Students at Oxford University’s St Catherine’s College are forced to study in marquees and share bedrooms after crumbling Raac concrete is discovered

• RAAC, concrete which is prone to collapse, was found at St Catherine’s College
• St Catherine’s was forced to close its library, dining hall, and 152 bedrooms 
• Students have been left studying in marquees and sharing bedrooms 

Oxford University students are being forced to study in marquees and share bedrooms after crumbling concrete was discovered at a college.

St Catherine’s College was forced to close its library, dining hall and 152 bedrooms after discovering reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), which is prone to collapse.

The college, which was founded in 1981, has erected several marquees in the gardens to be used as a makeshift dining room, common room and study space.

An email sent to students on September 18 read: ‘The areas of the College affected by the use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete [RAAC] include the top floor of staircases 1 to 16, the JCR and SCR [junior and senior common rooms], the Administration Block, the kitchen, the Hall, the Wolfson Library and the Bernard Sunley Building.

‘We will be putting in place temporary measures […] including a marquee to serve as a dining hall alongside a temporary kitchen and a second marquee to serve as the JCR lounge.’

St Catherine’s College was forced to close its library, dining hall and 152 bedrooms after discovering reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC)

The college, which was founded in 1981, has erected several marquees in the gardens to be used as a makeshift dining room, common room and study space

Students forced to share bedrooms will be asked to pay half price rent, or £13.56 per day

Students have also been asked to volunteer to sleep on mattresses in shared rooms to help ease accomodation pressures, while others will be moved to nearby hotels or neighbouring colleges.

Those who opt to share bedrooms will be asked to pay half price rent, working out to £13.56 per day.

The college added that contractors were attempting to fix the problem, but it was ‘not yet possible’ to say how long the alternative arragnements would last.

Undergraduates have expressed their frustration about the College’s handling of the situation on Facebook.

One frustrated student wrote: ‘Some guy in 1960 had an obsession with concrete and now Catz second years are being asked to sleep on the floor indefinitely.’

Most Oxford students are expected to move into College on Sunday, in time for Freshers Week which begins on October 2nd.

St Catherine’s College Oxford has been contacted for comment.

More than 100 schools in England were forced to shut down in late August after Raac was discovered in their construction.

The cheaper concrete alternative, which was widely used from the mid-1950s to the mid-1990s, has a typical lifespan of just 30 years and is suspectible to strutural failure.

Buildings using Raac can be made safe by reinforcing areas prone to collapse.

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