Student family accommodation in the UK

Will the relative who will be living in your owned property be okay with your year 9 offspring continuing to live in the family home with her, if there are no year 9 places available in the area where the rest of you have PhD / undergraduate/ sixth form places?

Finding a sixth form / college place isn't usually a problem, but for year 9, you will be dependant on a local school being under PAN in that year group (different areas may have specific overfull year groups unrelated to the overall birth rate for that cohort), plus you can only apply for a place at the point at which your DC will be taking it up, or not very far in advance. e.g. if you are wanting the place for a September start, an application is unlikely to be processed until the second half of the summer term.

However, in many areas, there is one school which has a bad reputation and is chronically undersubscribed - if this is the case where you are looking, would you be happy for your year 9 to go there, where there is a place available, or would you be looking for the 'best' school in the area? If you are not happy just to take any place for this DC, then for them to stay behind at their current school, with the resident relative acting in loco parentis on a day-to-day basis, may be an option (or even necessary).

OP- Sorry this is long, but might be helpful. DH owns a house near his old uni and its privately rented to students. (Its solely in his name, hence I refer to it has his). The uni act as a real estate agent and have their own team for this. I don't know if all unis have a student accomodation type team that also manage private rentals?

They find the students, organise gas/electric checks and can organise repairs if needed. We did look at just renting the house to a family via a regular estate agent, and the rent would be more. We felt though that the student accomodation team were fair and would mediate between us and the students- which we didn't feel a regular estate agent would do. The students don't get their degree if they trash the house and in most years, a new group have come in. So far, we've had only minor issues. We have a list of minimum furniture requirements for each room- desk, chair, bed, bedside table, small bin, wardrobe. We provide a vacuum, fridge/freezers, washing machine, microwave etc. Also sofa, blackout curtains, dining table/chairs, mops, kitchen bin and every year get new mattress protectors. They provide their own bedding, cutlery, kitchen utensils etc. This might differ between places. The 1st year, we were asked to include ALL crockery, glassware, utensils etc but they said it took far too long on the inventory so not to include it the following year.

Until now, its always been a group of friends (generally 2nd or 3rd years) that have rented the house. Not random strangers in the one house. Last year, the uni asked if we'd rent to a PhD student who had a wife and young son. His wife isn't at the uni- just the man. He'd planned to live there for 5yrs. This would save us the fee of the uni finding a new group each year and partly based on this, we agreed a lower rent than we would have got from filling every room. Also, the uni have built more of their own accommodation, so some years, we've not know if our house would be rented at all. At the students request, we removed furniture from 3 of the rooms so they could have a study and a separate play room for the child. Luckily, we were able to just fit it into a garage we have.

18mths on, the PhD student has advised that they are looking to buy their own house and will be moving out in the new year!

My advice:
-Ring around the uni's you are considering and see if they have an accomodation team
-Don't discount all private rentals as being more expensive than ones via a real estate agent
-Our house was never advertised as 'family' accomodation, so ask if they have any fully/partially furnished 4 beds
-If you are planning to stay a few years, there might be negotiation on the rental rates
-If there is certain furniture you'd really want/need, then ask if it could be included. Or, if there is a furniture charity shop in the town, they will often delivery and then take it back when you move out.
-Consider garden maintenance and whether you'll want to do this or be too busy studying. We always paid for someone to mow the lawns and just taken it from the rent we get. Will a lawnmower be provided? Is there storage for it? Will you pay a garden yourselves or will it be included in the overall rent?

Readiong also looks like it targets families with kids under 12.

https://www.reading.ac.uk/ready-to-study/accommodation/room-types/flats-self-contained-rooms

But most private student accommodation is cheaper per week than the university accommodation.

Surely you choose the uni based on who you want to work with on your specific thesis proposal? Some areas of research will only be pursued in a small number of unis and you want to work with the best supervisor you can.

Unless your daughter is taking a gap year you won’t actually know where she’s going until A level results day? So there’s a risk there that you set it all up with your phd and your husbands course and then she doesn’t get in?

A friend lived in (very small) family university accommodation with her two young children. She was returning from a job abroad so it was the most straightforward option. The accommodation was dated and cramped. It was on campus and she found it unbearably noisy. Many parties and students keeping anti-social hours which are fine when you are 19, less so when trying to get children to bed.

Also - if you are moving just as your youngest goes into year 9 and your middle child into year 12, you may not find spaces in the school/college nearby, especially the youngest one

You have no idea if you will get offered a PhD in the subject and university you want ? you do realise that these places are highly competitive ? Unless self funded and then you need lots of money. Which it doeesnt sound like you have.

it’s unclear why you are not just looking at standard rented accommodation- which makes it harder to help. You are unlikely to get cheaper or better from the university. Most students move out to save money

in my experience family accommodation has been for people outside the uk or single mums needing extra support to get through

just because the answers are not “yeah do this this” doesn’t mean people don’t understand - but if you are unrealistic you will be bitterly disappointed

a PHD isn’t a taught degree. If you are taking 4 years at the outset I guess it’s some kind of masters equivalent for the first year ( conversion?) that can be partly taught but will have. Research project attached normally

My DD PHD had some compulsory lectures in the first PhD year but these were more “ how to research” and she was still expected to be learning about her field independently. You don’t have much time to work unless you manage to get onto a PHD with a lot of supported funding. DD has grants that directly align with her research topic , and with a little teaching mean she can get by. It’s great for STEM subjects but much less likely for others

it’s also highly unusual to completely finish in the 3 or 4 years - an additional 6 months to a year is normal

She is working long days, evening and weekends. And loving it.

it’s slightly unclear how they offer the PHD you want / you mean in the general subject are?

Apologies. I think I assumed you were from.outside the UK because you were asking about family accommodation and the only people I know who have used it previously were from abroad.

A PhD is a full time job. You won't have time to work as well. Have you considered doing a part time PhD? That would mean you would be able to claim carers allowance for your disabled child (depending on what subject you are studying) or work for the other days. I also think it's unlikely that your husband will be able to do a Bsc and work 3 days a week but I guess if he works both weekend days he might manage it.

I think the only thing you can do is contact all the individual universities you want to apply for and ask about family accommodation. I think it will be hard to find though and I agree with others that it will be for students with a baby or a couple of young children.

Ok - you may have looked into this more than me, but the additional requirement at York seems to pertain to the student more than her family, so your son’s disability may not be relevant

I am sorry you feel we are not being hopeful but I think we are being realistic. The family accommodation would have been largely set up with a student who had young children in mind, rather than your set up.

Would commuting from your current home not be an option?

It’s likely to be cheaper to just rent a house as a regular family, unless it’s very heavily subsidised most uni & student rentals are disproportionately high cost. One DC was in a student house of 6 a couple of years ago. Semi detached Victorian property which would probably have rented for less than 2.5k per month as a 4 bed family home. As a 6 bed student rental the annual rent was £55k.

I went to university - undergrad and postgrad - as a parent of two kids, and looked long and hard at family accommodation. I genuinely don’t think anywhere woukd have four bedroom places. One bedroom is common (considered okay for two parents and two kids of different sexes up to age 12, or same sex up to 18), and there are a few two- bedroom units for bigger families.

This is the link for Sussex, where I was an undergrad - fully booked at present, but as you’re planning ahead, you could talk to them.

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/study/accommodation/families

I don’t know what PhD you are looking at, but friends of mine who have done stem phds were doing 8-6 in the lab six days a week for pretty much 50 weeks of the year.

it’s more like a full time job than a taught undergraduate course. Obviously if you are not doing stem you don’t necessarily have to be in person in a lab.

But PhD and undergrad course dates don't correspond. A PhD is essentially a full time position whereas under grads aren't there in the summer.

We paid £12k last year for DD's single en suite room post grad accommodation in York for 51 weeks.

If your DD was on a undergrad course there, her accommodation for her 1st year would typically be from the 2nd week in Sept until June. Family accommodation would not be generously sized, so where would she go in the summer or at Christmas when all her flatmates go home for the holidays?

But even if you hit the jackpot in York, you would have to move after a year for private rent.

Multi-bedroom rentals in uni areas will be expecting a group of students and probably will be furnished accordingly. Or bring most of your furniture and let your SIL get her own ok eBay or whatever - if you will be letting to her for 3-4 years (I assume she will pay you rent!)

https://www.uea.ac.uk/uea-life/accommodation/family-accommodation/on-campus-accommodation-for-families

This is an example at UEA - 2 bed - one double, one bunk beds
Very limited number.

Cambridge will offer this in some circumstances.

you’d probably need to be all accepted by the same college which I can see being tricky.

The fact you refer to high school makes me wonder whether you’re in a very specific educational area. Most Y9s would be in secondary school, not high school. Have you checked the differences in school systems?