DD still doesn’t have college or accommodation at Durham - should we panic and who do we call?

[Mommybunny]

DD is definitely confirmed to study at Durham this year but hasn’t received her college allocation (it was her firm choice and she’d been given a provisional allocation before A level results) nor an accommodation assignment. She can’t enrol until that’s all sorted and can’t pick her modules. All her friends who are going seem to be all sorted. Every time she has tried to phone or use their useless chatbot she is told to wait for the email with all the information about getting an email address.

She is really starting to stress about it and frankly so am I because I will need to take time off work and arrange a hotel to bring her up there - we are in the West Country. Does anyone know who we can call to find out what’s going on, or is anyone in a similar boat, or otherwise familiar with the process?

Durham's admin seems to be pretty poor. There's a "Parents of Durham University students" Facebook group and she's not the only one waiting.

It's frustrating if you're needing to book accommodation - some colleges move them in on the Saturday and some on the Sunday, so you need to know. I guess you could book somewhere for Saturday night which would probably make either day possible. Or just assume you'll stay a bit further south, and do the last part of the journey on the day - then you're not battling for rooms with everyone else.

I am no help to you but just wanted to say That’s awful OP. We had allocation of halls from UNi of Manchester the day after results. Monday is the first of September and you need to plan travel and possibly time if work. Hope you get sorted.

Thanks for the replies. She was able to get through to the admissions office finally after a 20+ minute wait and they assured her everything was fine and they were still working through all the applicants. No idea when she will hear for sure though. Shockingly disorganised. I’m just nervous they may give her a slot of Saturday at 9am or something, which will be difficult for us to meet.

Durham has form for this! The college allocation/accommodation system is a mystery - probably even to the uni itself! I think I saw something that said by the end if the month you should hear which I guess is today, but if not by Sept 5 to contact your college. I don’t think my DD enrolled until September last year and there was a delay in her optional module as the History department were particularly slow. It will be easier in Y2!

Thanks @mondaytosunday . She had a follow up email basically saying the same as what they told her in the phone - “due to the high volume of students this process can take a while”. She was thrilled with having been allocated her first choice college before results - what are the chances this changes given that it’s taking so long? Could her place be given away?

I think you need to calm down and wait. She is not going to lose her place and everything will be alright. Just like it will for everyone else who is waiting for information / updates and confirmations.

Hi. We’re in the same boat as are loads of others. They’ve said by 5th sept we will hear. Accom is guaranteed as long as you filled in all the forms so I’m trying to stay calm for my child to help them stay calm too and explain to them that this is just the process! Nerve wracking and it would be nice to know but freshers doesn’t start for a good few weeks yet. We booked some provisional accomidation out of town as we are also 6 plus hours away.

Thanks @Elderflower2016 - I think I will book accommodation for us for Saturday the 27th too.

I know she will be guaranteed accommodation if she’s filled in all her forms, and as far as I know she has - I’m just concerned (in a very calm manner) that the college she was allocated could be changed.

Yes me too! Hoping they’ll stay the same 😬

2 years ago, DC was notified on 5 September and their college allocation was changed, so I think you should be prepared for this possibility. It all worked out very well though in the end. At the time, another poster was frantic and in the end her DC was confirmed at her initial college allocation, so it can go both ways.

It is complicated at Durham - and can't really be compared to confirmation in halls at other unis - because they are trying to achieve a balance of subjects across all the colleges, and within each subject and in each college they want a balance of sex and background and probably grades and maybe other things. They will have achieved this balance in the initial allocation, but post results they need to even everything out again eg in an extreme example, all those with English offers at College X may have achieved their offer and accepted, whereas all the Chemists fell short and they won't double the English cohort and have no Chemists in College X, so there has to be some shuffling around. In a regular hall of residence this wouldn't happen. You might ask why they do the initial allocation at all.

It does seem to take them a while to do this and one would have thought they could write a simple programme to do it, but they seem to go through everything in person.

They are also a relatively small university (only 1/5th of the students of Manchester) so they have a much smaller admin operation and take more time at pinch points like this.

One upside of their small operation, is that they are very slow to bill for accommodation and fees - 1st December!

Despite the relatively late confirmation, the drop-off system worked very smoothly. There were lots of available slots spread over a few days with lots of Freps to help with luggage, so I really wouldn't worry about that, and I'm sure you would be able to make a bespoke arrangement directly with the allocated college if necessary.

Good luck with it all.

If she had firmed and she got her grades to make the offer (rather than accepted having just missed) then I thought they guaranteed their provisional college? That's how it used to work.

Might it be worth phoning her provisional college and just seeing if they have her on the list.

Remember that Durham also start later than other universities so she is not on the same timeline as her mates

Don't worry too much about the time slot. You will probably need to arrive on the correct day but they won't be too strict on the time slot, you certainly won't miss moving in. They ask people who can take early slots to do so, knowing that others from further away won't be able to get there sooner. Booking for the Saturday night is sensible then you can either drop off later on Saturday or earlier on Sunday.

Agree with @Nothernwannabe this bit is a hassle, but move in day was a dream last year and then it all feels like a distant dream/nightmare! As others have said, the college accommodation at Durham isn’t really the same as uni halls, so you get this fandango, but it’s really worth it. Hopefully your daughter hears soon @Mommybunny 🙌

Go with the flow, chill. It will all be sorted. Have faith. I remember, a long time ago, turning up in Dover, with my spouse. No accommodation booked, I had a job in a few days, he had a college course, soon. Ended up in a b and b for 3 weeks and then found a flat, a blissful start to married life.

My daughter is in exactly the same position. We finally spoke with somebody at Durham on Friday who said if she hasn’t had her college confirmed yet it’s because she is being reallocated to a different college. Very disappointing, especially because, as you say, they can’t enrol until their college is confirmed, which means they are unable to choose their modules as scheduled and they don’t receive their departmental introductory emails and invites to welcome webinars etc. Very unimpressive admin. They need to improve their communication with students instead of giving them radio silence.

I’m not sure you can be certain that if you haven’t heard you are being reallocated. It really depends on the college in question. I know one of the self catered college was asking for volunteers to be reallocated. Also some people are in “overflow” accommodation. And different colleges are informing at different speeds, although even colleges who informed some people early are still allocating.
So personally I’d try not to worry until you hear properly.

Another unimpressed parent here. We’ve had unanswered emails, no college allocation, no enrolment details, no arrival date and it’s impossible for DS to make any plans. Apparently he’s supposed to choose modules by today but obviously he can’t do that either

It’s almost like results day caught Durham by surprise; surely they know what needs doing and plan resources accordingly?!

It seems they make such a big deal of the “colleges” being unique and so on, then completely undermine it by faffing on for ages and just wedging people in wherever, regardless of preference. The difference between the cheapest and most expensive accommodation is several thousand pounds but there’s no real choice as it just depends on the college allocation, with no option to swap.

I’m trying to be very positive about it for DS but honestly I wish he’d chosen somewhere else! This completes my rant; thank you for listening

Good for you (dude) but it's not exactly relevant to the OP's specific situation.

Still no college or enrolment emails received despite being firm choice and got grades… I get that there’s a process but I thought their website stated this group would be priority to keep allocated college?? Did anyone else hear yesterday?

Same position here - we called and emailed everyone (from vice-chancellor down!) to ask for information and also to point out how this confusion, lack of information, and feeling like you are a second class citizen is making Durham so far feel a very negative experience rather than the exciting one it should be.

There’s a priority order but it’s not a guarantee. If everyone in your DC’s subject at the preliminary allocated college met their offer, it’s likely (although not certain) that someone will need to be reallocated.

This is all clearly set out on the Durham website.

As is their target date of 5th September, and an update today.

They are doing exactly what they have set out to do.

Not everyone waiting is going to be reallocated.

This happens every year so anyone who applied to Durham should have been aware that this is what they do.

For anyone reading this in future years, if you want a guarantee of accommodation in a specific hall of residence on or close to results day, firm a university that guarantees to do this. Unless Durham changes their policy, this will not be Durham.

We acknowledge it was never a guarantee @Nothernwannabe but a lot of the reallocation (or even just the uncertainty) at this stage seems to be down to a pointless sort of social engineering to get a “mix” of people in each college, while really who cares if there’s a few more STEM students in this college or the M/F ratio in that college is 45/55 this year?

The point is that they don’t respond to enquiries, they keep sending repeat/duplicate emails with no new information, they are missing their own deadlines for various processes and they come across as incompetent at something which is really core to their role. They’ve cut their admin and support roles over previous years and it looks like they’ve gone a bit too far imo

BTW my DS has not had an update today. Do you mean that he should have had? He knows he was never guaranteed his original allocated college and will be happy with any but it’s silly of Durham to leave them all hanging and I agree with @redblonde that it makes their first experience of Durham a negative one

There is an update today on Durham’s public website for everyone to see.

The deadline on the website is 5th September.

(I think the exact reallocation criteria isn’t public - it may be catered/vs self catered or it may be more subject focussed.)

Good luck in getting it sorted.