Contract length and Rents at Rewley Abbey Court - Green Templeton College
- Target:
- Members of Green Templeton College - Univ of Oxford
- Region:
- United Kingdom
Members of GTC wishing to stay at Rewley Abbey Court accommodation are concerned about:
1. The College's decision to make 12-month contracts mandatory at RAC accommodation and at the same time;
2. The College's decision to raise rents for RAC flats.
Both rent increases and lengthening of contract durations to 12 months at RAC is of concern to GTC students. Particularly, MSc-MFE-DPhil function on a university wide 9-month academic year and so the end of July lease as currently practiced is more suitable for them. Such students if required to sign 12-month leases, will either i) be emburdened with additional charges for which they get little in return or ii) will be deprived of the benefit to live at RAC.
If students were made to sign 12-month contracts there will be a strong incentive for those living at RAC to sub-let their flats during those months for which they will be away. This sub-letting phenomenon and late turning in of keys would potentially create a significant administrative problem for the College. For instance, non-students would be roaming around the premises and at the time of handover in September, the College may have difficulties in dealing with tenants who do not leave their flats in the required condition, and the college will be pressed for time to prepare flats for the influx of incoming students.
Students have also expressed displeasure at the planned year to year rent increases, both for the 1 and 2 bed flats at RAC. Students currently pay high annual college fees; however, RAC students in particular do not see a direct benefit in the form of subsidized college food or reasonably priced accommodation. This belief exists especially amongst those students who do not live near the main college site and hence do not make regular use of college facilities.
As a 'NON-PROFIT organization' the college has a duty to provide accommodation to its students with due regard to the financial constraints faced by those who need it most e.g. those that have families to support, or those who are in Oxford for long-term research degrees with limited financial means.
Green Templeton College should make it convenient for all college members regardless of degree programme or department affiliation to live at Rewley Abbey Court at reasonable student rates and for periods based on the duration of their respective degree programmes.
The new policy of extending the lease duration for all residents at RAC to 12 months even when their academic year ends in July given a 9 month university academic year financially constrains students wishing to take up job or internship placements, join for instance USA universities (which usually begin early August), go for research fieldwork, or simply return overseas and leave the country upon completion of studies at the end Trinity term.
Therefore, we request Green-Templeton College to re-consider the increase in rents and re-instate lease durations at RAC based on the length of students' respective academic programmes, as is common practice in other Oxford Colleges.
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The Contract length and Rents at Rewley Abbey Court - Green Templeton College petition to Members of Green Templeton College - Univ of Oxford was written by Yasser Bhatti and is in the category Consumer Affairs at GoPetition.