File: Student Accommodation

Scope and Content

The file contains material relating to a range of student accommodation issues in the post-war period, including the halls of residence and student lodgings. The post-war expansion of student numbers put great pressure on existing facilities at Manchester, and the file is informative about the University's attempts to deal with such problems. During the 1950s and 1960s, the University made great efforts to expand places in halls of residence at the expense of traditional lodging houses, as exemplified by the development of the Owens Park campus in Fallowfield.

There is material on the planning and development of new halls and hostels, including attempts to cater for particular student groups (e.g. foreign students). There is also correspondence with the Wardens of Men's and Women's Lodgings into specific problems with lodgings, and with the heads of halls about personnel, fees and regulations including the social sanctions [folder 4]. The file includes several informative memoranda and reports, including: copies of University regulations for male students in approved lodgings; a memorandum on "Accommodation for senior international students", (October 1961); a survey into pastoral care provided by University departments (1962) [folder 6], prompted by concerns about poor living conditions of some students in lodgings; and an associated draft report by the vice-chancellor on the development of student welfare services (1963). There is also an undated report by John Mars [Department of Economics] on "The accommodation of African and Asian students of Manchester University", which led to the creation of a hostel for foreign students in Moss Lane East, Manchester.

Former reference: 25

Access Information

Access restrictions apply to some documents in this file. The documents have been removed form the main file and are closed to public inspection.

Related Material

See the minutes of the Student Accommodation Committee (USC/22) from 1960 and the Student Lodgings Committees (USC/23) from 1962) for discussion of some of the issues in this file. The issue of student lodgings in the pre-war period is covered in VCA/7/277.