THOUSANDS of new student flats covering an area the size of 18 football pitches could soon be under construction across Glasgow.

City planners have received eight applications for student accommodation from a range of developers.

Two have applied for full planning permission and six have tendered advance notice they plan to lodge applications. Six are regarded as major or national applications which require the developer to consult with the public.

Applications for student flats only fall into this category if the site is at least two hectares in size. That means the developments would cover a total area equivalent to 18 football pitches.

Applications for full planning permission have been lodged for 563 flats - some with two bedrooms - at 145 Kelvinhaugh Street and for a 178-bed development in the former Willowbank primary school both in the West End.

Together they will be able to accommodate at least 750 students. No details are yet available about the total number of rooms which will become available in the other six planned developments.

They are in Miller Street in the Merchant City, Burns Street in Woodside, and a site to the south of Dyke Wynd in Calton. There are also plans to build on a site bounded by Kennedy Street, North Hanover Street and Dobbies Loan in Townhead, and a site bounded by Kyle Street, Stafford Street and Calgary Street in Cowcaddens.

The final student flats development will be part of a £100million development on the former Selfridges site bounded by Trongate, Wilson Street, Brunswick Street and Candleriggs in the Merchant City.

Liz Cameron, Glasgow City Council's jobs and the economy spokesman, said: "Glasgow's fantastic univer-sities and colleges mean it is no surprise to many the city is proving to be attractive to developers looking to build student accommodation.

"These renowned inst-itutions attract many students from across the world, as well as the rest of Scotland and the UK. Students play a key role in our civic life and are major contributors to our day and night-time economies.

"It should also be remem-bered the city has a tremen-dously high percentage of students in our workforce, a key advantage when comp-eting for high-quality jobs."

A recent study found a total of 50,880 full-time students and 14,195 part-time students attend Glasgow, Strathclyde and Caledonian universities, Glasgow School of Art and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. The five main higher education institutions in the city offer accommodation for 6219 students - often only to first-year students - which is only 10% of the total student population in the city.

The private sector offers accommodation for 4678 students which is around 7% of the student population.

Recently, 15 student acc-ommodation developments received planning permission and are under construction or yet to be started. These will provide a further 2714 student beds.

A report by Richard Brown, the city council's executive director of development and regeneration, states: "When combined, these factors offer accommodation for 13,611 students which is 21% of all students, meaning 51,645 students are residing at home with parents, in houses in multiple occupancy or other private rented accommodation."

vivienne.nicoll@eveningtimes.co.uk