Best University for Student Accommodation

[Dancingdreamer]

Ok starting to think seriously about uni choices (at least I am and DS is willing to humour me). His subject choice gives him scope to go to lots of unis so we need to start narrowing options. I have talked to him about course content, reputation etc. however, the only thing he seems interested in is which university has the best halls and accommodation!

The sort of place he is vaguely interested in are the redbricks, plus Bath, Exeter etc. but he hated Durham when he visited with the school.

Which universities generally have the best accommodation and food? Any suggestions on where to look or alternatively where to avoid at all costs?

There are private companies that provide accomodation at a number of universities - and Unite do too.

From what we have seen, there seems to be a standard room that a lot provide - generally in flats of 5-8 rooms - the rooms have a 3/4 size bed, en suite shower room, and built in desk and wardrobe. It's a bit IKEA kit, but comfortable. Each flat then has a kitchen with a dining/lounge area - all the ones my dses have been in have had 2 big fridge freezers between all the residents.

Ds3 starts at Aberdeen in the autumn, and only 1 of the halls available to him had en suites, but that hasn't been our experience with the other universities that the boys either visited or attended.

All of them have gone for self-catering accomodation, and the older two have enjoyed doing their own cooking - and as a previous poster said, I suspect self catering gives them more freedom.

It is interesting that you mention Reading, because that's where ds1 went - he got his results a week ago, and got a 2:1 in Law. He was in Mackinder Hall in his first and third years, and had a great time there. If you or your ds have any questions about Reading or the halls, I will happily pass them on to him, and relay his answers back, Dancingdreamer.

OddBoots
I would discuss this with the university student support services. When DS2 was diagnosed with a chronic illness, his university student support manager said that the university could ensure that students with disabilities were housed in university accommodation for all years.

In general, hall accommodation is only for first years - after that there is the horror of the student shared house (I think this is covered by other threads!)

I have kids at Manchester and Liverpool. Both cities have many private halls of the type STD has described. You can reserve your flat with your group of mates. DS has gone down that route for his entire three years. Yes it's slightly more pricey than getting a house but there are no extra bills and he has guaranteed heating, WiFi, parking space and a good safe location.

unistats

This has some useful info for narrowing down choices, you have to go so far through to get to the answers about accommodation but it might be worth a look at.

OddBoots - this is a bit of ancient information, but back in the 80s I went into a shared house that worked out very badly (I didn't realise one of my housemates was drug-addled and they threatened me with a knife so I had to lock myself in my room for three days until I knew they'd gone out.) I asked to go back into halls and a place was found for me within the hour.

Ds is a bit... geeky and I wonder about him sharing, especially when a lot of universities imply you have to find housemates in the first term in order to rent a house for the next year. That must be very stressful. As I believe it says in Brideshead Revisited, you spend the second year at university trying to shake off the friends you made in your first year.

Dancingdreamer - I mentioned this thread to ds1, and asked him specifically about the catered halls at Reading, and he said he wouldn't recommend them at all - the catering is dreadful.

Dn raved about her Royal Holloway accommodation (last year).

There are lots of new halls in Manchester. I visited my nephew recently and told him he'd have to work very hard to ever earn enough to live somewhere as nice as that elsewhere! Brand new, lovely gardens, ensuite bathrooms, new kitchens. Nicer than my house!

My son is geeky and he was in a shared halls flat with 3 others and despite them being different (although it's a technology based uni so not that much difference) they got on really well and cooked together and went out together a lot. It probably helped make him more sociable as they'd drag him out to clubs (which he still doesn't like but at least he experienced a few). His main social focus was through his sporting club though, although he got a bit lonely if his flat mates were away for the weekend and he was the only one there.

I'm not sure food is really a factor any more- in our current trawl catered halls are virtually non existent. The norm seems to be "flats" of up to 12 people with shared kitchen facilities with or without en suites depending on your budget. The rooms we have seen so far really are quite bog standard in layout and size, the main difference being age of fixtures and fittings and kitchen facilities (eg some have only hobs and microwaves, some have actual ovens which in my view gives much more flexibility for cooking)

OP I think your question is a bit "how long is a piece of string" as there are so many factors in determining accommodation and as others have said yiu may not actually get to choose anyway. The criteria we are working on are campus v city type Uni, and big city v smaller town. Then looking at course content and distance from home. There will be those who come along and say course is everything but frankly if the student doesn't like where they are living the course becomes somewhat secondary in my view.

We went round Exeter as tourists last Easter, staying near the station and I was very impressed at the sheer quantity of private halls accomodation available. They'd obviously renovated old warehouses and industrial buildings. Posters outside declared gym facilities, catering, study areas... Who'd live in grotty digs if that was available?!
Plus Exeter has a good ACADEMIC rating.

Ah students want all the comforts these daysSgtmajormummy, the days of sharing a poky, damp but cheap house are gone. Lots of these nice halls are very expensive though, often as much as renting a one bedroom flat.

When I were a lass there was actual one-upmanship about how vile one's student house was, a la The Young Ones. Winner was friend's house in Warwick with gas pipe hanging off wall (with people smoking everywhere), but a close runner up was Birmingham friend whose shared house had no loo door, and when visiting you slept in your shoes because of the sticky carpet throughout the house. People proudly displayed their houses and friends would murmur with appreciation at the rankness.

Lol at one-upmanship of terrible student houses. That was my experience of university too!

I have tried to explain to DC that grotty accommodation is all part of the student experience but he is not convinced! Self-catering I hadn't considered as had assumed that would be isolated in a small flat without same social life as a hall but maybe we need to reconsider.

Just worried now that once he discovers all these luxury halls he will expect us to pay for one of these. Need to start managing expectations now I think!

Last year I visited many unis with DS1. Here is the Horsemad guide to the best and worst - imo!

B'ham - quite nice, the new accommodation was VERY smart. Bit of a trek from the uni though.
Durham, lovely colleges but rooms have to be vacated every term I think.
Bath - DH took him but I remember him saying the accommodation had remote controlled mood lighting!!
Nott'm Jubilee Campus. Good solid rooms, en suite, fridge included and catered. Food was very good. My overall fave.
York - the newer campus of the two was GORGEOUS! I wanted to move in myself. Self catered but lovely kitchen.
Soton - I didn't like the older accommodation, metal windows, brick feature wall and quite dark/gloomy imo. Didn't see the brand spanking new accommodation.
DH took him to others and they were distinctly average, although L'pool had some brand new flats that were very nice apparently.

DS has firmed Soton but has requested the two newest buildings (optimistic!) and has insured Nott'm which I loved the whole Jubilee Campus.

the days of sharing a poky, damp but cheap house are gone
Oh no they aren't ... unless recent/current experiences of my DSs are unusual.

DS looked around Imperial - £200/wk room only!! Glad they rejected him, tbh. Soooo expensive.

DS1 has to go into a student let next year for his fourth year and doesn't even have a window in his ground floor bedroom. It's going to be vile but he seems to be looking forward to it, so I don't want to dampen his enthusiasm. His friends and he also have a touching faith that the letting agent will organise a 'deep clean' before they take over the house which given the shitty state his sisters have found their houses in I bet won't happen. These places are dumps. I think the only thing to do in order to survive is to pitch your expectations at rock bottom, then things like bed bugs (DD3's house) will just be part of life's rich tapestry. I found fleas in my mattress in my third year let (Durham); my sister (also Durham) fared slightly worse by being greeted by crabs. Any student hall must be palatial compared to these lets.

Horsemad
We looked around imperial last week ( and UCL today) and I am hoping DS dopes not get in
We live in London so most halls are further away than we live anyway, ££££ and less good than home.

We avoided Imperial because of the expense, also my son wasn't keen to be a student in London, although I loved it but London was cheaper then.. It's probably not as big an expense if youare from England but from Scotland adding London accom to the tuition fees just seemed daft.

Where are your DCs Lily? Apologies if you'd rather not say. DS next year is in a spanking new conversion of a big old pub into a 30 room private hall. Quite cheap too, but very dodgy area of Liverpool.

DH is on about buying a student let if DS ends up in Nottingham. Not sure myself

Hadn't seen your post Lily. Completely agree apart from the bit about cheap. Poky and damp are certainly just as true as they ever were.

Nottingham - have seen too many student houses in Lenton!