Accommodation Costs

[mrsnjw]

My son will be looking to do a business type degree next year. We have just started to look at universities. He would like a campus based style uni. What am now working out is the costs of accommodation and how much it varies and what we can afford. He will get the minimal loan due to our income. Any advice around which unis are mega expensive to live at or really cheap? Obviously we will support as much as we can wherever he wants to study. Many thanks.

@Gobimanchurian yes if our second chooses to go to uni we will have a year with them both away 🤨

DS would sacrifice an en-suite for food!

Definitely look at yr 2/3 costs and availability as well as hall costs in year 1.
I'm another Lboro mum and my DC stayed in halls throughout their course as they have plenty of accommodation. Houses in town are cheap and reasonably plentiful too.

Queens Belfast accommodation is one of the best value in the country. Especially with the GB scholarship. When we spoke to a student who showed us round he said that there was plenty of private accommodation available for the second and third years too. You do have to factor in flights but they are probably cheaper than trains especially if you book in advance.

OP, your son could also look at Lancaster Uni, which has the well regarded Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) and typical offers for business related degrees on a par with Loughborough.

There is a good supply of on campus accommodation, to the extent that on campus accommodation is offered to 4th year students returning from 3rd year placements. Private accommodation in Lancaster is (relative to many other uni locations) in plentiful and cheap.

It is obviously some distance from London but served by fast trains on the line to Glasgow.

Lancaster is a lovely campus university with reasonably priced accommodation.

We've found Lincoln to be very cheap, if you don't go with uni halls! They sold off several halls years ago so they are now managed by private companies. They are also considerably cheaper than the halls still under uni control, but also nicer!!
My son pays £125pw for his room in a flat of 6 and can stay there for his entire time at uni, which also saves on the cost of bringing stuff back in the summer! They have a laundry on site plus sky sports & bt sports in the large cinema room. I'd quite like to move in myself 🤣

We would never be able to afford London and similar universities.

We paid for halls £200 something a week first year and house sharing £450 something a month at Exeter. The student's rent is more expensive than our accomondation (not renting).

It's not too bad but tbh a lot of parents and students struggle.

In case it helps, Bath shared accommodation is approx. £550 pcm (as long as you look enough months in advance!) and Edinburgh is approx. £730 pcm. This is what we're paying next yr for our 2 still at Uni.

We looked at Keele for DD, and she liked it a lot.
But keep in mind it's a bit of a gilded cage... a pretty campus, but in the middle of nowhere

@RockyRogue1001 yes it's akin to an all inclusive resort. I think my son really liked it because it's all on site.

Lincon and bath are on our list of open days. Good to hear lincon is good value as I think that will be our back up but who knows.

Lancaster is about five hours away from us so might be a bit too far 🤔

I was going to suggest this too as it has an excellent range of business courses and is a top 10 ranked uni and is very cheap for halls and subsequent years private accommodation.

Keele isn't really in the same league as Lancaster and Loughborough. Bath is expensive too though

But not Durham, York or Edinburgh.

I would say avoid cities with large Airbnb offerings as this means accommodation availability is limited, quality is low and costs are high.

Edinburgh, £800 per month for a fairly central flat. Six students. No living room ( it is a bedroom) and only a two seater sofa in the kitchen.

On the positive the ‘touristy’ cities have no shortage of part time jobs in hospitality. My DC’s work throughout.

Lancaster is a really wonderful university (I was External Examiner there for my discipline). And an hour from the Lake District. It's also got excellent student welfare - the college system, and the compact campus university seem to help, as far as I could see. Don't let the distance deter you too much. I loved the twice yearly train journey up there, to do my examiner duties (I always stayed on for the weekend!) and it's now under 3 hours from Euston.

Be aware that although most unis do have a range of accommodation in terms of cost, when it comes to allocation it can be fairly random. Students usually submit a list of preferred options, but there is no guarantee that they will be given a cheaper one.

This really is so important to do.

Please, do not insist that your DS go to a particular university based solely on accommodation costs.

I totally understand you saying that universities in places like London or Bristol are beyond what you can afford. But there again, maybe they aren't that much more expensive.

@Gobimanchurian said:

"First year was about £6600 for 42 week contract in en suite self catered room in halls. That's now £7400 with recent inflation."

Halls at UCL in London start from about £225 per week catered on a 39 week basis (12 meals per week - although back in my day it was 16 meals per week). So an extra £50 per week to include meals compared to Leeds self catering.

Although, to be fair, the top end of halls do cost in the region of £385 per week catered or £312 per week self catering.

But seriously, do please let your DS consider first what is the best course and/or university for him and only then think about what might be affordable.

For example, Warwick Business School has an excellent reputation (it is ranked 2nd in the UK by the Financial Times) and does a number of different undergraduate degrees and there are related degrees from the University of Warwick that are also highly rated.

Warwick is also really cheap when it comes to accommodation. It starts from about £120 per week self catered with a shared bathroom to around £200 per week self catered with en suite.

But again, do not even think about DS choosing Warwick based just on the cost of accommodation.

Ok I'll get him to take a look at Lancaster.

What are his likely A levels? That's also important?

My reasoning would be: a Business Studies degree is a generalist degree. It's not as vocational as it sounds. It's like a History or a Biology degree. These have a generalist foundation, and students find their specific niche, talent, or interests as they work their way through the programme.

So he needs to add other stuff: a high-quality placement or internship; or a year abroad in a significant business environment (so maybe some foreign language acquisition?) or a teaching environment that gives him access to useful & active networks - which universities host the "milk rounds" of graduate recruitment for example? Which ones get their graduates into high-powered graduate schemes?

He also needs to get his degree from the most highly rated his A Levels allow. So Lincoln might be nice, but does it cut it in the corporate world for a generalist degree? (I wouldn't have thought so, frankly ...)

Are his A Levels likely to give him a chance for Warwick or Manchester Business Schools? These are powerhouses.

He is on for ABB so I don't think Warwick. But yes I guess it's also about what they offer in terms of getting employment.

Both my DCs are at university in London (but different unis). One is in a hall owned by Unite Students and has to pay all summer . The other was in a uni-owned hall and did not have to pay over the summer.

Leicester and Lancaster both have plentiful and reasonable price accommodation.
Id also encourage a look at Queens Belfast. They pay £100 to anyone GB going to open day and yr 1 give GB students £2500 off accommodation and £500 travel. Accommodation was plentiful and affordable.

Bath is expensive probably on par with Bristol

Yes I thought bath might be.