The influence of accommodation upon 64 Reading University students-an ex post facto experimental study.

The two most important pieces of British research into effects of accommodation upon students come to opposite conclusions. Researcher Thoday's study of Birmingham University students in 1951-1952 found that those in a hail of residence "took on average a greater part in university life than others" as measured by their use of the union, their membership of student societies, outside interests, and range of friendships. These results, she argued, "support the general view that residence in hail adds much to these opportunities provided by the provincial university. Full residential places for all would therefore seem to be the ideal." In 1962 Marris compared hail and lodgings students at Cambridge, Leeds and Southampton in respect of their range of friendships, frequency with which they took part in informal discussions, contact with staff, reading outside their subject, participation in sport and societies, and university examination results. He found that halls did not "promote either general reading or academic performance," that they "did not influence the pattern of social life very profoundly," and that they "may not, after all, contribute significantly to education."