The paradox of Paragon: Imperial students pay more for the same halls

Imperial College London students are paying more for the same room in the same halls than students from two other London universities. Freshers from Imperial pay £155 per week for a room in Paragon. Students from West Thames College London (West Thames) and University of West London (UWL) both pay £133.55 a week.

When questioned, College gave multiple reasons to Felix to explain the discrepancy.

The students from the two other universities have a 44 week contract, whereas the Imperial students have a 39 week contract. This means that overall Imperial students pay a total of £6045, which is £168.80 over the total paid by the other students. However, at the 39 week mark the Imperial student has paid £836.55 more than the students from West Thames and UWL. The figures were shown to Felix after a Union employee looked into the matter.

Felix contacted Paul Noke, Head of Residential Services and GradPad, to explain the discrepancy in cost. He said that “College is, in fact, subsidising to bring the weekly rent in at £155 per week for our students”.

Noke told Felix that there were many reasons for the price being as it is. He stated that they had to “negotiate quickly” with providers due to the decision by College to refurbish and redevelop Wilson House being “fairly late”; a refurbishement that left hall seniors, sub wardens and wardens in limbo as to their living arrangements. Noke said that the decision by College “didn’t leave us with very much time to get an alternative option online ready for the UG accommodation application process early last summer”. He also noted further delays saying :“We looked at a number of sites and our preferred option was actually in Elephant & Castle (in zone 1, not too far from Xenia in Waterloo) which would have allowed us to keep all of our students under one roof with one Wardening team (and possibly some of our own staff) at more affordable rents.” The option was dismissed as a number of those in College and the Union were uncomfortable with Imperial freshers being located in Elephant & Castle.

Noke stated that the length of the contract that College wanted (39 rather than 44 weeks) was a contributing factor to the increased rent saying “the College had to pay a slightly higher rate to secure the rooms for Imperial College students.”

Wardening increased the cost but was considered “vitally important to the welfare of our students”. The team’s costs were initially thought to have been from the welfare budget, however this was denied by Noke saying “the costs... are not being covered by the welfare budget this year”.

Noke added that the College also “pay a small contribution to allow our students access to the UWL shuttle busses between 7am–8pm each weekday”. This is to South Ealing, on the Picadilly line in Zone 2 and is for students to travel in to College.

Paragon is a temporary halls that is being used by Imperial this year to house some freshers, it has also been used to house freshers before – an example of this is in 2008 when the College was oversubscribed. Noke said that the decision to house students there was because “the facilities and services had been ‘tried and tested’”. It is in Brentford, which is a long way from the main South Kensington campus. There are 839 rooms in Paragon, which is owned and managed by Notting Hill Housing Trust. There is an agreement with UWL, which means that they must give their blessing for rooms to be released to other parties, such as Imperial. West Thames College have a long-standing agreement to use some of the rooms for exactly the same terms and rates as UWL.

Wilson House redevelopment was grantedplanning permission on 6 November 2012, and Noke told Felix that they will re-open it for the 2013-14 intake.