Student Living UK 2026

Following a series of strategic steps, The Class Foundation successfully formulated a UK National Action Framework with 47 stakeholders, such as Yugo, Homes for Students, Maslow Capital, Scape, HEPI, Student Castle, Luna, Greystar, Osborne Clarke, JLL, Savills, Student Crowd, UCAS, University of Bristol, LSE, British Property Federation, HE Guide to name a few.

To build on this momentum, the Student Living Forum UK will convene in London, bringing together public and private sector leaders to assess the state of student living and align on the actions required to secure the sector’s future.

Join us for this exclusive forum, featuring site tours, workshops, and thought leadership conversations with senior representatives from higher education, housing, investment, and government. The programme is designed to move beyond diagnosis and towards delivery — providing a platform for practical dialogue, shared insight, and collective action.

The UK remains one of the world’s leading destinations for higher education. In 2023/24, more than 2.9 million students were enrolled at UK higher education providers, with international students accounting for over half of all postgraduate enrolments. This sustained demand underpins the sector’s global relevance and its importance to local economies and cities.

However, the student housing system is under growing strain. By 2030, annual university applicants are projected to exceed 900,000, while delivery of new student accommodation has slowed dramatically to fewer than 10,000 beds per year, down from more than 30,000 annually before the pandemic. Even allowing for demographic fluctuations, the UK faces a projected core shortfall of around 190,000 student beds by the end of the decade

Affordability has become a defining challenge. Students report widespread anxiety around rent and increasing difficulty meeting housing costs. These pressures are compounded by rising construction and financing costs, constrained access to well-located land, increasingly complex regulation, and the growing risk of obsolescence across ageing housing stock. Recent policy changes, including the forthcoming Renters’ Rights Act (2025), add further urgency, with the potential to reshape supply dynamics across both the private rented sector and PBSA.

In line with this, the forum will be structured around The Class Foundation’s four strategic pillars for student living:

• Availability – expanding the supply of student housing

• Accessibility – improving affordability and inclusion

• Student Experience – enhancing wellbeing, services, and academic success

• Collaboration – strengthening coordination between public and private stakeholders

The programme will include:

• Data-led insights on higher education, investment, regulation, and social impact

• Workshops and panel discussions where stakeholders work collectively to identify shared challenges and solutions

• Site tours of best-in-class student residences

• Curated networking to support long-term collaboration across the sector

The Student Living Forum UK is designed as a collaborative platform to strengthen public–private partnerships and develop practical, scalable advancements to shape the future of student living. Its mission is to align policy ambition with institutional priorities and investment realities, ensuring student housing can continue to support access to education, wellbeing, and long-term competitiveness.

It is a unique opportunity to engage with sector leaders and shape the future of student living in the UK that is not to be missed.

The Class Foundation is a non-profit organisation founded in 2011 with the aim of helping the student living sector to attract and retain the brightest young minds. In promoting this mission, we hope to pave the way to social and economic success for university cities across Europe.

Together with our industry-leading community, we set out to rethink the places where students live, work, and learn. We are focussed on uniting both public and private stakeholders, such as HE institutes, PBSA providers, city and council leaders, and external suppliers to make student accommodation more affordable, accessible, and available in Europe.

For sponsorship enquiries, please reach out to Carolina via [email protected].

Purchased tickets are strictly non-refundable. Refunds will only be offered to ticket holders in the event of a cancellation, postponement, or significant change to the programme agenda (e.g. change of theme or location). In the event of a refund being issued, Eventbrite processing fees will not be refunded.

In case of unforeseen circumstances (such as a positive covid test or bereavement), a ticket may be transferred to another individual within the ticket holder's organisation. The value of the unused ticket can also be applied to another one of The Class Foundation's events taking place in 2023.

The General Admission price for this event excluding VAT is €495
The Partner Admission price is €320
For inquiries about alternative admission options or to check if your organisation qualifies for a special rate, please contact us at [email protected].

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