The Glasgow Guardian spoke to two students staying in Murano Student Village to see if they thought living in student halls proved to be value for money.
Alisha Toner:
“I would say some of the recently refurbished flats and rooms with double beds are probably worth it but, for our flat, £480 is definitely overpaying for what you get.
“Fridge space is very limited, we’ve got four shelves for five people and had to ask for another shelf as one was missing when we moved in and we didn’t get it until just before Christmas. We all have one cupboard each as well and three of the girls keep their food in boxes either in the kitchen or in their rooms.
“I would say staff-wise, they do help to make you feel like you’re not completely alone, and are helpful for some students who might be struggling with that. But generally no one is going to feel totally safe in Murano when the options for walking in and out are via “stabby bridge”, “‘rape wood” and “rape alley”.
“One of the funnier times that we’ve had issues in Murano was when we first moved in and discovered the toilet had a dodgy flush. So we rightly went to Central Services about it and around two weeks later had someone out to look at it. This resulted in the toilet being harder to flush, them tearing down the toilet wall, coming back another two weeks later to plaster in and then around a month after that to fix it. Our toilet still needs a special knack and a flick of the wrist to flush it right.
“One other time, we complained that our worktop was peeling off and they kept telling us it takes six weeks for issues to be dealt with. It ended up taking 10 weeks to get our worktop replaced.
“Because we’re an all-girls’ flat, we only really have need for one shower and we refer to the spare one as the “shit shower”. I think that really just reflects Murano: for everything wrong with it, there’s something you can laugh about and look back on with fond memories of living in Murano.”
Andrew Tetley:
“The main problem with Murano is, with my flat especially, it’s very dirty. Our kitchen was coated with strange yellow gunk that was coating the walls. My bedroom had stains on the walls and marks leftover from last year on it. There’s an unfathomable amount of hair everywhere and I cannot seem to get rid of it. The heating turned off and it took them days to turn it back on. On one of ovens, one of the hobs doesn’t work and it’s never been fixed.
“The whole place stinks and it’s a bit of a grimy place to live. I know you get bills and internet as part of the contract but it’s fairly expensive for what it is. The only positive aspect of Murano is that there’s a thousand other people who have to live here with us so it’s fairly good social life, but that has nothing to do with the accommodation.”
Read More: ‘The University has no one else to blame but itself for these unjustifiable rent increases’
The price of student halls has doubled since 2002
