Student accommodation
Nomination agreement
A nomination agreement is the contract under which a university reserves a block of rooms in a private operator's residence for one or more academic years and nominates the students who fill them. Depending on how it is drafted, the risk of the rooms left empty falls on the university.
Also known asnominations agreement · room nomination agreement · acuerdo de nominación
What it is, exactly
It is a piece of the British student accommodation market. The university secures beds for its students without building them; the operator secures committed occupancy, and with it financing for its PBSA. What gets negotiated is the number of rooms, the academic years covered, the financial terms and, above all, what happens to the rooms that are not filled.
That last point is the delicate one. In London, the planning framework adopted in 2021 required most rooms in new PBSA schemes to be tied to a university through an agreement of this kind. Because that shifts the financial risk onto the institutions, especially with uncertain international recruitment, new supply became concentrated in a few with the capacity to carry it.
Worth knowing
In Spain it is not the same as affiliation. A rooms agreement is a commercial contract; the affiliation of a colegio mayor (a Spanish hall of residence with a formative programme) or of a residence is a link with the university that brings its community-life rules with it. Reserving rooms for a university does not by itself turn a private student residence into an affiliated one, nor does it bring it under Ley 3/2022.
Sources
Related terms
- Student residenceStudent residence is the generic name for any building that houses students for the academic year with services included: a colegio mayor, a university residence or a private building run by an operator. In Spain it is a label of use and of marketing, not a legal figure of its own.
- PBSAPBSA (purpose-built student accommodation) is a student residence built or refurbished for that use and run by a private operator, with rooms or studios, shared areas and services. The term comes from the British market, and in Spain it is used mainly by investors and operators.