Oxford College Set to Construct New Student Housing

Oxford City Council has permitted Wolfson College, one of the largest graduate colleges of the University of Oxford, to build a new student building, the school has announced.

The three-story building is set to be constructed in the current site on Linton Road and aims to house an additional 50 students and nearly 70 percent of Wolfson students, Erudera.com reports.

“Once complete, this will mean 70% of our post graduate students can live on our main Linton Road site. This will also release private accommodation back to the public in cases where students are currently having to rent off-site,” the college said.

The Oxford Mail reports that this announcement was not welcomed by one of the residents, who appeared concerned that more student housing facilities could increase traffic and environmental pollution.

However, according to the notice, students will not be permitted to park their cars on the site, but instead, the plan includes a reduction of parking spaces from 35 to three.

“…the number of parking spaces on site will be reduced from 35 to three, with two of these being accessible spaces and one to only be used for dropping off,” the notice reads.

College officials said that the facility will be constructed on the current site of the north car park, separated from the Grade II listed facilities, and will not be subject to any artificial illumination.

As one of the largest constituent colleges of Oxford University, Wolfson is home to more than 600 students and is known for its diverse community.

Earlier this year, Niall McLaughlin Architects, an architectural firm in London, England, proposed a new project on student accommodation in Oxford, after winning the 2022 Stirling Prize for their Magdalene College library project in Cambridge.

Local media reports said that the firm proposed a 12,250m² development for Oxford University and Hertford College, which would mostly occupy a collection of Victorian villas bounded by Bevington Road, Winchester Road, North Parade, and Banbury Road.

Under the plan, six new student housing facilities are expected to be completed, whereas existing villas in Banbury Road were said will be converted into student rooms.

Providing more student housing is a topic of discussion in several other countries, particularly in student cities. Developers in Glasgow earlier warned housing insecurity will be an issue for many students in the city, as there is a lack of purpose-built accommodation.

With the number of international students in the metropolitan city of Messina increasing over the years and Italy facing population decline, an Italian university has most recently bought Messina’s Hotel Riviera to convert it into a dormitory and house more overseas students.

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Image source: Wolfson College, Oxford, Twitter account