Which universities decide accommodation after results

[BillyBobbie]

My ds is keen put Cambridge as his firm choice if he receives an offer. His course is very popular though so he needs to have a good insurance.
He is keen on Warwick, Bristol, Manchester, Bath, Birmingham, Exeter and other good universities in that general area.
So my questIon is which of these don’t allocate accommodation on a first come first served basis and wait instead until after results day, when everyone knows where they are going?
Money is not unlimited, hence London universities not being on the list but hope to able to afford the cheaper options at the places listed above. If lumbered with the most expensive Bristol accommodation we would struggle.

A friend's son insured at Bath and although finally offered a place was told that he was not guaranteed Uni accommodation. Interestingly if you got a place at clearing you are.
Accommodation is a lottery at Bath and there is a big difference between rooms. She's paying £9300 for his room (he did get Uni accommodation) and we're paying £6300 for our son's room (also at Bath). We had actually applied for the more expensive rooms but this was what he was allocated.

I went to 15 uni open days (twins) and sorry I do not remember even one of them saying they wait until results day in August - I doubt it to be honest as people need to plan. Most tend to say choose as us your first choice and accommodation on campus is guaranteed. But if you look at uni websites they say when they open up accommodation and they are all very different timings.

Warwick allocate after results day.

Bristol allocate after - you put in your preferences before then but don't find out till a couple of days after results.

When you put your preferences for Bristol, you put a top limit on the amount. However this obviously doesn't help the future years when in private accommodation.

The idea that a university takes only two days to allocate rooms is not sound. Allocations are done in advance but subject to finalisation after results day (because some don’t get in and some choose to go elsewhere or defer). This would be true for universities who communicate room allocations before offers day, those surplus rooms would be reassigned.

unfortunately I think it’s just one of those things about university admissions - those who end up at a choice that is not their first don’t get prioritised for accommodation.

Universities often change their accommodation policies year on year, often with little notice.

The issue you have is the uni being the insurance choice. Most unis will only allow those who have them as their firm choice to book/register for accommodation prior to results day (even if students aren't actually told where they have been allocated after results day). As an insurance place holder, you will not be able to apply until results are out and you know you have a place.
Not all unis even guarantee accommodation to those other than those who have placed them first.

Loughborough sorted the allocation after results - all DS had to do was register his interest, then he was given a time slot in the pm after results in the morning to request the specific building/room type he wanted, which he got. He hadn't requested any specifics before then.

Bristol and Bath can be a nightmare, based on friends experiences.

Exeter allocate after results but they only guarantee campus accommodation if you firm them. There were lots of students this year where it was insurance choice or went through clearing that had to source private accommodation. That being said, I think there is ample private halls that aren’t too dissimilar in price.

Birmingham do it after from memory, although there was some kind of preference choosing earlier, so Im not sure how that works for insurance offer holders. It's quite a stressful system but seems better than many. The bigger campus unis seem to have less hassle. I exclude Bath from this as that's pretty wild.

I think that's a theoretical list OP? For next time through?

If so, York is one of the few unis which guarantees accommodation for all offer holders, firm and insurance. Worth knowing.

Exeter and Bristol both allocate after results. However, if selecting them as insurance, you've no guarantee of getting university accommodation

Warwick definitely do. Or at least they did recently.

I believe that all of DD's choices guaranteed accommodation for insurance offer holders (I think she ruled out those that didn't). Policies do change, so I think you need to check with each university. Although some unis only guarantee for those who firm (probably partly as an incentive for people to firm them), some universities realise that discourages Oxbridge candidates from choosing them as insurance.

Some guarantee accommodation, but do some allocation ahead of results, so insurance offer holders would get what was left - with Leeds I think that was more distant rather than cheaper, so not necessarily a problem if cost is the critical factor - you might need to ask what sort of choices tend to be left.

With Durham, the critical thing was not to miss the email to both firm/insurance offer holders asking for confirmation that you wanted accommodation - those who didn't reply to that were told in September that there was nothing left. Get your youngster into the habit of checking their junkmail.

Outside of your list but still top ten ranking, Lancaster guarantees accommodation for everyone. Masses of accommodation all on campus and there are also circa 1500 spaces for second and third years who want to stay on campus. Most Lancaster colleges also have a range of accommodation and so your choice isn't limited by your choice of college (although not all colleges have every accommodation type).

I think Manchester guarantee halls for insurance candidates as well, and allocates all accommodation after results are in. DC1 has an offer from there and it is very likely to become her insurance choice, so she plans to check this in detail at an offer holder day in Feb.

I looked at this before results day this year….just to be sure for insurance and Celaring.

Warwick looked best….date for all applicants to submit accommodation requests (those who got places via firm, insurance and clearing) was after results day and all treated equally.

I noticed York didn’t guarantee accommodation for insurance, before results day, but once results were out, did give it to insurance candidates.

Nottingham seemed able to guarantee everyone, although it was first-come first served. Interestingly, some of the cheapest options remained after Clearing opened. And the same was the case at Exeter.

My DS had York as insurance. He was able to select accommodation options before results day, but it was clear in the terms and conditions that firm candidates would be prioritised. They said they would try to give insurance candidates accommodation.

When it came to it, I think Clearing candidates were given higher priority. No-one was told what they’d been allocated until after results. DS met his firm offer, so it wasn’t an issue.

You do need to check carefully as many unis change their policy each year and actually, often quite late in the day and after some might have already firmed and insured. It’s actually a reason not to rush with firming and insuring, even if you’re pretty sure you know what you want. Delaying firming and insuring won’t matter (except at the v few that allocate accommodation before results - and if you have one of those as your firm, you can get on with it anyway, as these do t tend to open extremely early) for the candidate if they have their offers.

Cardiff didn't allocate until DD confirmed her place on results day. Had Sheffield as back up but no accommodation allocated.
It's all a bit nerve wracking & last minute but it all turned out well & she got her first choice of accommodation at Cardiff.

Last year Warwick didn't and my son seems to think they have plenty of accommodation.

Edinburgh Uni guarantees accommodation if your home is outside the city and you apply by end of July. They don't allocate until you've accepted them but they do process based on when you applied which favours those that firm/insure earlier. I think they only guarantee shared accommodation to those for whom Edinburgh is 2nd choice (not sure how many actually end up sharing - maybe those who miss firm and go for remarks or await further decision so end up accepting very late)

@Piggywaspushed yes we need to decide which open days to go to in the spring.
@StrangewaysHereWeCome one if the reasons I am looking into this is that a friend has a child at Manchester. They know students in the first year who were allocated accommodation in Liverpool and Huddersfield. Not what I would want for my ds.
From what has been said Loughborough and Lancaster should be added to our list and Warwick is definitely worth a look. I must admit I didn’t even know Lancaster was collegiate.

York definitely don't guarantee accommodation to Insurance holders. I know Liverpool and Sheffield do. Exeter, Durham etc don't.

Fair enough. Things do change quickly! It was a main reason for us putting it as insurance 2 years ago.