Scottish universities have been getting understandably hot under their gowns about the Higher Education Governance Bill, but another piece of legislation now wending its way through Holyrood has more direct consequences for the sector.

Yesterday, private landlords expressed dismay about the new Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Bill which they say will make it much more difficult to evict anti-social tenants.

Not so, says the Scottish Government, insisting it gives much-needed security to families amongst the 14 per cent of households which rent privately and will prevent unscrupulous landlords from ramping up bills unreasonably.

Private discussions with government have, I am told, reassured the bigger operators that negative effects will be limited but what has received far less attention are fears universities are going to be hit by an unintended consequence of the new rules.

Tenants will be protected from sudden eviction because tenancies will no longer automatically end on the last date of an agreed rental period and occupants will need to formally sign off the lease for the property to become legally vacant.

Wisely, university residences have been exempted so the thousands of students coming and going from halls every year won’t have to worry about signing off when their tenancies expire. Therefore universities won’t be saddled with rooms they are legally prevented from re-letting because departing students forgot to attend to the bureaucracy.

But the exemption doesn’t extend to purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) run by private firms like Unite Students which supply 13,000 places on top of the 31,000 directly-managed beds.

The problem is that students are notoriously bad at tying up loose ends and often head off into the rest of their lives leaving damages deposits unclaimed in the accounts of their accommodation provider. They leave their university email accounts behind, change addresses and generally become difficult to chase.

Private operators fear they will be unable to re-let rooms because tenancies will not have been terminated. They rely on fast turn-arounds for short-course summer schools and, in Edinburgh, for Festival lets as well as the new intake for the following year. No room at the inn means no income and no income spells disaster. Itinerant thespians are likely to compound the problem.

Like it or not, higher education is a numbers game, especially so in Scotland where the free tuition principle means there is more pressure on universities to bring in fee-paying students from England or beyond the EU to generate much-needed income.

In particular, post-graduate courses commanding fees of around £20,000 a year are a key revenue stream and the UK has an advantage over most of Europe because learning English is a big draw in the lucrative Far Eastern and Chinese markets.

For these students, easy access to good quality rooms is crucial because they don’t scour property websites for rooms in a Marchmont or Hyndland bedsit but expect the university accommodation service to point them to blocks of modern, accessible rooms (with en suite facilities, thank you) and if none are available they go elsewhere.

None of this is new to the Scottish Government because the universities, local authorities and private providers raised it in the consultation process but got nowhere. The civil servants’ attitude is that the market will sort it out, which belies a strange understanding of demand and the speed of supply.

In Edinburgh, planning applications for new student blocks regularly face local opposition often resulting in a drawn-out appeals process. Two such applications a textbook’s throw from the main city centre teaching buildings only went ahead in the past year after the Scottish Government overturned council rejections.

The housing industry worries it risks making Scotland unattractive for housing investments of all kinds, but even if those fears prove exaggerated why take the risk over a niche area which has very little impact on the wider community?

Maybe it’s a devilishly cunning plan to force PBSA firms to sell their properties to the universities? After all, communities minster Marco Biagi has accused private PBSA providers of profiteering.

But he’s leaving Holyrood next year so it’s fanciful to think he’s in an ideological driving seat and it’s more likely the implications haven’t been properly considered and no-one will admit to the oversight.

Housing minister Margaret Burgess said the bill’s aim was to enable tenants to “treat their property as a long-term home”, which clearly doesn’t apply to a Malaysian on a one-year MSc.

Ultimate ministerial responsibility lies with her boss Alex Neil who is nothing if not pragmatic and it shouldn’t be beyond the wit of his department to exempt PBSA. There is nothing to lose except the stubborn pride of faceless officials.