard to see how coming home after a night out and making some toast before bed really means the fire alarm should go off. Let’s be honest, what fresher hasn’t burnt their toast? If you say you haven’t, you’re almost definitely lying!

Is there really a need to test the fire alarms at 9 in the morning every single week?

Granted, there is no worry for cleaning our bathrooms or kitchens as the housekeeping staff are included in our accommodation fees – this does add some value for money. However, after a heavy Wednesday night at Pop, waking up to an angry cleaner in my kitchen telling me I should have cleaned my pots yesterday isn’t the biggest attraction of Warwick accommodation.

I do value the work that they do, and it is certainly one less pressure in first year whilst getting used to the stresses of university, but a smile wouldn’t go amiss every now and again.

Waking up to an angry cleaner in my kitchen telling me I should have cleaned my pots yesterday isn’t the biggest attraction

Obviously, having a bath in the likes of Arthur Vick and Jack Martin is a plus to university life. But when the baths leak into the room below, and add to the accumulation of notes on people’s doors that their bathroom is being regrouted at 10:00am on Tuesday, it makes a top 20 position seem completely unwarranted. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that I have my own bathroom, I just don’t particularly have a liking for water dripping down my walls from the ceiling, it is not the quality I expect at £156 per week.

Of course, Warwick accommodation has been modernised in recent years, with the building of Sherbourne and Bluebell, replacement of kitchens across numerous accommodation blocks, and new windows on some Jack Martin buildings.This undoubtedly does add value for the amount students spend on fees, but this is overshadowed by the fact that the University could not even accommodate the increasing amount of first years on campus.

I just don’t particularly have a liking for water dripping down my walls from the ceiling, it is not the quality I expect at £156 per week

In comparison to many other Russell Group universities, Warwick accommodation is quite Spartan; our beds are practically military-grade, our windows don’t open or close properly, and some accommodation (Whitefields, for example) doesn’t even look habitable for the numbers meant to occupy a flat.

Surely, before Warwick accommodation becomes worthy of a top 20 position, it must accommodate for all prospective students, and more importantly, provide better quality for the massive amount of money paid by students on a termly basis.