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Drivers for Off-Campus Students Housing Demand in Malaysia
Zubairu Abubakar Ghani 1 2, Noralfishah Sulaiman 2
Abstract. Many studies have acknowledged that higher education institutions are growing globally; this may not be unconnected to the continuous increase in the population and higher education demand, which spurred up enrollment. It is evident, clear that HEIs are experiencing consistency growth in students' populations yearly. This paper aims to highlight student housing demand in offcampus living to identify demand drivers. The paper explored qualitative research methodology in data collection and analysis. Three universities (two public and one private) are used as data sources to represent higher education institutions in Malaysia for student housing demand investigation. Personal interview was conducted, and the transcripts were carefully coded according to themes in their respective NVivo nodes. Higher education institutions' student enrollment has been increasing, and student population outrun the available student housing, thereby creating significant off-campus housing demand. Despite the increase in students' enrollment, housing provision does not correspond with enrollment, making student population growth, consistently running ahead of the public higher education institutions students' housing facilities. This is due to the recessionary economic situation and higher demand for higher education; hence, education is a way forward. This necessitated ever-increasing demand for off-campus students housing in private housing rental market.
Keywords: higher education institution; student housing; student housing demand; off-campus; student enrolment.
1 Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University
Tawafa Belewa Way, P. M. B. 0248, Bauchi, 740272, Nigeria
2 Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia
101 Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor, 86400, Malaysia
DOI: 10.22178/pos.66-8 JEL Classification: O18
Received 08.12.2020 Accepted 25.01.2021 Published online 31.01.2021
Corresponding Author: Zubairu Abubakar Ghani, zubairughani@yahoo.co.uk
© 2021 The Authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License lOU
INTRODUCTION
Students housing, are the housing units students stayed in for the period of their studies. Student housing is also understood, as the housing units for college students to live in for reviews, where young people leave their homes and parents. It was also described that residing in students' housing, far away from family, is a different experience for most young students especially those who never have knowledge of leaving home for such a long period or had no previous hostel experience. Residing in students' housing without parental monitoring and control is a different experience for a new lifestyle which provides an opportunity to learn the ethos of life and enduring experience, learning how to live independently, which was described as a transitional phase towards adulthood, compromise with roommates (other students) and shared space and facilities [1; 2; 3; 4; 5 & 6].
It has been argued that students' housing provides opportunities for all students to live and work together in an academic community; to fully realize the college's ethos, which helps in citizenship and leadership [7]. In another perspective, some scholars, saw this transitional period of adulthood, is being shaped by student housing living arrangement for sharing room, space, facilities, enduring and compromising with others who are not one's relatives.
There has been a significant increase in the global population [8]. By implication, there has been a significant increase in the demand for higher education institutions that spur-up enrollment. Some studies have concluded, higher institutions students' housing is grossly inadequate, which necessitated many students to seek alternative housing accommodation outside their campuses in an off-campus housing rental market. Such studies include [4; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13;
14; 15; 16; 17; 18]. Their respective studies, indicated colleges and universities, have been experiencing high students' enrolment while student housing provision, is not corresponding with enrolment, thereby making it insufficient for students. However, this warrants many students, to fly into campus neighbourhoods searching for alternative housing accommodation in the private housing rental market. Thus, this paper, is set to answer the question 'what are the drivers for off-campus student housing demand'?
Related studies
In recent years, the student population has been tremendously increasing due to increased college population cohorts, aged 18-25year old. According to [19], at the global level from 2000 to 2011 college students enrolments stand at 98 and 165 million respectively with an increase of 68% and the trend is expected to continue yearly into the future. Similarly, [20] reported, worldwide student enrolment has been increasing, wherein 2017 it surpass 220 million. It has been observed, over the years student population growth has been consistently running ahead of the available HEIs' students housing facilities to accommodate all students thereby making many HEIs suffer student housing shortage severely [21; 5]. Over the years, students housing in HEI has become an intractable area of concern by the HEI administrators as the enrolment out-numbered the housing facilities. Many studies have reported that several HEIs across the world were unable to increase student housing inconsonant with the rising student number which resulted in students' reliance on the private rental sector in the HEIs neighbourhood [5; 12; 14; 15; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25; 26; 27; 28]. The increasing student population has out-numbered the housing facilities that formed the genesis to necessitate students to move into the HEI neighbourhoods searching for alternative housing accommodation. Similarly, [29] reported a significant increase in student enrolment in the last decade has led to increased demand for student housing.
Therefore, student population growth is the main reason behind student housing shortage that face HEIs and the problem. It has been exacerbated due to high student enrollment and low student housing supply, which shows distinct demand in the off-campus housing. Off-campus student
housing demand initiated the development of student housing rental markets around HEI neighbourhoods [12]. However, many reasons make, HEIs incapacitated to expand their students' housing to correspond with the growing students' enrolment. Authors [23] explicitly summarised them as the reasons for these were due to the economic recession, increased cost of building, government policies and restrictions placed on grants to HEIs.
The economic position of HEIs, is a fundamental driver, for student housing provision at any given time. In a situation where the economy is buoyant, the HEIs may likely expand their student housing, correspond with the enrolment and on the other hand, where the economy is gloomy the reverse will be the case. In the recent economic recession of the world, which cut across many countries with unfavourable effects on HEIs visa-vie student housing. Some studies reported HEIs suffered the financial crisis when many governments cut their budgets on HEIs costs in non-academic core areas hence, government resources, are unable to meet all the needs adequately then, HEIs found it difficult or rather impossible to construct new student houses [5; 18; 28; 30; 31; 32; 33]. Therefore, when HEIs lack sufficient funds to invest in student housing coupled with high construction costs, HEIs will not keep up with mounting housing demand, which will steepen up the demands for off-campus accommodation.
In another perspective, the economic downturn will necessitate HEIs to increase tuition fees to make up their budget challenges (deficit). This, in turn, will restrict many households with low income to bear full-cost tuition fees of their children and lead to the withdrawal of their children [33; 34]. In support of this argument, authors [35] presented increasing tuition fees will blur the future and compel many students to stay and study at home, commuting to school, as many households cannot financially support their children encourage part-time study. On the contrary, this may reduce enrollment and or fulltime students, thereby negatively affecting offcampus housing demand.
Another critical, issue of off-campus housing demand, is HEIs and or government policies related to education and student housing. Government education policy framework is an operational guiding principle for HEIs that generally provides policy statements on the
significant issues and individual HEI to formulate further their detail operation policies [5; 36]. Generally, the Government is silent on student housing issues and policy specifically on student provision and accommodation [21]. Although some governments suggested the HEIs housing system should accommodate a certain proportion of students, it is not mandatory on the HEIs, and there is no monitoring to ensure compliance. Traditionally student housing is considered and being pushed to be the responsibility of individual institutions [5; 21], and they were ill-equipped to respond to the growing student populations.
Many HEIs with their available student housing, formulated a policy for selecting students to be accommodated. Individual institution formulates policies for their student accommodation to suit their respective student-bed sharing [31]. Some studies have reported HEIs placed priority for housing first year and final year students as a commitment to the welfare of the students, while returning sophomore and graduate students were not considered [7; 12; 14; 15; 21; 22; 24; 25; 26; 29; 31; 35; 37; 38; 39; 40]. Similarly, [18] reported that most HEIs provide accommodation for the freshmen, while [25] found priority, is given to first and final year students. Females and international students were considered for hostel accommodation. Authors [35] argued that if there is a decrease in first-year students' admission, it will reduce student housing demand in the off-campus and vice versa.
Further to this, some HEIs consider merit in hostel allocation such as academic performance, leadership, extra-curriculum, sports activities and students with a disability. Author [7] reported that consideration is given to students on merit from the college activities student performed in HEI's hostel accommodation. Comparably, [24] observed admission into student house for sophomores depends on marks scored, in the second semester and the same point of view, [41] observed, at the Wisconsin University, upper-class
undergraduates that showed academic merit and financial need (Merit) were selected and admitted into a hostel. In the wake of increasing crime against females, security and safety are significant concerns, especially for female students to protect their lives, properties and integrity. This is because female students are vulnerable to victimization and subjected to harassment especially if secured housing in the
private rental market where security is not guaranteed [12; 21; 24; 25; 27; 38; 40].
Furthermore, disabled students are interested in contemporary time as more of the disables persons participate and enrol in higher education institutions [21; 42]. This category of students is classified, as 'students with special needs' therefore, required attention specifically in on-campus housing provision to ease their suffering of locating off-campus far away from their classes. On this account, many institutions extended their priority to include disabled students in on-campus student housing. However, all these sums up together, affect offcampus housing demand in either way directly or indirectly.
Furthermore, [5] presented, HEIs bed-student ratio is an important, factor for determining student housing demand in the off-campus where the bed-student rate is low, and the greater will be the demand. This indicates that lower HEIs housing capacity admits few students while more will rely on the private rental housing market. On the other hand, the greater the ratio, the lower the private rental housing market demand. Hence, HEI housing has a high carrying capacity and provides accommodation to more students.
With the current development of information and communication technology (ICT), there is a high tendency that it may change the trend of the educational system by introducing distance learning and or part-time studies at a large scale where students will only be going to HEIs when the need arises on contact appointment for a short period. Such programmes will indeed hamper the demand for student housing negatively. Students will not require houses for an extended period as the case may be regular full-time students. In line with this argument, [5] held, obviously full-time students required houses for a more extended period of the year while part-time students, usually, don't need housing as such and [35] in their argument opined, an increase in part-time students, will reduce student housing demand.
The land is a single most important natural resource for human habitation for any physical development. The land is an intractable issue of any physical growth, and student housing development is not exceptional. Land and the laws surrounding it, in all their intricacies, are essential to housing development. HEIs with
available land, developing a new student house is feasible when other factors are favourably general. On the other hand, when land is scarce, creating new student houses, will not be possible, unless other structures were removed. Authors [29] reported that typically in any HEIs when land for new development is limited or not existing; building a new dormitory is not feasible. In urban and suburban areas, where land is scarce, land prices are soaring (expensive) and rising land cost will increase housing construction cost, thereby negatively influencing housing provision [43; 44; 45].
Similarly, some scholars observed that HEIs located in the highly densely towns and or city centre where land prices are soaring, land for new development is generally scarce unless old residential houses will be demolished for new construction of student houses.
Indeed, the cost of such a product is usually unaffordable to especially HEIs. Furthermore, the high price of land around HEI is another significant barrier, to new development, as it will increase the cost of product that may be prohibitive to many HEIs. High land price impedes new growth, making HEI housing remain inadequate that spur up demand in offcampus.
METHODOLOGY
This paper is part of a study of HEIs students' housing provision in Malaysia, intended to provide an in-depth and interpretive study of drivers for off-campus student housing demands. The paper explored qualitative research methodology in data collection. NVivo version 10 was used as the analysis instrument for qualitative research, as suggested by [47; 48; 49]. Personal interview (one-to-one) method, was employed, for detailed investigation of the research phenomena from people's personal opinions and experiences for an in-depth understanding of the contextual research issues and detailed subject coverage [47; 48; 49; 50; 51]. Semi-structured interview question format was employed to give similar understanding to respondents. The type of instrument for data collection is an in-depth 'one-to-one' ('inperson') interview that engaged individual respondents to inquire about the research phenomenon. First and second interview participants (respondents) drawn from public
universities are the Deans Students Affairs and Development Officer. At the same time, from the private University, Students Accommodation Officer is the interview participant. The English language was the medium of communication used for the interviews. This method provides an opportunity for detailed investigation of each person's point of views, for an in-depth understanding of the circumstances within which the research phenomenon is situated [52].
Purposive sampling technique was employed where the participants, were chosen, because, they have particular characteristics which will enable detailed exploration and understanding of the central themes as suggested by [47; 48; 50; 53; 54]. In qualitative research, some scholars suggested a small-scale sample size. Hence, sample in qualitative research is not meant to be statistically representative, but the population characteristics are used as the basis of selection, making them well suited to small-scale [47; 48; 53; 54; 55]. Therefore, in this research, nonproportional judgement sampling was used to achieve a minimum sample size. Three universities were selected as our data sources for the research on student housing demand: two from the public and one private University to represent HEIs in Malaysia. The transcripts were carefully examined, in relation, to four themes identified for coding the data and content analysis. Afterwards, the interview transcripts were imported into NVivo project.
First participating public University has 20% of undergraduate students, and 100% of postgraduate students are off-campus. In contrast, the second respondent public university has 10% of the undergraduate and 90% of doctoral students are off-campus. The private University that participated in the research has 80% of its students living off-campus.
Table 1 - Profile of the Samp e Participants
Sample Group Samples No Participants
Public A 1 Student
Universities Accommodation Officer
B 2 Student Accommodation Officer
Private C 3 Student
University Accommodation Officer
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
For student housing demands, drivers are those forces that triggered the need for student housing at any given time. Student housing demand is a function of many factors, such as HEIs policies, students' enrollment, student level of study, and students' housing requirements. All these affect the demand either way. However, in this paper, for understanding, the drivers are discussed under a primary component that encompassed all other demand factors that are 'HEIs' policies' as relating to enrolment and student housing. This, appeared, to be the significant influencing driver, for student housing demand and all other factors are dependants on HEIs' policies.
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) Policy. Higher Education Institution (HEI) policies are important drivers influencing student housing demand where it determines the HEI expansion, student enrolment, student selection/admission into houses and new student housing development. The HEIs policy involved the running and future policy plans designed for managing the existing situation and forecasted plans. Indeed, HEIs accorded a significant priority on student housing and yet is grossly inadequate. Hence, HEIs student housing system cannot sufficiently provide all students with housing accommodation, as a matter of policy, HEIs unit responsible for managing students' housing, devise measures in allocating the few housing facilities to a certain proportion of their respective total students' population [5; 31; 36]. Although HEI's housing policy is concerned with allocating the available hostels to students and includes plan policies. Traditionally, the future policies (plans) for any institution depend on the institution's forecast on local and international students' enrolment (intake); economy and the future student housing development plans.
Higher Education Institutions Housing Allocation Policy. It has become clear that most HEIs were unable to adequately provide and expand their student housing in line with the rising student enrolment. Therefore, individual HEI established structures responsible for managing and allocating students' accommodation in their respective peculiarities and variations in housing policies in trying to accommodate their students. Due to the insufficient HEI housing for students and policy, students housing management unit formulate set criteria for qualifying and choosing
students to stay in college hall of residence like newly admitted students, final year students, female students and base on merit. While sophomores and upper levels students have no option than to rely on the private sector market in the HEIs neighbourhoods to meet their housing demand. This corroborated with the proposition in studies of [5; 7; 13].
"Actually, in our accommodation policy, we only give hostel to diploma and undergraduate students, masters and PhD we do not give them hostel accommodation, all rent outside" (Participant 1)
"...in our accommodation policy, we give priority to new students. This is because, after the first year, students might have familiar with the neighbourhood, have friends and can arrange accommodation for themselves" (Participant 3).
However, where the HEIs housing capacity, cannot accommodate all the newly admitted students, allocation into the students housing will be based on 'who-came-first'.
"So we give priority, to those in the first year and not all of them get accommodation, but those who came first and the rest go outside. In our accommodation forecast, we are planning to accommodate 20-30% of our students" (Participant 3).
On average, a student stays in a HEIs hall of residence for barely one semester or academic year and the remaining years are spent in private student houses off-campus to make way for the next batch of students. Therefore, when the housing capacity accommodates only a few new students, the rest and sophomores will rely on the rental market, positively influencing the demand for off-campus and vice-versa [5; 7; 12; 18; 31; 36].
"Yes, the Government knows hostels are not enough, so in their policy, they suggested, universities should give accommodation to 70% and 30% to go out to develop the economy of the local people. So, you see, our hostels are not enough and we only give 80% of undergraduate student accommodation while the rest go out and rent their accommodation. By this, the economy of the local community will be improved" (Participant 1).
"You know we are renting accommodation from our renting partners so is not enough. So far I think we accommodate only 20% of the students
and the rest arranged for their accommodation around here"(Participant3).
Some HEIs hostel management, reserve hostel accommodations, for selected students on merit, not based on the entry point and study level. These merits can be the academic performance, sporting activities, leadership or students with a disability. Though from responses of the participants, merit, did not indicate, accommodation reservation on academic performance but for being very active in extra-curriculum activities like students leadership and sporting activities as hinted by [7; 24; 41].
"Yes, we give priority to active students in extra-curriculum activities like leaders representatives and sportsmen and girls. To encourage them to continue with assisting the development of the University." (Participantl)
"So far, we have, Students Accommodation Association assisting us, to take care of our students' welfare. So we reserve accommodation for them " (Participant3).
All the participants confirmed that student accommodations are separate for sorority and fraternity living and no priority placement disparity.
"... yes we have separate colleges for male and female students both on-campus and off-campus colleges. You know religion does not allow that so we have separate hostel accommodation differently. But same with men no special reservation for girls..." (Participan 11).
"...we have many colleges, and some are occupied by female students rest for male students, different not mix" (Participant 2).
"You know here in Malaysia; we have different accommodations for males and females, not the same place. You know, Malaysia is religious, and no mix male and female in accommodation and have the same priority as male students" (Participant 3).
Students are heterogeneous, in nature and their housing demand is not homogeneous, which influences the demand pattern for housing. Conversely, as students housing demands are not homogeneous, the market reflects, the diverse nature of heterogeneity of students' backgrounds such as level of study, gender, age and marital status. Some undergraduates and graduates students are married, married couples and or married with children often bring their families
with them. In contrast, some single graduate students may likely not share a room or apartment with other students. Furthermore, some HEIs do not consider postgraduate and married students in their accommodation policy. Therefore, this group of students arrange for their off-campus accommodation in the private rental market [14; 24; 26; 29; 37; 38]. This is a significant driver of student housing demand in the off-campus rental market. This group of students has matured students who required more freedom, privacy and noise-free environment away from the core students' area [14]. They study for a more extended period and place a high value on privacy, therefore, will not likely share a room. The housing demand for married students, is different from those of single students, being single students, required only a room or rather just a bed space and shared a room while students with families needed an apartment.
"As I told you we do not consider Masters and PhD students in our accommodation, so all rent their accommodation outside. Yes, we don't have accommodation for married students, you know they cannot stay in the hostel. They prepare to be outside, not in the hostel they rent apartments around here." (Participant1)
"We have enough colleges for the diploma, undergraduate and PG students but Masters and PhD students do not want to stay in the college resident they prepared an apartment outside. I think the total number of PG student is around 15,000 and only 5 - 10% of them are occupying our residen tial college " (Participan 12).
"So for PG students, we have not many PG students, and most of our PG students are part-time students, so they sort for their accommodation" (Participant 3).
For married students with children, their housing requirements are more complex than other students because they may likely demand an entire apartment and proximity to neighbourhood facilities, especially school and kindergarten, among other things. Married and graduate students housing demand is different from that of single undergraduate students, conversely many HEIs are not considering these groups of students in their respective housing programme, therefore, their number influences the demand pattern of student housing to some degrees in the private rental market.
A new paradigm toward student housing living stems from high student expectations demanding more and modern facilities that support students' lives. The traditional shibboleth dormitory-style, accommodating 4-8 students, is no longer the type of the millennium students need but more of en-suit housing type with private bathroom and some students, don't want to share room and bathroom, they prefer a single room. This group of students will likely refuse to stay in the HEIs' on-campus housing but offcampus, especially those who can afford the rent.
"Not many students can afford, to stay in the studio type, and not all students want to stay in the dormitory type, especially the senior students. They preferred apartment type. They need single occupancy because, senior and PG students need privacy, and so they need single rooms or a studio for those who can afford the cost" (Participant 1).
"PhD students prepared to stay outside, not in the students' dormitory. Maybe, we don't have what is convenient for them, so they prepare outside. Accordingly, the hostels will be prepared by the Diploma and Undergraduate students. Many of
Future Enrolment plan. For any HEI, future enrollment plan is a driving force for student housing demand at any given point in time. The prospective students' enrolment, affects student housing demand either way; positively or negatively, depending on the circumstances attached to the growth or declining in both enrolment and student housing provision [5; 12; 15]. Considering the progressive world population growth, form the basis for heightening the demand for higher education visa-vie enrolment. It has been, shown, that in recent decades, the demand for higher education and enrolment in the world has tremendously increased which also spurred up student housing demand. Where students' enrolment plan is to grow, the demand for houses will also increase, by the corresponding students' population growth.
our PG students are married couples and will not like sharing toilet/bath, so they prepare to stay outside where apartments houses, are provided not hostels for their convenience. Therefore we don't have houses for married students" (Participant 2).
However, all these are driver indices for student accommodations demand in the off-campus where on-campus housing will not absorb a particular group of students, mostly postgraduate and married students but will be pushed out. This is because; these groups of the students are not considered, in some HEIs accommodation policy, and they may likely not want to live in shared student hostels. Therefore, postgraduate students housing demand offcampus is more critical than that of undergraduate students. Authors [30] and [56] reported that the students' enrolment in Malaysian HEIs is increasing steadily were in 2010, the total students' population reached 1.134 million and expected to reach 1.5 and 1.8 million by 2015 and 2017 respectively.
Similarly, suppose HEI's plan prioritized the expansion of more academic units. It implies that student intake into the new academic units and existing ones obviously will steep-up student population and the demand for houses in a similar fashion. On the contrary, if the plan's priority is placed to increase part-time students' enrollment and/or distance-learning programme, it will perceptibly influence the future demand for student housing. Hence, parttime and distance-learning students do not come to stay for an extended period; their visit is for a short period, therefore, may likely not require a house, as regular full-time students as [5] theorized. This will drastically reduce the pressure on housing demand both on and offcampus. It is clear that HEIs with large part-time student populations have low or no pressure on student housing; afterwards, building student
Table 2 - University students' enrolment from 2009-2017 in Malaysia [57]
University Year
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Public 437,420 460,780 508,256 521,793 560,359 563,186 540,638 532,049 538,555
Private 484,377 541,629 428,973 454,616 484,963 493,725 580,928 695,026 565,852
Total 821,797 1,002,409 937,229 976,409 1,045,322 1,056,911 1,121,566 1,227,075 1,104,407
houses, will not be beneficial; hence the demand will be insignificant.
On the extreme side, when the HEI housing policy is a 'non-residential' to students that is HEI will, not operate student housing system, meaning none of it student, will be provided with housing accommodation, all students have to depend on the private rental sector market. This will drive up housing demand in the HEI neighbourhood as housing facilities' provision will not be an issue to such HEI.
In the world education provider market, many HEIs are planning to become world-class by increasing international students' enrolment. According to the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia has ambitions to become a regional hub for higher education in Southeast Asia and become a world-class international education provider on par with those of the developed nations like Britain, US, Germany and Australia. To achieve these ambitions, Malaysia targeted 250,000 international students and the local students' enrolment by 2025 to gain global recognition in the world education providers market. Malaysia has placed internationalization as one of the key thrusts in transforming higher education to compete with other global higher education providers. For Malaysia to become an international education hub by 2025, it aims to have 250,000 international student enrolments into the country's universities [58]. According to [59] in 2009 & 2010, Malaysian universities recorded 80,750 & 86,919 international student enrolments respectively, with a 7.6% increase. Similarly, from 2015 - 2017 recorded 151,979; 170, 068 and 172,886 international students toward attracting 250,000 international students into the country to achieving its aim as an international education hub by 2025 [60; 61].
In conjunction with this, the Deans of Postgraduate Studies and International Office of University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia visited Nigeria in December 2016 in search of international students and collaboration. This will be evidence suggestively for increasing the tempo of demand for student housing in offcampus living as international students are not considered on-campus students' houses or otherwise don't want to live on-campus dormitory.
"For international students, their requirement is very high for accommodation. They want to stay in a single room and need privacy. International
students do not want to live or stay in dormitory/ hostel. They chose to rent their own apartment houses around for their convenience and privacy" (Participant 1).
"Most of our foreign students are postgraduate students. Some are married and come with their families and will not like sharing. So, they prepared to stay outside in apartment houses for their convenience, not hostels. Those days, we designed our hostels, for single senior studen ts and a double shared room with shared toilet/bath, for undergraduate students. Consequently, this is not practical for married students, so they have to rent apartments outside" (Participan12).
It is clear that postgraduate and international students, require privacy; noise-free and isolation from general students thus prefer offcampus housing. Therefore, these are ominous. Increasing international and doctoral students' enrolment implied growing demand for offcampus housing, since the on-campus house, is not convenient and preferred by this group. Mostly on-campus housing is more prefer by undergraduate students as confirmed by participants.
Future Housing Development Plans. Another critical driver for student housing demand is the HEIs housing development plan. HEIs planned to build new student houses will directly reduce student housing demand in the private student housing market (off-campus) and vice versa. HEIs' future planned to construct new student houses depend now more or less, among other factors; land availability for housing development offers future student house expansion as [5; 29] suggested.
"We have vast unutilized land ... we are planning to build new apartment system for our staff, postgraduate, married and foreign students" (Participant 2).
Expansion of on-campus student housing will eventually reduce demand in the off-campus housing market. Likewise, land scarcity for new housing development, will not be feasible, coupled with increasing students' enrolment will exacerbate the demand in the off-campus housing market. High land price is another barrier to new development, especially where the competing demand for land from a range of other asset class development is high. Similarly, old HEIs and those located in highly densely populated towns, would likely, have no space for
new student housing development and expansion will not be feasible. Some old buildings are demolished for further development which is cost-prohibitive for HEIs. This agreed with the propositions of [5; 29; 43; 44; 45].
"Our location is a problem because we are in the city centre, we cannot provide student accommodation on our campus. Because we cannot get land to provide student accommodation " (Participant 3).
"Land issue is a problem and is a very long process to get approval, we bought land long ago, but the 'title' is still not ours. The land is not transferred to us because, paying the premium is difficult, so, we cannot lease or sub-lease to private developers to develop the land. So, because of the land matters, we cannot proceed" (Participant 1).
However, due to insufficient land and or land-related issues facing HEIs, new construction may not be possible or delayed. Often, building new structures, old buildings or parking lots has to give way. These drive up housing demand in the off-campus housing market around HEIs.
HEIs Economy. The economy of any nation is one of the determining drivers of the national housing demand and supply. Similarly, for HEIs, it is a fundamental driver for student housing demand and provision at any time that will respond to students' enrolment growth. The economy is buoyant, the HEIs may expand their student housing, likely to correspond with the enrolment and on the other hand, where the economy is lagging, the reverse will be the case. This tallied with [33; 34] hypothesis. The increase in the number of college students have made up the demand for student housing and student demand for housing has a significant impact on the decision by HEIs to build student housing where the economy will permit.
The recent world economic recession that cut across nations adversely affected the educational sector, particularly HEIs student housing. It has been reported that as a result of financial meltdown, many governments cut the budget across the sectors. Therefore, when HEIs lack sufficient development funds to invest in non-core areas of their education business coupled with high construction costs, most HEIs will not keep up with the mounting housing demand. However, it is essential to note that with a budget cut or cash-stringent, constructing new on-campus student housing can be cost-prohibitive to many HEIs.
When student housing supply, has been suppressed by recessionary low levels of development funds, HEIs can no longer house bulk students. This, in turn, resulted in the student number exceeds the available housing accommodation each year and necessitates many students to rent accommodation in the private housing market. Therefore, increasing enrolment, coupled with the stagnation of student housing provision, invariably drives up demand for off-campus housing.
"In the Malaysian Economic Development Plan10 (RMK10), Government then realized don't have enough money to build a new hostel, so, they came with a new policy, which all HEIs student hostels, must be built through PPP projects. Since the introduction of PPP, the Government can only allow new hostel development through PPP, where the Government will not put their liability (money) in the construction. During RMK10 & 11, there is no hostel being built by the Government using the traditional method, but the private developers have to invest, build the hostel and collect rent from students" (Participant 1).
RMK 10 & 11, no more money from the Government for new development. So we have to look for money for new hostel development. Now, the government policy is no funding for new physical development so; the fund is only for equipment and maintenance of the existing facilities—no more budgets for new physical development (Participant2).
Furthermore, the global economic recession or crisis, has significantly affected HEIs student housing directly or indirectly in many ways. For instance, the financial crisis led to budget cuts which invariably led HEIs to increased tuition fees and edged out low-income families who cannot afford tuition fees for their children to withdraw. Higher tuition fees may force many students, start especially those from low-income families, or study at home commuting to HEI and increase the number of part-time students to cut down costs and save money doubt. This will clearly reduce housing demand. Withdrawing from schools will eventually lead to declining in HEIs enrolment and directly influence students housing demand negatively.
CONCLUSION
Some studies indicated that the college-age cohort's demographic trend would continue to
increase in the future visa vie the demand and enrollment rate in HEIs, which invariably affect the student housing demand upward. Furthermore, many studies, have long been acknowledged on-campus housing stock in most HEIs is inadequate to meet the growing student population's needs. In addition to this, HEIs were observed to admit more students than their housing carrying capacity and financial stringency, stagnating expanding or developing new student housing. Therefore, an ever-increasing number of students with in-corresponding student house provision will continue to increase demand for housing accommodation, in the private rental sector. Universities, confirmed, that student enrolment has been steady, growing every year greater than student housing provision. Therefore, it is
recommended that the Government encourage private housing developers, actively participate in students' housing provision, and HEIs should collaborate with private housing developers in students' housing provision, which will ameliorate the shortfalls; hence, universities cannot adequately provide housing for all students.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We wish to acknowledge the Tertiary Education Truth Fund (TeT Fund) of Nigeria for Fellowship intervention grant. Special thanks go to Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi, Nigeria for the Fellowship that facilitated this research.
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