Submission for ENG 102 - Research writing and composition

At the end of September this year 2019, the State Government of Victoria closed its applications
from the public in what will be the new amended guidelines for new apartment dwellings in the
state of Victoria. Within the guidelines the proposed
amendments are on the subjects of:

1. Green spaces
2. Building material quality
3. Wind impacts for buildings over five stories
4. Impacts of construction methods on existing
neighbourhoods
5. Enhancing the safety and walkability of
neighbourhoods

There was no mention of the long term effects of high density housing being built for student
accommodation. Currently Melbourne’s education sector is a booming industry which has brought a
large increase of investment and jobs to Melbourne and the state of Victoria. This has in turn
created a market for student accommodation. The demand for student accommodation is predicted
to be ongoing, but what will be the long term effects of these buildings be as they age and what
processes will have to be taken to reuse these buildings once they have become obsolete. Do these
buildings have adverse effects on diversity and would it be more suitable to spread the student
accommodation across other new built buildings instead of having a high rise building with a single
use.

My research question is:

What are the short and long term effects of single use high rise student accommodation on the surrounding
neighbourhoods of Melbourne city; and how can we manage the growth of the student population to be beneficial
to all stakeholders.

Melbourne’s population growth rate is among the highest in the Organisation for Economic Co-
operation and Development countries (OECD). To help cope with this growth rate, an increase in the
approvals for high density housing has been implemented by planning departments creating a boom
in construction. This rate is showing no signs of slowing and is predicted to carry on until 2050 with a
current growth rate of 2.1% (Australian Bureau of Statistics - 2019) Our education sector last year
contributed $34 billion to the local economy, an increase of 15.3% on the year before ( Australian
Bureau of Statistics 2019) The guidelines for student accommodation were written in 2011 at which
time the population was just short of 4 million, today the population stands at over 5 million. With
this boom currently under way, now is the time to discover what effects these buildings will have on
the surrounding areas as more people move into high rise developments.

The three major groups of stakeholders involved in student accommodation are:

 Developers
 State and local governments
 Residents and investors
The proposed audience for this paper would be government departments due to the fact that it will
have to be the corresponding governments that creates legislation and regulations if any, in
response to this paper. It is the responsibility of government to ensure the sustainable growth of our
city and that all new developments meet expectations and benefit all parties included. Residents and
investors should be able to rely on the sound and expert regulations provided by governments to
give and secure long term returns. Developers should be able to rely on regulation to give decent
profits without having an adverse effect on build time and profit returns. However developers
should not be given free reign on our city to drive short term gains over long term effects.

The resources I will engage to research this topic will be:

 Local and international governments

 Local and international developers
 Local architects and planners
 Local universities

I will start by looking at other cities and what ideas they have implemented to create student
accommodation, and what the effects of single use high rise buildings on those areas are. Australia is
tipped to overtake the UK to become the second largest education provider, so the UK will be a good
source of information on how they managed their growth. Resources such as the Office for National
Statistics within the UK offer plenty of information. Other OECD countries as well as other
Commonwealth countries will also play an important role in my research. Most of the students
arriving to study come from East and South Asia, so looking at how countries in these areas cope
with large and dense populations, will play a pivotal role in this research. All of these resources are
accessible online.

Melbourne has been through two population booms prior to the one we are currently experiencing,
so the Royal Historical Society Victoria will have plenty of information on how population booms
affect Melbourne directly. They are very accessible and are always open for discussion as the role
they play is becoming increasingly more involved, as old buildings with significant historical value are
being torn down and replaced. By looking backwards we should be able to learn from previous
mistakes and be able to predict what will happen moving forwards.

UNIVERSITIES WITH THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF INTERNATIONAL

STUDENTS - 2010(a)

University International Domestic Total International

proportion
'000 '000 '000 %

Monash University 13.4 40.3 53.6 24.9

The University of 13.2 36.3 49.5 26.7
New South Wales
Macquarie University 12.2 24.1 36.4 33.6
The University of 12.0 33.4 45.4 26.4
Melbourne(b)
Griffith University 11.0 30.8 41.8 26.2
Total all universities 233.1 813.7 1,046.8 22.3

(a) Includes onshore students only.

(b) 2010 data has not been published for this institution, 2009 data has been shown.
Source: Australian Education International, October 2011 Research Snapshot: Onshore international students as
a proportion of all onshore students by university, 2010

As the graph suggests, universities especially the older institutions of Monash and Melbourne
University will be great sources of information especially on student populations and how they
have evolved over the course of this city’s expansion.

Local architects and planners I will involve by simply asking them to be involved. There are a lot
of passionate and involved professionals within this city, all have differing views on what is
needed and what the effects of high rise single use student accommodation might be.