Students want flats and private homes

NZSPA Reporter

Christchurch.-What sort of accommodation do students prefer? A pair of sociologists at Canterbury University set out to find out. Their results: divided opinions, with private homes and university flats taking a slight, but nevertheless clear lead over other forms of accommodation. The sociologists, Dr. C. H. Gray and Barbara Croy, took a cross-section sample of 322 of the University's 2650 single, full-time students.

Their results in percentages:

• • Living at home, 23.5 per cent.
• • University flats. 22.1 per cent.
• • Halls of residence. 18.8 per cent.
• • Private flats. 17.1 per cent.
• • Boarding. 11.3 per cent.
• • Church halls, 7.2 per cent.

Although living at home tops the list, flatting it would seem is the most popular. University-owned flats, the second "place getter." are still in Christchurch a hypothetical selection.

University - owned hostels and flats appealed to 54 percent of the students living away from home . . . who made up only a quarter of the sample . . . and the Church halls had only a negative demand.

In fact, the survey showed a trend which by 1980 could lead to empty beds in Church halls, a shock to churches at present building three big hostels at Ilam campus.

Other tendencies noted in the report was a male preference for halls of residence, while girls opted for flats more, and there was the predictable popularity of flats among older students.