IPPGs Associate Professor: Alan Morris, releases report on International Students and 'Hot-Bedding'.
Alarm Clock. Image: busracavus/iStock
Read the Conversation Article Here
Our beds. The very word evokes connotations of comfort - providing a reset button from daily pressures. However, for around 22,750 International students studying in Australia, this word has taken on a whole new meaning. Hot-bedding - in an attempt to afford the high rents in Sydney and Melbourne, these beds are only available to them for some hours of the day/night - with others using them the rest of the time.
If you lived in a share house as a student you would understand how important this space is. Within their share house, a student's bed is often the only place where they have full control and can switch off and not have to deal with constant social interaction.
In his article, Alan Morris (an IPPG professor) draws on an extensive survey of international students in the private rental sector in Sydney and Melbourne. The article maps the circumstances of the 3% of respondents who answered “yes” to the question, ‘Do you have to hotbed (i.e., your bed is only available for a few hours of the day/ night)?’. While analysing the survey results, Alan said, ‘I was most surprised that 3% of students said that they hot-bed. We were not expecting any students to answer in the affirmative to this question.’
This research indicates the desperate need for education providers to provide subsidised housing for students. Besides the students hot-bedding, the survey also established that about one in four students are sharing their bedroom with someone other than their partner.
Learn more about the the situation of students hot-bedding in Alans The Conversation article.
A report mapping the results of the survey is available. See The Experience of International Students Before and During COVID-19: Housing, work, study, and wellbeing by Alan Morris, Catherine Hastings, Shaun Wilson, Emma Mitchell, Gaby Ramia and Charlotte Overgaard, is available for download here.
The survey was made possible by an Australian Research Council grant (DP190101073) titled, ‘The experience of precarious housing among international students’.