sovaldi serif;”>Following a technical glitch earlier this month which left hundreds of students questioning if they would get accommodation on the UCD campus, buy the UCDSU and UCD Accommodation have announced they are to work together on a new system for booking accommodation.
sales serif;”>Earlier this month hundreds of emails from students applying for accommodation were not included in UCD’s accommodation system and emails which were received were not ranked appropriately. A spokesperson for UCD at the time stated that “the system did not deliver a reliable ranking of emails as anticipated.”
With the ranking remaining unresolved UCD decided to resort to a random allocation to the 638 room offers to the full list of names received before the 13th June deadline.
Speaking about the accommodation issue Students’ Union President Feargal Hynes commented that the situation was “not ideal”. He also stated that the process “failed the students, some of whom took time off work to ensure they received a sufficiently high number to guarantee they got accommodation. We sought an immediate resolution to this issue on behalf of students; however the system could not be rectified to ensure an equitable result for all.”
Due to these issues UCD has instigated a 12 month review to look at the booking process, taking both student input and booking processes used in other universities around the world into consideration.
The review is set to focus on three main areas, these include the review of the technology behind the booking process, to ensure it can handle the volume of traffic to the site from students wishing to book accommodation. Also under review is the allocation policy itself, focusing on the question of if students from further away from UCD should get priority when receiving rooms and the allocation of rooms to students with disabilities and other illnesses. Finally, the timing of the process will be reviewed questioning whether or not the process for continuing students comes at an appropriate time of the year.
Hynes welcomes the 12 month review and hopes it will make sure the same mistakes do not occur again. He also stated he hopes students will be brought in to help with the situation, saying “By establishing a strong working relationship with UCD Residences we hope to bring students into the heart of the decision making process about issues that affect students who live on campus.”
Image accredited to UCD.
