Still no accommodation for September

[Penguin7208]

DS is heading into his final year at St Andrews and still hasn't found anywhere to live. The cost and availability of accommodation is making the whole process incredibility stressful. The uni knows he doesn't have accommodation due to their tracker, but there has been no help from them, or no advice what to do if he doesn't have housing by September (orientation week is less than a month away).

Any ideas? Is it just a case of continuing to search for places and hope somewhere is found.

And just to say to everyone, St Andrews has just become so unaffordable for so many people. It isn't just housing, even sports clubs have stupid fees now. The uni keeps praising itself for being inclusive, but it is anything but.

I don't think he has many to start with, but at least one lives with family in Fife, and a few of the others managed to get into halls again. There were two who have been renting together since 2nd year who found somewhere else but that has since fell through so he'll see what's happening with them.

4th year because Scotland, with the first two being nearly all online teaching. Bit disappointed for him as his uni experience has been a bit rubbish really.

The uni offered more help in previous years, with more updates and the ability to apply for accommodation in Dundee. This year, nothing from them whatsoever, apart from the same copy and pasted email about their tracker.

It just annoys me that the uni can increase students numbers so much (even before Covid), knock down affordable accommodation (Fife Park), and then sit here whilst there is a housing crisis and go "not our problem" whilst increasing rents by 8% this year. They just care so little about their students.

Would it be worth looking for a place as a lodger? Not ideal but if you are a lodger you can't really be held to a long notice period legally, so he could transfer into halls later, a space will come up as someone will drop out.

Yep, he applied for halls. Been in halls for the first three years of his degree (which is more normal compared to other unis).

Meant Albany Park, not Fife Park!

He has looked at a few lodger places, so it is definitely a possibility, but I think he said that many of them didn't want undergrads.

Even I am doubting if it is worth him spending thousands of pounds when he has to be in town about 10 days a semester, with lectures recorded (which he is used to by now watching) and him not really finding tutorials helpful at all. I know, not a great thing to be doubting, but neither of us think throwing away money for an expensive rental isn't good.

Sympathies. My friends DD is at St Andrews and I believe accommodation is ridiculously expensive and hard to source. She is in with the in crowd who seemingly have fancy dress parties every other week that her DM pays for outfits ( this is to be fair a choice) and it's definitely a pricey place to be.

Sympathies we have family in the town.

Do StA have resident assistant/sub-warden jobs where you get cheap hall accommodation in return for some work?
DD does this at another Scottish uni and doesn't find it too onerous (apart from induction weeks and the fact you can't stay off site without permission).

Could he commute from home for a bit if they can arrange all his seminars on the same day? Thinking that postgraduates should start giving up accommodation in late September (28 day notice means advertised late August) or there might be drop outs by then.

He technically only needs to be in class for 2 classes per module per semester (so 8 times in total) plus exams at the end. We aren't exactly close to town but you could stay overnight if its in the morning, or if in a day if its in the afternoon. As far as he can tell, there's nothing stopping him living nowhere near uni considering he isn't an international students so no visa requirements.

He also says that lectures and tutorials don't really help much, with lectures recorded anyway. It wouldn't be detrimental if he wasn't there, at least at the start.

By staying in halls, has this compromised his friendship groups? Why is he on his own? Where are his friends? He seems to have separated out and not found flatmates. Now it’s very late to be looking on his own. Does spare room operate there? If he’s not going to parties, not joining clubs and generally not joining in, he might as well be at home and save £££. If he was my Dc, I’d be concerned.

He definitely has some friends, but some are returning to halls, and at least one lives in Fife with his family. Parties and the such are not his things are never have been, and he has friends here as well so whilst it would be a shame considering how hard he worked to get there, it's not like it would drastically change what he was doing if he stays here.

So they are not close friendships that result in getting accommodation together. They just look after no 1. That’s a shame really. But I agree. Commute from home as he’s not really got a social life in STA. What u don’t have, you won’t miss.

What do you mean by "they just look after no 1"?

As I said, he has friends, they just already have places to live. It's not as if he can go to them and say "leave your halls contract so we can look for a place together".

I am really shocked that he is not going to his tutorials!! He needs to be making the most of them- otherwise he might as well ge doing open university!

If they don't help, why waste his own time when he could be doing stuff that actually helps?

He may tell you they don't help but they are the absolute core of uni education and he's wasting everyone's time and money if he doesn't attend. Is he really not meant to attend lectures, are the recordings not just back ups ?

Let's not try telling me that my son is wrong for not finding them helpful.

They go through answers to tutorial questions. He finds going through the uploaded answers much more useful to him, but obviously, he isn't allowed to think that as it is "absolute core of uni education".

He is expected to go to lectures, but attendance isn't recorded so no one will ever know.

I'm surprised at his lack of engagement and attendance. I'm also at St A as a mature student doing a degree in combined studies. If we miss more than 2 lectures we are removed from the course and in the tutorials we have tasks and presentations to carry out. They are fundamental to the modules. What course is your DS doing? I'm actually surprised he got 3 years in halls already. They usually prioritise the first years for halls. If he can stay at home and travel on the odd days he needs to be in then I guess he can do this. It might be cheaper just to book the Travel-lodge for the over nights he might need rather than pay for accommodation.

Your son should be going to tutorials.

But that's not what you asked, so has he looked at Dundee or other places nearby for accommodation? Many StAs students live in Dundee because it is cheaper.

Maths. Barely anything is compulsory and everything they need is uploaded. The tutorial sheets get their answers uploaded. He went to lectures last year when they were in-person, just didn't really find them helpful.

By looking after number 1, I mean his friends have sorted themselves out and not joined forces with him to find somewhere. There’s possibly a reason for this. Living in halls for three years seems unusual to me and suggests real friends are lacking and now he’s not finding tutorials useful so is not interested in them either. So let him stay at home.