Insurance offer - no accommodation :(. Options ?

[MaterMetella]

My son missed his first choice offer by one grade. He was very happy with his insurance (Bath) until we found out that they guarantee accommodation for firm offers, guarantee for clearing, but insurance offers are bottom of the pile. Currently they cannot offer accommodation.

In the Facebook group for Bath parents, I can already see posts from people in same position talking about deferring/ looking elsewhere.

We are looking at private halls but they are eye -wateringly expensive (£20k) and seem to be aimed at post grads, and not even conveniently located. Not really the student experience he had in mind.

Is it worth going back to the firm offer uni, which rejected him and see if there is any last minute movement which might free up a space (long shot)? Any other options we haven't thought about?

All really disappointing - he worked incredibly hard. Was unlucky to miss his grades, unlucky his first choice were not flexible and more unlucky Bath can't accommodate...

Would the previous firm offer be able to offer accommodation though? Most top universities only guarantee accommodation to students on a firm offer, and I guess if it ranks higher than Bath it must have been quite a high-ranking university. There will be quite a lot of movement in the first couple of weeks as some students just don't turn up or drop out almost immediately (mostly international students). Are you looking on studentroom and reddit for anyone wanting to offload an accommodation contract they no longer want?

The student roost private hall is the only one with availability that I can see and it is just shy of £400 per week and you have to take a 51 week contract.

The Castle -another private hall - is the same but no availability.

Thanks - it may come to that (obviously not ideal) - I'll have a think about how I can take this forward.

Thanks - will get into student room and Reddit. (Have used the former before but not in regard to accom).

Interesting about movements in first week - that was what i was hoping would play in our favour (I think accommodation would be easier there).

Ah, I meant movement in accommodation, not course places, sorry for the confusion. I wouldn't know about movement in course places.

Sending solidarity OP. It sounds bloody stressful. The A-levels feel like the hard thing until it comes to starting uni…

What I meant was I heard at one popular university in the Covid years when they had more students than expected, some students were staying in hotels and then being slotted into accommodation gaps when students didn't turn up or dropped out in the first couple of weeks. They are unlikely to leave a student unhoused. Does your DC have any additional needs that might increase their prioritisation?

Ah, okay (and thanks!).

No additional needs (and he's super flexible about what he gets - very happy with any location/price/format so long as he gets a student experience).

My friend’s DD was in a similar situation. She took a temporary lodging room with a local family until a room in halls came up. There was quite a high level of churn in the first term with people dropping out entirely or moving out. Are you able to get on any accommodation waiting lists?

Yes thanks, we are on the waiting list with reslife (and have not entirely given up hope, hence not rushing into a binding private lease when something could still come up).

The same thing happened to my DS last year. Reslife came up with a shared room in the city a couple of days before moving in day.

(As it happened the other sharer never turned up and instead of letting my DS have the room to himself, they spent the next few weeks hassling him to move out into ridiculously expensive post grad accommodation in the city. I would never ever recommend Bath uni as my DS’s experience in those first few months were a bloody nightmare).

Why do clearing students get guaranteed accommodation but not insurance students? Ridiculous imo.

We had accommodation nightmares in 2022 with mine at a different university. I was told that every year a good number is the overseas students don't get visas or generally don't turn up so that will free up some rooms. Agree too with a PP that there are always people who drop out all through the first term in particular.

It's very stressful so I sympathise.

No I don't. But I don't want to panic- jump into anything binding before exploring all options (hence original post) :).

And whilst our options may be limited, there are still options, albeit all have a downside which we need to balance (eg temp accom + waiting list, the £20k private hall, deferral, contacting other unis, private accommodation, etc)

Yes exactly that. He had to move in the end and we had to cough up ££££. It was so stressful for him and being in a block with postgrads he didn’t make any friends until much later at his societies by which time everyone had their accommodation sorted for year 2 🤦🏻‍♀️

I agree it is utterly bizarre to prioritise clearing students over insurance students (especially when reslife are then telling insurance students to defer; so they'll end up with the empty places they were so keen to fill by offering clearing students the enticement of guaranteed accommodation).

Thanks for sharing your experience. X

We are in the same predicament, and so worried. It is absolutely bizarre to prioritise students who have entered via clearing as opposed to those who have met their grade requirements and chosen the university - albeit as a second choice.

It feels like a punishment for aspiring / trying something a little more.

Also the date that Bath close their first round accommodation is far in advance of most other Universities (Exeter and Edinburgh for example).

I wish I had known this before selecting Bath. It's absolutely shocking, and defies logic. Plus, most importantly, has really spoiled what should be a happy time .... and from what I read, could continue to impact.

We got burned with this in Glasgow a couple of years ago. Accepted place in clearing - no accommodation. Everywhere inc private halls had a waiting list of around 400.

In the end I found a private halls that didn’t have a waitlist and just happened to contact them as they’d had a cancellation. That was a week before he started. His accommodation was shared with ppl in different years and unis. As you say, not the freshers experience you hope for. His mate lived in a hotel for a month before I found him a room.

Because of this, I’ve been incredibly careful about DDs options and made sure she picked insurance with guaranteed accommodation. Vanishingly few offer this - as you say, they prefer Clearing. Madness.

In your position, I’d keep trying and not accept a private halls with people from different years/unis. It makes socialising very hard. If nothing materialised before starting, I’d check other unis or as a last resort, defer and do a gap year.