Exeter university accommodation

[lexie01]

My DD has a place at Exeter Uni to study Business Management. She has been offered accommodation at James Owen Hall, Sidwell St.
it isn’t on campus ( which she requested) and it’s located on one of the worst roads in Exeter. I have driven there today and it’s awful and I’m no shrinking violet. The university won’t offer her another room but she is on the verge of not going because of the halls location.
Has anyone had a child at this Hall? Looking for advice from any locals or existing uni students.
many thanks.

Did you actually go in to the hall or just look from the outside?

a lot of student accommodation isn’t fab- but it’s the community inside it that matters.

if she doesn’t go then what is she going to do?

She could put in for a move in October if she hates it - it does cost £50 though. She might find though that the people are great and she loves being closer to shops/town/clubs. Back when I was at uni we lived in some right dives in Reading in our 2nd and 3rd years - one place had no heating at all. It's not ideal but students are often good at making the best of things with the help of all the friends they make.
https://www.exeter.ac.uk/study/accommodation/current-residents/moving/

Hi you would get more responses if you moved this to higher education

honestly "one of the worst roads in Exeter" is not really the roughness of big cities like Birmingham, London or Leeds. It will be fine. Sidwell Street is perfectly safe (I used to live 5 mins walk from there). Exeter is a weird place in that it tends to just have odd streets of lower economic status, sidwell st is one of those, burnthouse lane, glass house lane, rifford road etc are all similar. There's some lovely shops down there as well.

Thank you all for your messages. Apologies for the delay in replying.
I was born and raised in Birmingham so I'm familiar with large cities and different socio economic demographics but honestly I don't think I've ever seen as many people obviously either on drugs or drink in one area as I saw on Sidwell St - and this was fairly early in the morning.
I have massive concerns about sending my DD. The university is a 25 minute walk or 20 min bus ride. The bus stop is not directly outside the halls so what if she has a late lecture during the winter months?
She is now looking at options for a gap year and reapplying next year. I'm absolutely gutted for her as she worked hard, got 3 A*'s, got into the university she wanted too but this has totally put her off. Tbh I find it quite annoying that when we visited Exeter they make a big play of showing us all the lovely accommodation on site and how wonderful it is being close to everything and then dump a handful of poor under grads to halls on the worst road in Exeter!

I go to evening dance classes in a lovely studio just off Sidwell Street and walk to my car there after dark regularly. I think it's fine-as it's city centre and a main route to the high street it is always busy so there are plenty of non-drunk people around after dark too and it doesn't feel unsafe (it's full of delivery drivers all hours; there's an Odeon cinema which means people coming and going; Tesco with security guard etc). I park my car directly on the street and never worry about leaving it there. There is a homeless population who are very visible and can be loud in their interactions with each other but I've never seen anyone hassled or shouted at. There is always a visible police presence at weekend evenings/nights as it's so central too. Exeter in general is extremely safe.

Sorry I should add that there's masses of huge private student accommodation blocks on the parallel roads too, so come term time it's heaving with students, which creates a very different feel too.

Don't put all your unfounded anxieties onto your daughter, I used to live in Exeter and Sidwell street is fine for a student, as many posters have said Exeter is one of the safest cities in England. If anything I found it a tad boring after a while

What is the guarantee she will get anywhere different next year?

Sidwell street is the city centre and perfectly safe.

I was there at 11pm last weekend, me and DH had food at Istanbul restaurant. There was a fair amount of people around. Normal people.

I don't know what part of Birmingham you are from but all cities have issues with homeless people, people drunk and on drugs. I have moved here from Birmingham and Exeter is very different from what I am used to.

You are being totally unreasonable. I understand you and your DD are anxious, but this is the definition of making a mountain out of a molehill.

I live-in Exeter too and just finished a degree there. Sidwell street can be colourful but is very safe in my experience. I have no issue going there day or night on my own. Buses to the uni are frequent and the bus stops no more than a few minutes walks. I've also studied in Sheffield and Sidwell Street is much tamer! Are you from a very small hamlet in the shire?!

My parents live in Exeter so I visit and honestly it’s incredibly safe. Yes there are homeless people in that area but why the assumption they will harm your daughter? If she can’t handle Exeter, she will struggle elsewhere. Even the worst roads in Exeter are tame compared to other uk cities. Somewhere is your daughter in all this? Is the t her who doesn’t want to go anymore or are you putting that on her? Starting uni is anxiety provoking enough, this won’t help

Honestly even if she got campus accommodation she’s going to be walking down Sidwell St late at night!

My mum is very very old.
She goes to the shops in St Sidwells nearly every day.
She is nearly blind and very deaf.
She has never been accosted or troubled by anyone along that road.
Exeter is a safe vibrant city.
Get your kid into uni at Exeter. It’s a great campus and has so much to offer including the beaches at Exmouth and Sidmouth, Dartmoor on the doorstep and great venues for students.
She’ll be fine Mum.

What everyone else has said. I know Exeter well and my dh lived 2 mins walk from Sidwell St. Dd2 is currently at Exeter College for A levels but still ends up sometimes at that end of town.

Also do bear in mind that 1) from 2nd year onwards they may well be looking at shared accommodation, none of which is all that either! And 2) Private rented accomm is probably still perfectly feasible if you wanted to go down thaf route for first year.

I know Exeter very slightly, from a handful of visits, and even I can't see how Sidwell St could realistically be avoided.
Is private accommodation an option for your DD? Halls would be better for a first year, but I'm told there's no shortage of purpose built student flats. Possibly not the case at this time of year.
Good luck to your daughter, whatever she decides to do.

Sidwell Street is absolutely fine. The homeless people have never been any bother, no matter the time of night. Honestly an incredibly safe city.

Sidwell street is fine. Yes the south west does have an alcoholic problem but it’s one of the safest places to live.

Next year when your daughter is in private accommodation she'll likely be v close to Sidwell street - mine was literally the next road on and thought the location perfect. Loads of students do that walk from early in the morning to late in the night (or early the next morning) every day and there are shortcuts she'll soon learn. Your daughter will be fine. Exeter is absurdly safe.

It’s literally the continuation of the main shopping street in the city. I don’t know what OP is expecting?

My daughter spent her 4th year at private halls on Sidwell Street and was never bothered about the area. She comes from a leafy suburb of London.

But Exeter is pretty much the safest city I can think of in the U.K. I can't think of where would be a safer place to go to university.

My ds went to university in Kent (another safe city) and, while we saw all the flashy new accommodation on campus, we did research and obviously there were more spaces at less flashy accommodation, which my ds indeed got. It was all fine and part of the preparation.

Maybe university isn't right for your dd?

I disagree but thank you for your response.
We visited Exeter on an open day. It was very much sold to us that this was a campus university. The only halls they showed us were those on campus. It was for that reason my daughter applied there.
85% of all students are in fact in halls on campus in their first year.
James Owen halls are actually closer to St Luke’s than Streatham so I suspect many of the undergrads there may not even be from the same campus.
There are no direct buses from campus to the halls either.
This is just not the experience she was sold or expected.
i think any parent would be anxious.

OP I think you're really overreacting, honestly. I know Exeter well having lived there, in Paris, London and Glasgow, and Exeter is the safest by a country (!) mile. She will be among loads of her peers in one of the safest cities in the UK. She will have a ball.

My DD chose Exeter because it was a campus university. Because it was fairly green with lots of open spaces. She enjoys the countryside - she rides horses so is quite outdoorsy.
She never wanted to be in halls off campus in the middle of a city.
And whist Exeter may be comparatively safe if you look at the crime stats for Sidwell St for one month this year and compare to any other roads closer to the university they are at least 4x higher. This may be a relatively small number when compared to some streets in other cities but they are still higher than anywhere else in the city.

I can understand that it could be disappointing if she wanted to be on campus, but all their literature / website / prospectus etc says it’s a mix of campus and city centre halls. Did she not look into all the halls that may have been allocated?

Sidwell Street is fine! There are many streets I’d feel far more unsafe on in Exeter. Especially during term time, it’s busy and always people around, I’ve never felt u safe there.