Accommodation cost impacting university choice - very troubling for institutions like mine

[Tulipgardens]

Name changing for this and wondering whether any one has stats. My sixth form students used to put down unis like Bristol, Bath and Exeter but, over recent years, no longer. Newcastle, Sheffield and Leeds now top choices. London unis nowadays a complete no-no. It has been a marked shift...

My apologies for derailing the thread.

I rechecked where I got the number from and it was an OLD stat on Offers

so yes, my assertion was incorrect

@EffinMagicFairy he was rather late (house of boys) and got his around February, but best to start looking now.
the area around cheswick village is good and popular, then off filton avenue is a bit rougher but cheaper - that’s where my son lives now (by choice) the residential streets are fine.

Students told us that accommodation isn't an issue.

Bristol is mentioned a lot on this thread!
I love this uni - it has been amazing for DD. However, in two years prices seem to have gone up around £150pm for private accommodation Two years!!!!

Oh stop it. You two are being really patronising towards a poster who made one general comment. They probably just meant half in a flippant, they are feeders for Oxbridge way, rather than literally.

The point of the thread is about locations. What's clear from the stats from the "best" private schools is that it's the same few Unis at the top of all their destinations list which are also top of the Uni rankings - Oxbridge, London, Durham and the US.
All ££££.
The only one of the top 10 unis that isn't too terrible for accommodation is Warwick (because no one wants to live on the outskirts of Conventry) .

@AndThereSheGoes Hmm. The stats were incorrect from a PP who might well believe it. It’s very easy to put stats on here that are incorrect as the PP now admits. Boys3 picked this up too. So it did make me wonder if it’s not an error. It was widely reported some years ago about Winchester but it’s always been populated by very bright DC.

a young person I know is at an institution in Sheffield that doesn’t have any of its own accommodation.
Hes had no problems getting private accommodation both years so far.

1st year he booked private halls around March time. 2nd year his first choice fell through due to him not having the deposit in time so he booked somewhere else very late.

That's a bit patronising. I'm a lecturer at a Northern university where students have stayed local for years. The existing population isn't a box of rocks waiting for all the Southern types to rescue them with their superior intellect.

I kind of get the levelling up comment but more on an individual’s town/uni basis rather than a north/south thing. That bright kids (inc kids from the north) may stay in their home town rather than move to London, Oxford, Bristol, Durham, etc. In order to avoid any accommodation fees at all but certainly particularly avoiding expensive towns.

My Dd was bright enough to apply for other universities for her undergraduate degree but stayed in her home town at a mid ranking uni. I know plenty of other local kids doing the same. Which is maybe fine if your home town is Durham or Leeds but less so if you live in Bolton or Huddersfield 🤷‍♀️. The same may be true for students from Falmouth?

It depends on career aspirations in many ways. Is there anything after uni locally that’s a decent grad job? Some areas don’t have so many of these jobs. If students don’t get degree level jobs, are they annoyed and upset by that? They will probably have a loan where monthly tax will be non existent or low but the degree won’t have given them much of a leg up.

Our uni culture has been to go away to uni because we didn’t have many of them until the 50s. I think 22 in 1950. So obviously students had to move away. Many still would to get to the better unis and its dumbing down to take a low ranking one if you could get to a top 10 one and certainly doesn’t help social mobility if there’s poor grad prospects in your uni town.

Also accommodation costs are driven by demand. It’s not just demand from students. It’s the economy of the whole town or city and the shortage of housing for everyone. It’s been exacerbated by uni expansion in the last 10 years after the recruitment cap was removed. It was hardly an unforeseen consequence and uni accommodation has sprung up. Students also don’t want disgusting houses to rent any more so there is pressure on supply. If students don’t want certain unis, maybe they need to offer a broader spectrum of non degree HE courses for locals?

Agree. And second year is worse. DS will be living at home in 4th year.

I think it's grwta if you live in London and have the choice to live at home. Or as Tizeror said if you live near a "good" uni. We would certainly be tempted to do that.

Mine would like to do London and it's completely out of our reach. 😔

DD is doing architecture - 7 years inc placement years. 😱Which is why she lived at home for the first 3. And it's a real barrier to architecture. I bet some families tell their kids they can't do the course!

@DanielaDressen There are some other very good unis for architecture though. It not as if UCL is the only choice out there. However great if you live in London, if you don’t, there are others and you don’t need to spend all 7 years at the same uni.

If anyone looks for Private halls in Bristol, we got a 10% reduction by not booking until week before Uni started, I don’t know from which date the discount started. It’s a risk in case it sells out but you are able to keep an eye on what is available via the websites.

the universities of Oxford and Cambridge are not £££ for accommodation - they are at the cheaper end and in most instances offer not just for the first year. Their financial firepower is on a wholly different level. May well be a different story for Oxford Brooks and Anglia Ruskin students though. likely some pps with direct experience on the latter two who can share the current reality.

Likewise Loughborough and Lancaster are not particularly expensive and are in the top 10.The CUG and Times do split hairs a bit over Lancaster admittedly 10th in one 12th in the other.

Agree with AndThereSheGoes. Looking at league tables for my DC's subject, the top end is very much the higher priced cities to live in. It makes me feel really bad to have had to rule out so many great options for her as she is predicted top grades. As boys3 says, Oxbridge and Lancaster seem to be the exceptions (at least in her subject). Although the cynic in me wonders whether the reason some of those institutions have great outcomes is because it's the wealthier who can attend and then go on to well-paid jobs.

Anyway, more importantly, it looks like the government may announce a rise in maintenance loans alongside the rise in tuition fees today. I wonder if that will help any of us out.

@ColouringPencils it will be interesting to see what is announced maintenance loan wise. I’m of the view that the thresholds in England for the max through to min loan need to be looked at too.

Absolutely. She’s done her first three years already and is looking to move uni for her next 2. She has very particular ideas about what she wants from the module content/teaching of the course and so far has only identified 3, possibly 4 which meet her standards! 😁. UCL, Cambridge, Loughborough and possibly Edinburgh.

Three of those have expensive housing! Start saving!

I don’t understand why Oxbridge is being lumped in with the expensive accommodation universities. With shorter terms and lots of college owned rooms I thought they were cheaper options?

I thought Cambridge and Loughborough were cheap? In halls anyway.

Oxbridge was on our radar for being more affordable because of the options
of halls for 3 years and short terms. But some colleges (all?) seemed to have a lottery system for allocation of rooms, so you couldn't budget accordingly. Also there weren't many options for self catering.

If I understand Oxbridge correctly the catering system or buttery is PAYG.