Victims of studentification? Variegated student experiences of housing precarity and homelessness in Edinburgh

Abstract

This paper responds to the call for research on the impacts of the student housing crisis beyond studentification through an analysis of 26 in-depth interviews with students at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, who experienced housing precarity beginning in September 2022. The testimonies provide further evidence that the increasing unaffordability of housing is creating tensions of exclusion and hardship for students, with wide-ranging impacts on mental health and academic attainment. While the extent of this crisis may seem to legitimate increased building of private sector Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) blocks, I question whether this is a rational response to a crisis of affordability.