3rd Week HT24 Student Council

Securing Vacation Residence for Vulnerable Students

Securing Vacation Residence for Vulnerable Students  
Motion to Mandate an SU Officer (VP UG Education & Access) 
Proposer: Alfie Davis, St Anne’s 
Seconder: Jenni Lynam, Oxford SU 

Student Council Notes 

  1. The Class Act Committee, particularly Alfie Davis and Ellie King, have been working with the VP UG Education and Access, the University and the Domestic Bursars Committee to improve Vacation Residence for estranged, care experienced, and other vulnerable students. 

  1. Communicating, gathering data and bringing substantial policy change to improve Vacation Residence Policy has taken a significant amount time, beyond which can be efficiently and reasonably undertook by a team of volunteer students. 

  1. In 2018, the university signed the ‘Stand Alone Pledge’ guaranteeing affordable, year round accommodation to care-experienced and estranged students. 

  1. However, vacation residence policies across colleges remain grossly uneven, unbalanced and unsuitable for many student needs. 

  1. In particular, students who are not formally estranged or have difficult/abusive home lives can face major barriers to obtaining vacation residence, despite the impossibility or damage caused to them having to move from college accommodation to home. 

  1. Furthermore, many colleges fail to offer additional financial support to cover the cost of this residence when it is for welfare reasons, as compared to academic reasons, creating a two-tier system between students who require it and those who do not. 

Student Council Believes 

  1. Vacation Residence should be flexible, reliable and affordable for all students who need it, particularly for those from vulnerable backgrounds. 

  1. Unreliable accommodation, or being forced to move back into a potentially harmful home environment is a major drawback on the welfare and academic performance of students. 

  1. The university is currently failing to fulfil the requirements of the Stand Alone pledge, but vacation residence policy must go beyond even what this pledge outlines. 

  1. Marginalised students are disproportionately likely to face these conditions and require vacation residence 

  1. Work to improve vac res provision across colleges should be a continual effort from the SU. 

Student Council Resolves 

To Mandate the President, VP UG Education and Access, VP Charities and Community and the VP Welfare to: 

  1. Work with colleges and university staff, alongside the Class Act Campaign and Common Rooms, to develop college specific, and university wide policy that ensures Vacation Residence is accessible on welfare grounds, particularly for Estranged, Care-Experienced and other vulnerable students who, for, it is a risk to return home during the vacations. 

  1. Hold the university to account and ensure they fulfil the entirety of the promises made in the 2018 Stand Alone Pledge. 

  1. Work towards a university-wide Vacation Residence policy at all colleges that achieves the following goals: 

  • Reliable - Vacation Residence is simple to attain, and is reliable and consistent in its allocation, so students who require it can have a stable place to stay both in and out of term time. 

  • Flexible - Residence is available for students year around, but also at their discretion. Ensure colleges and the university are broad and flexible in their distribution of vacation residence, defining ‘estrangement’ far beyond formal, governmentally-recognised estrangement, appreciating its complexity; as well as recognising the needs of a broad range of welfare needs that protect students with a difficult or abusive home life. 

  • Accessible - policies are simple to understand, and are clearly publicly advertised alongside other college and university residential information 

  • Affordable - Where possible, vacation residence granted on welfare grounds is free, or offered at a reduced rate, particularly if a college offers such for vacation residence on academic grounds.