Exeter Accommodation Help

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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.