UCC president appeals for more funding to help solve student accommodation crisis
University College Cork's Crow's Nest student accommodation. Picture: Larry Cummins
Cork’s new €35m ‘jenga-block’ student accommodation has been launched, with 255 students moving in from next week.
University College Cork’s Crow's Nest student accommodation in Victoria Cross is fitting "another piece of the jigsaw into UCC’s community”, providing much-needed accommodation, a cafe and communal student facilities in the area, UCC president Professor John O’Halloran said.
The double ensuite rooms cost €225 per room per week, or €8,325 for the 37-week academic year, with an additional €600 annual fee for all utilities.
Prof O’Halloran was confident the new development on the former Crow’s News bar and restaurant site, offers value for students.
The development brings UCC’s student accommodation portfolio to almost 1,600 beds, he said.
An earlier strategic plan aimed to develop 2,000 student beds — the biggest block to achieving that target is funding, he said.
“We need Government to work with us.
“I think Government could do more. We’ve worked hard with government and Minister [for Higher Education Simon] Harris’s team has been really committed to helping us."
Despite “a lot of draws” on the public purse, Prof O’Halloran hopes UCC will successfully lobby Government for more funding ahead of Budget 2024 in October.
He said a €307m funding gap in higher education needed to be plugged and that the sector provides an “extraordinary” return on investment, with UCC generating €2.5m daily and €1bn annually.
Niamh Guinevan from Fermoy will be one of the first students to move into the Crow’s Nest’s four towers of slick apartments next week to start second year of early years and childhood studies.
“It’s extremely modern. It’s everything I like to see in a building," Ms Guinevan said.
"It’s very spacious, you have enough room. The desk, the beds, all the design is very nice. The common room is huge, with a pool table. The room has a view of the whole city.”
Ms Guinevan said the accommodation was affordable compared to most private room rentals and was of a much higher standard than the room she rented last year.
“I feel extremely lucky to have found this. Every year, there’s a struggle in where you’re going to get accommodation, or if you’re going to get it. Some of my friends still have not been accepted anywhere, there is a struggle out there to find accommodation.
“So it’s very important that we have facilities like this in Cork City.”
Campus accommodation is “massively oversubscribed”, so beds are assigned on a lottery basis from March. But, as college places are offered to first year students this week, some beds become available every August as first year students who had secured accommodation at UCC do not take up a college place there.
The 255 new beds coming on-stream this week in the Crow's Nest brings the total number of UCC student accommodation beds to 1534.
Most of the fully furnished apartments have four bedrooms, and the building includes 125 bicycle spaces and 24-hour security.
Reception and student support facilities are provided at ground floor level, with a large common area, a soundproofed music room, a study area and a café. The UCC Health Centre is next door. A large public open space is also proposed next to the cafe.
Cork City Lord Mayor Kieran McCarthy said the new building would help thousands of young people across the region, he said, as Cork’s population of some 210,000 people continues to grow rapidly and as it aims to be climate neutral by 2030.
Building site closures over the pandemic delayed the build, which was planned since 2017 and had originally aimed to open for the 2021/2022 academic year.
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