Manchester university- accommodation question

[Bumbleb79]

Hi

Hope someone will be able to help me with my queries. Thanks in advance.

My relative has got an admit in Manchester university for September 2022. He will be doing his masters. He will come from abroad.

I'm trying to sort out his accommodation and understand what places would be easy and safe to commute to/ from university.

1. Is university accommodation an option and is it reasonable ?
2. Would it be cheaper to look for a flat and share with friends ?

If so which places are affordable and commutable to the university?

Any pointers would be really appreciated. As always mumsnet has been a great source of knowledge and information for varied topics.

Thanks again !

Any thoughts please ?

Most of the uni accommodation is in Fallowfield, which is pretty self sufficient in that it has shops/pubs/massive sainsburys etc, and the buses are very efficient to and from Oxford Road where the uni buildings are.

Presumably if he's doing a masters he won't want to go in halls with a bunch of 18 year olds?

It might be worth him joining a Manchester uni students Facebook page, where there might be people looking for a new housemate. Otherwise www.spareroom.co.uk is very good. On there you can either set up a profile about yourself (detailing where you're from, what course you're doing, what your interests are etc) and say you're looking for a room in a house, or you can look at the ads already on there.

Sharing a house will be cheaper than going in halls generally, unless you're happy in the cheapest ones with shared bathrooms (if you google you should be able to find the current prices)

I worked at Man Uni ( never a student )

I think the general consensus is it's best to be In student accommodation for the first year until your friend has found his feet and his way around the city and started to make friends that way in year 2 people he has met in student accommodation can start flat hunting/ sharing together ( for the love of God make sure there is a good contract drawn up between students and landlord and the students with each other to save any hassle further down the line ) sharing me some you've never met before is usually a recipe for disaster.

Opal house use to have a good rep, but that was many yrs ago , it may of changed.

Yes as @hellcatspanglelalala said, Fallowfield is the student area. I've heard anecdotally that students get targeted by burglars so advise no high end items. DD found cheap house share accomodation in Longsight and Levenshulme. There was something called The Student Room, if that's still going. Might find tips on there or join and post. Congratulations for your relative, hope he has a great experience.

@DeanStockwelllsBunny this is a Masters student. OP, specific postgraduate accommodation is rare at U.K. universities. If your relative hasn’t been informed of this option, don’t count on its existence.

I suggest he contact the International Office, or look at their website, to get ideas about where international PGs prefer to live. Hopefully they can steer him to some house- or flat- sharing sites.

I also hope someone comes along with a better idea

Sorry OP, when you say doing his masters, is it a 4/5 year integrated masters or a one year masters having got his degree already?

Thanks a lot for your responses.

He's doing a 1 year masters degree in aerospace engineering.

I will
Look into the areas mentioned as well.
Is there a student community which you will be aware of ?

Where is he coming from?

Usually MSc students form friendship groups within their Schools, because they are sharing a pretty intense experience. And seriously, the International Office at a big uni like M should be a major resource for the international students, particularly new arrivals.

A PG Manchester Uni Facebook page as suggested by @hellcatspanglelalala is a good idea. @CherryRipe1 suggested that he join the online forum TheStudentRoom. I always thought of that as an undergraduate forum but if there is a PG section this is an excellent idea. He could search online for ‘PG version of TheStudentRoom’ otherwise

Thanks so much. I will look into those. He's coming from India.

Manchester does have some postgrad-specific halls - start at www.accommodation.manchester.ac.uk/ouraccommodation/hallsofresidence/

I would have thought halls was the easier option for coming from overseas for a 1 year course, but no it won’t be the cheapest option.

There is lots of private student accommodation. Fallowfield has a high burglary rate - I got my son’s house a Ring camera and was rather apprehensive! He knew several people who were burgled, but they weren’t.

www.facebook.com/UoMInternational/

The above is a page for international students, might be useful. It may also be worth him finding out there is a group WhatsApp or fb page set up for his course. That might help him find housemates.

There's numerous accommodation options in different areas. Speak to student advice services about where similar students live