Problems with finding and confirming second year accommodation

[whitecloud]

If anyone has any advice, I would be very grateful. My dd is a first year nursing student. She has been looking for houses for next year, but as her set are are all on placement, in some cases in a totally different town 40 to 50 miles away and on shifts, they are finding it very difficult to get together to sign the lease. The landlords are just letting to the first people who turn up, so my dd and her friends aren't getting a look in. Has anyone else had this problem?

I have suggested she contacts the accommodation people and e-mails her tutor to explain the situation if there is still a problem. I think they should be allowed time off to sort out their accommodation and the School of Nursing should be supportive. Anyone with any experience?

I appreciate this is a stressful time - your advice to speak to the Uni Accommodation Office is sound.

BUT assuming she is in a reasonably sized uni city she may have heard horror stories from second years about how if they don't sign a lease now they will all end up living in a cockroach infested pit? This may not be entirely accurate (though not all student accommodation is great!). Many cities have over-supply and landlords encourage the hype to get students to commit early, this does not mean everything available will go if they don't sign a lease asap.

I definitely disagree that her School should allow time off to sort this out. Letting Agents are generally open six days a week, dealing with these practicalities alongside her workload is one of the things her placements are meant to be preparing her for. It probably does seem unfair if she compares her position to students in humanities with lots of flexibility and few contact hours, but they'll have a rude awakening when working office hours in two years time and trying to sort this kind of thing out in the evenings and weekends too.

As an academic, I would not be impressed with an email about accommodation issues.

Housing is not in remit, and if time off from a placement is required, then that would normally be arranged with the placement supervisor.

And I also agree with penelope, in most places, there is almost always good housing becoming available throughout the year, and there is plenty of time to sort it out.

fwiw DS1, who has graduated, & his housemates got their current house, which is perfectly OK, really cheap because it hadn't been taken by the end of the summer term. There are 6 or 7 of them (some working, some doing post-grad) & I think they're paying £40 a week each.

That's in Newcastle, where you can't move for permanent TO LET signs - if it's similar where she is it will probably be fine.

I think they should be allowed time off to sort out their accommodation and the School of Nursing should be supportive

Just seconding creamteas post: this is not something I would regard as a reason for absence. In my department, we'd count such an absence as 'unauthorised.' This is something that as adults, they need to learn to manage, just as the rest of us keep working even though we also deal with other parts of life.

And every year, students get panicked and the anxiety gets whipped up needlessly about getting your share house early. There will still be suitable accommodation to look at throughout the spring and even into the late summer, particularly if you're in a "university town" (as so many medium sized towns/cities are nowadays). Student housing is a huge landlord market, and there is generally housing available throughout the year.

Your daughter should not panic, nor listen to other students' scaremongering.

Thanks for the advice, ladies.