Exeter Accommodation Help

[ColdTofuSandwich]

My DD is very keen on Exeter, but is finding the amount of choice a bit confusing. As am I!

Does anyone have any recent experience to share? Ladrowda and the townhouses look good, is en-suite worth the money? Also, there are twin studios available but that might be more cut off?

Any/all thoughts very welcome.

I don't know about Exeter but the en-suite question applies to any uni halls.

It's about how much you can afford really. En-suite accomm IME typically adds about £50 pw to the bills; so can you stump that up, and would your DC rather have a shower room to themselves (that they need to clean btw, and that will take a bite out of their room) or more money for beer (books, sports, clothes, haircuts, theatre)? I guess you can tell which way we went.

Not to be nosy but how much loan will DD get? Is money no object for you or are you looking to give her less than ££any amount? My DC had shared bathrooms bc I wasn't able to give them the extra £2k on top of money for food and accomm top ups on min loan.

As for where in Exeter, which campus does she need to be near? Does she want catered of SC? Again it can be a question of ££ but catered can be a good way to meet people. It's mroe expensive tho for sure.

I just looked at what's available and WOW at the prices. £200+ a week for self-catered – and some of those are shared bathrooms. Even if it's en-suite, £220 for a room in a self catered hall is such a lot. Surely price will be a big determiner here?

I assume this is for next year btw? It's a good idea to look at accomm to get an idea of location and price at this stage but I wouldn't be making any decisions just yet as things may change.

Hopefully your daughter has already seen and read the first years' accommodation page on the Uni of Exeter website (see link below). The detailed table, accessed from an embedded link on that page, gives some helpful stats on whether particular sites are over or under subscribed and also, crucially, whether adjacent some of the rolling programme of (potentially noisy/disruptive) building works. I think those are factors to weigh up seriously and also to be aware that some students may need to be housed in private student units in the nearby city centre because the campus development activity.

More generally, I always think it is a good idea to encourage a flexible mindset about accommodation and to not get too invested in the idea that an optimal choice needed to ensure a good uni experience, as students sometimes do not get their preferences or end up with a group they do not immediately gel with. (Not suggesting this is the case for your daughter but a general consideration).

Has your daughter travelled to Exeter to look at the general campus layout and individual buildings, even if only from the outside? Might be useful and could be done independently of Open Days.
www.exeter.ac.uk/study/accommodation/room-finder/

Thank you both so much for such considered answers! Really kind of you.

DD gets minimal loan. We’re think about £400 a month to top up accommodation and to live off. She knows she’ll need a job.

I’ve explained the amount she has is fixed so it depends on whether she wants to spend that on her own bathroom or going out - which has concentrated her mind a bit 😂

Im pretty certain self catered fits best. And we have been round Exeter and the available open flats - but that was self catered and ensuite there weren’t any shared to see.

I thought some ‘lived experience’ might help. Completely agree though not to get too caught up though on one set place!

The flats are so much nicer than my time at uni - but also so much more expensive!

It looks to me as though you should budget at least £200pw for accommodation- no certainty of getting one of the few cheaper places.

x 40 weeks that's £8k min. Min loan is £5k so £100 pw x 40 weeks will only make it £9k. Even if you pay the £100 52 weeks not 40 that only gives a total of £10.2k. That's £50pw in term time for food, fun, clothes, travel. I think if Exeter is a definite you may need to up your figures. Or look at a uni with cheaper accommodation. No certainty she will be able to get a job tbh unless she has one now that she can transfer.

Exeter is a modestly sized cathedral city in a region where land values are relatively high (bid up by tourism) and where the university attracts an affluent student cohort (further bidding up rent values).

So, in addition to thinking about the trade off of ensuite v going out money in the first year, it will be sensible to research typical second and third year housing costs as she and you may need or wish to reserve budget for the later years.

Also bear in mind that, as the university is large relative to the size of the city, student employment opportunities may be limited and competitive. If your daughter has existing vacation employment in her home location which she can retain then that is a more solid basis for financial planning than if not.

Exeter Uni have struggled with providing enough accommodation for first years this year. Hundreds have missed out or been told to defer a year. It's really over subscribed.
However with the new building works being undertaken hundreds more rooms will be ready next year and completed by 2028 adding 1000's to on site accommodation.
LaFrowda has a good mix of standard blocks, (old LaF as its known) with shared bathrooms cleaned 2 or 3 times a week, and modern ensuite blocks ABCD Etc where students are responsible for their own bathrooms.
It's closer to town than Duryard and Birks and only a short walk to the Uni campus . The newer East Park is super over subscribed only a third of applications get a place. But West park ( part of) is opening in September alongside rebuilt blocks at Birks .
With all the new buildings it means the fight for 2nd and 3rd Yr accommodation in town starts now!
Having said all this, the students love LaFrowda because of its position, and East park because its new.
Students are well looked after( I hope as I work there!) And it is a fabulous Uni to go to.
Job wise, it can be tricky unless you can be transferred from a company that has a branch in Exeter maybe.

Again really really helpful thank you! My calcs at £200 pw accommodation is £80 a week.

She is looking for a job now so she could possibly transfer if she goes to Exeter, but that’s good to know. It may be she needs to work in hols to build up the reserves.

she’s the first of three, so I will clearly be much much poorer if they all decide to go!

What do you mean by that calculation? That she will have £80 pw spare if her accomm is £200 pw? I can't make that add up.

Min loan = £5k pa
Your suggested contribution of £400 pm = £4k pa (or £5.2k pa if you pay the ££ for the whole year, rather than just 40 weeks of uni time; I'm taking it as £100 pw actually as that's easier maths; £400pm is obviously a bit less)
Total = £9k/£10.2k

If she is paying £200 pw for her halls that will be £8k (usually a 40-week contract); if you pay her the £400pm all year and she then saves the money during the holiday so divides that total by 40 (tricky tbh as she won't have next summer's ££ ahead of time for her first year) then that makes £2.2k / 40 = £55 pw. But that has to cover food, toiletries, phone, going out, societies, sports kit, clothes, transport. It's not a lot. DS2 is fairly frugal tho tbf he eats a lot and he found in his last year at uni (last year) his weekly Aldi basket had gone from £25 in his first year to about £40.

DS2 is at Exeter. His accommodation is a fraction over £200pw and he shares a bathroom with one other student. They have a cleaner included in the cost whereas the en-suite bathrooms need cleaning by the student. He’s very happy with his accommodation.

Your maths isn’t added up only £400 a month from you plus min loan and she’s not even on max loan. It won’t cut it at an expensive accommodation uni like Exeter.

Not at uni, but my daughter has just started at a boarding college and she loves her en-suite private room. I had a shared bathroom in a large halls of residence at uni and didn't like the shared bathroom aspect of it at all. I would try to go en-suite if possible, but that may be a personal preference.

DS has a shared bathroom (not Exeter though) and is more than happy to have saved the money for other things 🙂

Exeter is one of my daughter’s choices. She will probably only get the minimum loan. I am budgeting topping up by £600 a month, plus she has £8000 from us topping up her child trust fund and my mum is going to give her some money each month. That is budgeting for accommodation being £200 a week. my daughter is also saving. From what i’ve researched in many of my daughters choices we will be lucky to get accommodation as cheap (!!??) as £200. also for us transport back home from exeter will be £££

I don’t know if it’s changed in the last 10 years but my dd didn’t get her accommodation preferences and ended up in a shared room in catered halls. It turned out very well as she and her room mate became good friends. But that wasn’t guaranteed.

Exeter has had big accommodation issues and a lot weren’t offered any accommodation. The chances of being able to choose your first preference are low.
They are building a lot of rooms but I’m not sure they’ll be ready for 2027.
as for your calculations, I’m afraid you will probably have to rethink a little. Also bear in mind that halls are often not spilt equally. Daughters first term bill due in one chunk for her accommodation was £3750 and the minimum loan for that term was £1650. So that’s £1100 to find for term 1 BEFORE she’s eaten or drunk a drop.
There are cheaper unis but Exeter isn’t one of them.

Exeter guarantees accommodation for students who firm their offer (rather than putting it as insurance) and apply by the deadline date (this year it was in July I think). The uni makes it very clear that they can’t guarantee accommodation for insurance or clearing students. There are various private halls available but these fill up quickly.

Firm offer students can put down 4 choices but they don’t guarantee you’ll get one of your four. Some blocks are massively oversubscribed every year. There’s a helpful spreadsheet on the accommodation section of the uni website that shows how over- or undersubscribed each block has been for the past 3 or 4 years. My son used this and applied strategically. He was lucky to get his second choice, which he’s very happy with - his first choice was one of the very popular halls but his second choice is always undersubscribed. It’s also cheaper.

It’s true though that Exeter is one of the more expensive universities. DS’s accommodation is one of the cheaper ones at a fraction over £200pw.

It’s true though that Exeter is one of the more expensive universities. DS’s accommodation is one of the cheaper ones at a fraction over £200pw.

@CatkinToadflax agree with this. I think that sometimes this is not considered by YP (I don't mean yours or indeed anyone on this thread specifically). The min loan threshold is so low and a HH with an income of £65k may well not have a lot spare to support a uni student. So, I know I bang on about this, but there are several unis where there is halls accomm that is significantly cheaper. To name a few, Leicester, Loughborough, Sheffield, Newcastle, Leeds. There are others I am sure (those are just some we researched).

I'm not saying at all that this should be the only or even a major criterion; but for some families it will need to be looked at, and from speaking to other parents at this stage, I am not sure everyone is aware of the variation.

Yes this is slowly dawning on her!

Absolutely accept some unis are cheaper. She has looked at Manchester, and I’m suggesting Aberystwyth for similar reasons.

I hadn’t realised there was something showing subscription levels for halls so will check that out.

unfortunately for my DD I don’t have £600 a month to give her, but I’m sure we will find our way!

Be aware also @ColdTofuSandwich that while she might want to get a PT job, it's not an easy win any longer. Exeter is a smallish city with limited job roles and a lot of students chasing them. Hopefully she will find something and then happy days, but I would be wary of assuming she will gain £XX from a job if that is money that she needs to pay her rent and food.

If the most you can give her is £400 pm then I would certainly suggest she has a rethink. £10k as an absolute total figure (min loan plus £400 x 12 months) is not enough to be a student in Exeter. Nor Bristol (for example) where a friend is paying £10k pa for their DD's accommodation. But there are certainly unis where it will be.

Aber is a very specific choice btw and really not at all like Manchester (or much like Exeter). Some students utterly love it but I think it's one to look at carefully.

To be fair my question was around lived experience of Exeter uni accommodation.

I went to a RG, DH went to a RG, all
of our friends and now their kids have been to Uni. So I’m familiar with how universities work.

i know people that went to Exeter (I nearly did!) , I don’t know anyone who has been recently. So am
interested in insider knowledge on the options.

it’s kind of people to take the time to answer, and if DD needs more money then we can have a rethink. I am keen for her to work though, either at home or at uni, as I did and I think it’s really important. But we’ll see.

DD is at Exeter in her second year. As others have said, it's expensive. DS went to Sheffield and can't believe the prices for student houses in Exeter.

DD has just signed up for a house next year at £4500 a month (including bills) between 5 of them. It's an 11 month contract so you're also paying for months when there are no uni lectures. She's paying similar this year.

So, looking at accommodation costs for years 2 & 3 is important too if you're concerned about affordability.

Going back to year 1, she was in East Park. She got her first choice as she deferred a year. It was the most expensive but for her, modern en-suite accommodation was a priority over more money to spend going out. Room was tiny but lovely.

She had friends in Lafrowda who were happy with their choice but one in Duryard really didn't like it as it was too far out from campus for her. It probably didn't help that it was in the opposite direction to the others in the friendship group, so walking home after nights out was awkward. She secured a move to East Park after a few weeks.

Exeter was DD's absolute first choice uni, the only one she wanted really (location and course), and she loves it there so is content to pay what it costs. She worked for a year so had money behind her and worked all summer back at home.

She hasn't worked whilst at uni, she thought she might this year but I think the workload on her course is turning out to be too much. So, it depends on the course whether your DD will have time to work even if she can find a job. I'd suggest working in the first year if she can/needs to as it might get harder to fit in later on.

Thank you! DD is realising for her, perhaps an en-suite is less important than socialising but we’ll see.

Agree year 2 (and 3 if in house) are a different story, and I’m assuming she won’t have time to work in third year.

She loves it, we have family in East Devon, travel isn’t too bad from home - so Exeter will be her first choice.

Thats really helpful as Lafrowda is one of her top choices. I liked the look of Duryard but as you say it is one of the further out.

Thanks for the info ☺️

Apologies @ColdTofuSandwich your OP made it sound (to me) as though you didn't know much about how uni accommodation works (query about whether en-suite bathroom was worth it) but as I misunderstood and you just want specific Exeter intel, then I don't have anything to add to what’s been said here. All the best to DD whatever she decides.

That’s really kind of you Clary, thank you for your thoughts.