Student Accommodation in Scotland: Home, Emotions and Diverse Experiences

This article explores how emotions intersect with students’ experiences of student accommodation and influence their ability to make a home. The expansion of Higher Education in the UK has led to increased student populations, a housing crisis, and a shift towards financialised purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA). However, little attention has been paid to students' lived experiences. Drawing on interviews with 45 students across three university catchment areas in Scotland, the study examines how students navigate PBSA emotionally and socially. It finds that students’ relationships to PBSA as “home” are shaped by their housing biographies, the dynamics of shared living, and the material environment. The article emphasises the importance of intersectional experiences, using Ahmed’s (2014) theory of how emotions “stick” to bodies to explore how minoritised students can experience exclusion and precarity, undermining a sense of home and belonging. The research contributes a more nuanced understanding of how students inhabit PBSA.