Accommodation issues at Insurance offers

[jeanne16]

My DS has an incredibly tough offer from his preferred uni. If he firms it, he will have to seriously consider the possibility he could end up going to his Insurance uni. However I hear really alarming stories about accommodation issues for students who enter via their Insurance offer or via Clearing. I think it is because of the cap coming off student numbers so the unis don't have enough space.

I know there are issues at Bristol and Exeter. Does anyone know if there are issues at Warwick or Imperial?

Dreamingofsun - my DD was in the Fallowfield campus last year (which is supposed to be party city) but most of her flat mates went home very weekend or went to visit friends. The campus is very quiet at weekends. Although they did tend to party during the week which wasn't much good for my DD as she was doing a very full-on course.

My DS was fortunate to get his 1st choice accommodation in Warwick with a great group of flatmates. However it was his Firm choice (actually he applied for 2 related courses there so it was also his back up choice - he REALLY liked Warwick) !
But there is pressure on accommodation, when DS started 4 years ago, we were given the impression that it was quite common to come back to halls for the final year if you wanted. However, DS friends found it was really tricky - places for final year students went within a few hours of the accommodation window opening.
DS is lucky, and will be back in halls next year, but only because as a returning student (currently in a year placement) he gets priority.
I found it really helpful to plow through some of the threads in The Student Room site. They have separate topics for each university so there will be some useful pieces about this.

error my ds (at Warwick) is in a hall that used to be reserved for final years - it is now only for 1st years - illustrating the pressure on accommodation.

goodbyestranger - Yes it does matter at Bristol. There are new halls in the City centre but not, I think, at Stoke Bishop where the majority of students live in halls - I would imagine your DC would be looking at these. Some accommodation is very old fashioned, but it is more about forming friendships. Some accommodation at Stoke Bishop is over-subscribed. The traditional halls are not "shitty". They do have shared bathrooms, but the quad is lovely. If you have boarded at school, you will be OK! It is where the hardy types go! If you need all mod cons, the new halls cater for this. They are also much nearer to lively Bristol. Stoke Bishop is quieter.

I think the new halls have alleviated the problem a bit. However, as accommodation is not guaranteed to insurance students, it can be a lottery as to what accommodationis offered. From what we have seen, they try their best.

Do not find a room in the private sector. How will a new student make friends and join in with hall activities? This is really important for most new students. There are plenty of halls at most universities for less than £9000 p/a. This is London rates. Also, parents top up the loans. Clearly few students pay £9,000 pa for a hall place. This is way beyond the loan for many. Also, lots of students work in libraries and at weekends when others are asleep or out. Not all university halls have party people and how is a university to know before they allocate rooms? Ditto with going home. My DD never experienced rowdy drunks every night? Where is this university? I could guess, but I won't! (does it begin with N?)

Imperial has a high-rise new hall at North Acton so this must have helped. Second year rents are high in London though unless you are miles away in the suburbs. I do not know about Warwick.

stonecircle - Do we not want and need graduates then? Or should we just import them from Europe and further afield? I think Tony Blair was correct and this will not alter now we are leaving the EU with potentially fewer immigrants. It is a shame some courses were not expanded, eg Medicine. Most students still get a lot out of being at university and it is good it not so elite with the less fortunate being consigned to the scrap heap and low earning careers.

Post-grad and overseas like modern halls. British students pay less and take the rougher ones!

In a way it depends what you regard as an issue - pretty much every university will help students find accommodation, however at large universities those coming in as insurance students may well find their options are third-party halls or shared houses.

Levels of assistance in finding these will vary from university to university. It is worth finding out what support the accommodation office and/or students union offer in these situations.

The experience of these will also vary, for example some students unions are very good at looking after students in third party accommodation, and many are used almost exclusively by students from one university, so making friends etc isn't so much of an issue.

If you contact the universities they should tell you what happens if there's not enough space, although they may be cagey about telling you how often that happens. You could also try posting on the student room to see how common it is at the particular universities.

stonecircle - Do we not want and need graduates then?

What a bizarre comment! Of course we do! But we don't need so many that universities are flooded with students to the extent that the experience is devalued for many, especially when the cost is so eye-wateringly expensive that it deters some young people from applying. Or do we only want students at university who are able to cope with the cost and/or are happy to come out with huge debts?

The system pre- Tony Blair didn't discourage people from less well off families. The current system does.

Stranger, DD was offered her Bristol place in early April, so needed to get her accommodation choice in quickly, but with A level prep (and a school ski trip..) had no time to visit. I instead spent quite a lot of time reading through the Student Room accommodation threads, and asking around. As it was her choice was pretty obvious. She wanted to be close to sports fields which meant Stoke Bishop. The she decided to defer anyway. (Though has yet to fill in the accommodation form.)

On TSR the Stoke Bishop halls do not automatically appear to be the most popular. Lots seem to prefer living in the City centre in new accommodation and suggest some halls in SB can be a bit Rah. Certainly some seem quite dated, but this would not bother DD. Last year she was leaning towards catered, as this would give her her own room, free from the tensions that can happen in a party-flat. The suggestion that one hall had a reputation for being full of boring, hard-working scientists seemed almost an advertisement, and she is not bothered by ensuites (or would prefer to save the money). The SB halls are close together and she expects to meet people on her course or on the sports field.

She has since done a lot of cooking, including interning at a cookery school, and I assume will now be leaning towards self catered. I have been told that Bristol put a lot of thought into matching flat mates, so if you need to be up regularly for 9.00am lectures there is a good chance they will take this on board. I found the accommodation office helpful, so they may well be able to give advice on options for insurees. There was certainly some new accommodation coming on stream.

If anyone has any further knowledge/thoughts/suggestions we are also interested. Again I think there is going to be a very small window from her returning from her winter season job and heading off for her summer season one, for her to get to Bristol to have a look. Otherwise it will be Google Earth and TSR.

Borojo repeatedly posts suggesting London is impossible unless you live far out. Not our experience. Economics students at least are capable of cost-benefit analysis. Take a smaller room probably ex-council, and possibly pay a bit more rent, but save money by walking to college, use the library for study, be close enough to cook at home or eat from student menus in Chinatown, and have a social life based on campus. London can be a great place to study...really.

NeedMoreSleep - if your DD is set on Stoke Bishop because she wants to be close to the sports facilities fair enough. But the halls are so very different in character from one another that a visit is, IMVHO, essential. It's only a day trip from London.

Intelligence re Bristol and York greatly appreciated - thanks all.

Could I ask where this information is coming from? Are there published numbers anywhere?

I have certainly heard this internally (at universities) and from UCAS. It was mentioned in a Commons hearing yesterday too:

www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jan/25/eu-applications-for-uk-university-places-is-down-7-mps-told

More significantly, though, applications from UK students are down by 5%. This drop is considerably more than the expected demographic drop. (There are fewer kids born in 1998-2002 than before or after. Post 2003 the number of kids starts to grow again.) It is very likely that it will be easier to get into quite a few universities this year because of this drop.

Thank you for that, user3615.

UCL markets very effectively to EU students - and of course has very strong intrinsic arguments in its favour.

goodbye - I think Stoke Bishop halls are all Ok. Goldney is usually oversubscribed and the catered halls are popular with ex boarders. I think it is rather unfortunate that people say the young people in the are "Rah" - whatever this derogatory comment is supposed to mean? As I said earlier, some halls are a bit dowdy but you do get the formal dinners and some students like the fact they don't have to cook all the time. Not that the food is brilliant! I know students who have enjoyed Wills, Churchill, Hyatt Baker etc so it is really where you like the look of. The university does put like minded people together so the halls do have different personalities and the old Quad in Wills did have very many privately educated students but not exclusively so and everyone made friends and were inclusive. The newer part of the hall is a tad more modern! It is definitely clubbier in the city centre halls. The university takes safety very seriously regarding getting back to Stoke Bishop after a night out.

Also I am not the only one on MN who thinks zone 1 London is expensive for many students!

Really useful info bojo - thank you.

OP. Could I ask where this information is coming from? Are there published numbers anywhere?

UCAS Issue regular university applicant figures throughout each yearly cycle. LINK HERE

My DD is a current Bristol student at SB hall. She is in a flat with a broad range of students and on thw whole they all get on really well considering they were strangers less than six months ago. Her reasons were needing an ensuite and catering accom, both for medical reasons, and wanting to be close to sports facilities. We also felt that coming from a rural setting having green space around her might be good for physcological reasons.

Also worth noting she has come from a rural, state comp and has not been phased by a Rah, ( real or perceived) culture. PM for info if anypne wants more details.

Forgot to mention that From memory I think Bristol uni accom services dont allocate hall places until after results day. I dont know if that means that firm or insurance are treated equally.

In the past Bristol did not treat insurance and firm equally. There were housing search days organised for insurance students. They may have changed of course. Nowhere guarantees first choice so flexibility is important. To be fair, I doubt many students are putting green spaces very high on their accommodation agenda, but as a parent I like a nice garden and park!

The majority of universities only allocate accommodation after results day (sometimes earlier if unconditional offer - already have results etc.).
All the universities publish their application/allocation criteria on their website. Bristol state that their accommodation guarantee is if you Firm Bristol. If it is your insurance choice you cannot even apply for accommodation until after you firm it I.e. After results day.

I stand corrcted, without a doubt getting accomodation sorted is one of themany hurdles and certainly adds to mounting anxiety felt by prospective students.
We were obviously really lucky in my DD's case.

I agree Peace - the accommodation side of things can be very stressful.

The majority of universities only allocate accommodation after results day

Two of the universities DS is looking at allocate accommodation on a first come first served basis. Nottingham allocate in date order from 1 March and York in date order from 8 May. York also claims to allocate to firm and insurance from that date. Unless I've misunderstood- so many different approaches!

The Nottingham approach is tough on those applying for competitive courses like medicine, where it is not unusual for offers not to come through till early May.

First year accommodation is important but it is worth looking at second year and beyond. Nottingham's tram now reaches the campus which means that you can rent cheaply in somewhere like the Meadows and access the campus easily. In contrast you might spend a long time each morning waiting for a bus from Leamington Spa, which then means campus facilities and activities are less accessible.

I would second what dreamingofsun says of it generally being pot luck. DD1 got into the halls of her choice with other first years but had a miserable time of it. On paper they should have been a good fit. In reality after freshers week DD1 wanted to get on with her studies but found that there were a bunch of people in her flat who didnt want the party to end.

In year 2 DD1 got a house with a group of people mostly from her course and was far happier.

If it works it works but whoever they end up with is all part of the experience.

Just to expand on a couple of points from an earlier post. There are a lot of buses from Leamington to the Warwick campus, but they can be slow in rush hour.
A lot of the student activities are based around Leamington as so many students live there from 2nd year.
Campus socials often (usually) include night buses back to Leamington.
In my DS experience of carrying full kit for American Football, plenty of students run their own car and he never had to use public transport to get to/from practice or matches.
Finally Warwick university owns campus style accommodation in Leamington (directly opposite the station) which houses a couple of hundred students (sorry not sure of exact numbers but think it's around 15-20 students in en-suite rooms sharing kitchen/lounge) and Warwick also has a satellite IT/quiet work area in Leamington where students can go and access all the university IT facilities or just work/revise in a library style setting if they don't need to go to the main campus.
I get the impression the university is very aware that most students move to Leamington and works hard to provide the best setting and facilities they can.