The Zemiology of Student Housing in Dublin

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A Higher Education Authority report, published in 2015, found that there was a serious deficit inaccommodation for students in Ireland (Fitzgerald, 2017), with student accommodation in Dublin inparticular cited as being at 'absolute crisis' levels (McSorely, 2014). Further figures have suggested thatstudent beds in Dublin cater for only 12.2% of students studying there (Knight Frank, in Comiskey, 2017).Not only has the Irish student housing market seen a huge under-supply of available housing, there isenormous demand for that which is affordable, with Dublin the most expensive city for students inIreland to live.Founded upon a study of student housing in Dublin, this research aims to advance student geographiesby utilising a social harm perspective to explore the experiences of students within Dublin's housingcrisis. The research aims to advance the burgeoning field of zemiology, placing students at the heart ofthe research, and in doing so arguing for a social harm approach within geographical studies. Theexperiences of students often remain unnoticed in favour of other, more prominent voices, such as:landlords (Munro and Livingston, 2011); local business owners (Chatterton and Hollands, 2003); estateagents and council workers (Allinson, 2006); university staff (Chatterton, 2000), and non-student localresidents (Hubbard, 2008). It is the neglected student voice, however, which remains the central driverbehind this research. Through in-depth research with students across four universities in Dublin, thisresearch aims to address the gap in existing literature and produce insights relevant to universities andhigher education institutions, policy makers and property developers alike. The research will sit at theintersection of a number of interrelated bodies of literature, drawing new connections between work onstudent geographies, urban change, housing studies and zemiology.