S09E05: Joint venture partnerships
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What is the joint‑venture model that Unite Students uses with universities?
Hello and welcome to Accommodation Matters where we talk about topical issues in student accommodation and the wider student experience. I'm your host Jenny Shaw and today we have a special episode on a topic that I know many of you have been curious about. Over the last year, two universities have entered into joint ventures with Unite Students to address their long-term accommodation needs. Why did they choose this approach? What did it entail and how does it contribute to their home cities? In this special episode, Jane Robinson from Newcastle University, Stephen Bloy from Manchester Metropolitan University and our very own Joe Lister talk about partnerships, the impact that they want to achieve and the process of getting there.
Which, as I learned, can occasionally take you in an unexpected direction. So I'd like to introduce our panel for today and in fact I'm going to ask them to introduce themselves.
Hi, I'm Joe Lister, I'm the chief executive at Unite Students.
Yes, hello. I'm uh Jane Robinson, I'm Pro Vice Chancellor for Engagement and Place at Newcastle University.
Hi, I'm Stephen Bloy. I'm the director of campus services at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Brilliant. Thank you. So Jo, Unite Students has entered into two accommodation joint ventures over the last year. Can you explain this model? What is it? How does it all work?
We've worked in partnership with universities for for years and years. It's really been in our blood since we were established thirty five years ago, starting out with uh Bristol University and University West of England. And effectively we created the nominations agreements that are so widely used by the sector. And this new model really is an evolution of the way in which we want to work in partnership with universities and was created really in response to feedback that we heard. from many of our university partners that Universities were telling us they didn't want to fund their own new developments, but the traditional partnership model, the PFI model, was not working as it was originally intended.
So working with a couple of our closest partners, we created something new. It's an innovative approach. Albeit using a fairly traditional approach that's used by the real estate industry. And the idea is that it can provide the university with new purpose built beds. The universities get to retain a share of the ownership. And that means they get to benefit from any upside in the future. They get to retain input over key decisions. And also it frees up capital for the universities to invest uh in other things. And I think the the key for us and our university partners has been that each one can be and will be different and adapted for each university. such that they are able to really meet their own strategic needs and we feel that we are flexible enough to to make that work for them.
So Stephen, of course Manchester Metropolitan University has very recently entered into a joint venture with Unite Students. Why did you choose this approach to your student accommodation needs?
I think um in recent years Manchester's had a well documented shortfall of student accommodation and that's created challenges for our recruitment of new students. So we did some research and we found one of our halls on campus, right in the heart of our campus actually, uh called Cambridge Hall. It was seven seventy beds. But it's a standard hall, no communal facilities in it apart from in the kitchens, and it wasn't popular with students. Our en suite accommodation was was application filling thirteen times the one over that hall. So we identified that as a site to redevelop. But then how do you redevelop a site when you're the shortest accommodation in the city? So that was our our biggest challenge around this.
Why did Manchester Metropolitan choose a joint‑venture for its new accommodation?
So we looked to potentially refurbishing, but that'd have only given us the same number of beds we'd have we'd have had before, albeit in a better condition, and there's still been standard beds. So we decided that um redevelopment was the best thing to do.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the joint‑venture model that Unite Students uses with universities?
0:04–3:58
2
Why did Manchester Metropolitan choose a joint‑venture for its new accommodation?
3:58–8:00
3
What benefits do universities gain from entering a joint‑venture partnership?
8:00–11:40
4
How does a joint‑venture improve the student experience and choice of rooms?
11:40–15:59
5
In what ways do joint‑ventures impact the local community and city‑wide housing strategy?
15:59–19:58
6
What are the main challenges and lead‑time considerations when setting up a joint‑venture?
19:58–24:10
7
How can universities and providers ensure long‑term success and sustainability of joint‑ventures?
24:10–27:29
8
What does the future look like for joint‑venture student accommodation over the next five years?
27:29–31:16
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Unite Students Accommodation Matters
S09E06: Wellbeing and the class of 2025
S09E04: Refurbishments: Future-proofing student accommodation
S09E03: What does student satisfaction look like in 2025?
S09E02: Compassion - Student wellbeing’s newest buzzword
S09E01: Designing community in student accommodation
Bonus episode: What we know about the Class of 2024