Tourist-style prospectuses promise flash new halls and facilities, but many students are tired of living on a building site and think the money could be better spent

It has inspired an endless supply of memes and even has a song dedicated to it: the Pontio centre at Bangor University has become a joke to students. It is also a source of deep embarrassment to project managers.

Billed as a cutting-edge arts and innovation hub, Pontio was supposed to have been ready in 2012. After numerous revised completion dates, the £49m project still hasn’t opened.

“I studied at Bangor from 2011 to 2014, and it was initially supposed to open in my first year, but then it got pushed back to a year later, then a year later again, then months more and so on,” says Heather Clark, who studied music at Bangor. “It’s a bit of a joke. There’s a feeling among students that it’s ridiculous. It’s a project that will never ever end.”

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Bangor isn’t the only university embarking on large building projects – nor the only one encountering problems. The Russell Group universities are spending £9bn on capital investment projects over the four-year period to 2016-17, and many others are investing in new faculties and accommodation.

But while the idea of shiny new buildings might help to attract applicants, existing students are less enthusiastic about the continuing – and overrunning – construction work.

University College London is embroiled in a dispute with students who say building work has left them unable to sleep or study. Students at least three other universities have complained of similar problems last academic year.

Universities will be taking the issue more seriously, says Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi). “The interest of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) [which has replaced the Office of Fair Trading], the fact that students do very often feel they’re paying through the fees themselves, and because you’ve got more first-in-family students who have less information about what to expect when they get to university, they need to be more careful.”

In March, the CMA – following previous warnings from the Office of Fair Trading – told universities they were in danger of breaking consumer protection law if they breached regulations, and published advice to help them comply. It also announced it would be carrying out a review of institutions next month. But the audit may do little to help students who feel their university has made false promises about new facilities.

The CMA declined to be interviewed, but said in a statement that its focus would be on course content and academic services. Consumer protection law does apply to issues such as accommodation or other provision, but its guidance has not covered such matters in great detail.

Karen Stephenson, education partner at the national law firm Weightmans, says regulators are taking students’ consumer rights more seriously, but that it is still a grey area. If a student hopes to get compensation for a broken promise, they must prove they have suffered a loss, she explains. “That’s not so easy. The university can say: ‘OK, well we promised you this lecture theatre, which was of this quality, but we provided a different lecture theatre which was not of the same quality, but it was sufficient. You got the same academic outcome that you would have got before.’”

We often stay up late to write – but then we can't sleep becuase the noise starts early every day Yifan Wang, UCL student

On courses where specialist sporting facilities or laboratories are required, students may have a stronger case, but even then it’s unclear how much compensation they might be entitled to.

Yifan Wang, who has just completed a master’s in telecommunications with business at UCL, lived with noisy building work for the last academic year at her university-owned accommodation. “It really disrupted my studying, especially during dissertation time, because we often stay up late to write – but then we can’t get a good sleep because the noise starts early every day,” she says. “It seriously disturbs your life, both physically and psychologically.”

Some students are withholding rent in protest against the conditions, though Yifan did not, for fear of the repercussions.

Yifan, who has moved out, says she was unable to use her room to study, and instead had to travel to the main campus every day. UCL offered her £132 in compensation – the equivalent of one week’s rent. The university says all students were offered alternative options for revision space and, in some cases, additional accommodation.

Yifan, who was not offered an alternative room, says the rebate is far too little. “It’s equal to two months’ bus fares – it accounts for about 3% of our total rent.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Building work at Pontio Centre at Bangor University. Photograph: BBC

Felicity Mitchell, deputy adjudicator at the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (IOA), says that because such disputes are normally solved internally, it’s hard to estimate what should typically be offered to students.

“If the disruption had been so bad that the accommodation had been unusable, that’s quite easy – they weren’t able to use the accommodation for a week so you’d give them a week’s rent back, plus distress and inconvenience, or some sort of compensation on top of that,” says Mitchell. “But if it’s a case of ‘I’m able to use my accommodation but my enjoyment of it has been decreased’, that’s quite difficult to put a figure on.”

Cases are judged by the IOA on an individual basis, and will depend on the terms of the contract and the way universities have responded to complaints.

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The Quality Assurance Agency and Advertising Standards Authority also have a role regulating the sector, though critics point out that their brief is not to clamp down on universities. “They deal with issues that are brought to their attention, they don’t actively go about and look at the sector,” says John Bradley, a consultant educational psychologist at the Educational Guidance Service, who has researched university prospectuses.

He adds that although the Committee of University Chairs produced draft guidance advising governing bodies that they should “avoid false or exaggerated claims” in information for prospective students, this was watered down after consultation.

University prospectuses have become increasingly like tourist brochures – and the problem of proposed building work is a classic holidaymaker complaint, he says. “It’s like looking at an artist’s impression of your new hotel while booking your holiday.”

Even if universities don’t end up paying lots of compensation to students, vice-chancellors will not welcome the negative publicity or poor National Student Survey rating that could result from building work mismanagement.

Yifan says she would be unlikely to encourage friends to study at UCL: “If I share my experience with other people, they would think it’s not reasonable.”

Hillman says: “If students feel they’re not getting what they were promised there is also the risk that this may have an impact on dropout rates.” He points out that in Australia, where the cap on student numbers has been removed, as it has now in the UK, several institutions have seen their dropout rates soar.

Shelly Asquith, vice-president for welfare at the National Union of Students, says universities would be better off spending money on helping students succeed in their degree courses, rather than splashing out on flashy buildings. “Often these capital investments aren’t necessary and money spent on them means the resources students actually need go underfunded. Mental health services, in particular, are under strain. In most institutions, more money is being spent on advertisers than advisers.”

Research by Hepi suggests students are not as fond of new buildings as their vice-chancellors. It found they think the best way for universities to save money is by reducing spending on new buildings and sports and social facilities.

As for the Pontio project at Bangor, Heather says many students feel it has been more trouble than it’s worth. The university has apologised, but says students have still benefited from the project, as many of the activities planned for the centre have been held elsewhere.

Pontio is now due to open next month – though ask anybody on campus about it and you’ll probably get the same response: “I’m not holding my breath.”