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?

I was simply suggesting that it is worth looking at second and third year accommodation as well as first. There can be big differences.

I don't know a lot about Warwick other than from a student who had a lot of early lectures, and found he had to allow extra time in case the bus he wanted was full. But then this would probably not apply to a humanities with fewer contact hours. I think he ended up getting a car.

In short, it's worth looking at from an individual's perspective.

My DD picked Her Uni through clearing - her accommodation in private halls but through the university have left her feeling lonely and isolated - she loves company but her flat mates are quiet and insular - she realises she's unlucky as some flats have a great mix- however The Uni won't help in moving her accommodation as it's private - albeit its in an affiliated hall that is only offered to first years via Uni accommodation . In hindsight she should have taken a gap year and re-applied to her current Uni but to better Halls or her first choice of Uni as one of her grades went up on re-mark . Some students get on with tough situations and for others it's daunting - getting the right accommodation for her would have totally altered her experience at uni .

Monopoly mama. Sounds very like my DS. Stuck in private halls. Has she any ideas what she will do next year. My DS would probably have been better off with a gap year. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

She's had enough really , I think she may quit sadly the whole experience has tainted her view of the Uni. Accommodation have been totally unhelpful .

My DS has just been assigned a college by Durham. Does anyone know what happens if he puts this as his Insurance? Does he lose the College assignment?

Yes he does although Durham says they try their best to keep insurance students at the college to which they've been allocated - but no guarantees. It's on the website.

My own DS has just been allocated a college too and he got his first choice, luckily. But one thing about Durham in this context is that even if students end up going there as insurance candidates, they still get a place at a college and so are guaranteed 'proper' accomodation in a college setting. This seems very different from some of the unis discussed above.