Naturally, what we describe here is an ideal that few universities can meet in all respects. All of the universities that SFG has been working with have been seeking improvements in several of these areas. All of them accept the principle that providing a good student experience through residences is critical to their recruitment and retention of students. However, in many cases, this ideal has been compromised by chronic under-investment. In the next section we attempt to quantify the extent of this key issue. Section 1: Conclusion The role of student accommodation varies enormously across universities in the UK. At one extreme, Oxford and Cambridge house students throughout their degrees; at the other, some post-92 universities have never owned halls. Most fall somewhere between, aiming to guarantee beds for first-years and international students while leaving returners to the private market. Regardless of their scale, universities broadly want the same things from their residential estates: the right number of beds, appropriate quality across a range of price points, good locations, a consolidated rather than scattered estate, and efficient operations that enhance the student experience. Page 10 | SFG | Meeting demand for modernised university-owned accommodation