A report from the Mancunion reported a large drop in students numbers and one article mention 3 student halls of residences in Fallowfield were empty: http://mancunion.com/2012/09/27/fallowfield-hall-empty-after-drop-in-student-numbers/. They even had an article about the rise of Asian Universities, another reason student numbers in Manchester will go down.  The Daily Telegraph also had an article about the large number of course vacancies and especially mentioned Manchester Metropolitan University: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/9574429/Universities-still-advertising-vacancies-before-term-starts.html.
And with the planning department and committee refused planning permission for a student block on Coupland Street; 095082/FO/2010/S1 and another on Boundary Lane: 099782/FO/2012/S1 until the need for further student commendation was proven.
Both Manchester Metropolitan University and Manchester University both opposed these developments with a statement;
‘The statement essentially indicates that there is a real danger of overprovision within Manchester resulting in a high level of vacancy. This is influenced by the introduction of the full £9000 tuition fee for undergraduates, an 8% reduction in applications to higher education and the trend for more local students to live at home.  MMU has seen  27% reduction in application from first year students to live in halls’.
So where is the requirement to build student accommodation on Birley Fields?  And I thought it totally hypocritical of our councillors who were against these applications whilst still supporting the Birley Fields proposals.