Warning re Uni Accommodation: Exeter

[WIWIKAA]

I know many parents are aware of accommodation shortages and the often outrageous costs involved but I wonder if they aware how bad it has become.

My DC firmed Exeter and achieved grades to secure the place. The accommodation offered under the ‘guarantee’ was an off site private provider at a cost of over £10k for 44 weeks. This has happened to many students. Of course they make it work, many have to, however I do think there needs to be more awareness.

Exeter halls are ££ anyway however this is at least £2k on top. If your YP gets the min loan it’s +£6k that they or their parents have to find before living costs etc. Plus once you’ve signed your tenancy there is no option to move into campus halls.

I know this isn’t just an Exeter issue, there is another thread about Warwick, however it was a shock for us and very disappointing for DC. So when your YP is choosing a uni look closely at accommodation!

@ParmaVioletTea Students put down options though. I suspect loads are over subscribed! None are empty are they?

@LargeChestofDrawers These are ratios from Exeter’s web site. No 1:4 ratios. Various prices too.

*I stand by my comment, and sorry if it offends, that often the lower tier unis are cheaper however imo a maths degree from Warwick is not the same as a maths degree from Sussex.
So I suppose in a way some posters are correct, cut your cloth, DC can’t afford the expensive cities like Exeter, Bath, Warwick go for a cheaper area. *

This is a bit confused or at least confusing.

Exeter, Bath, Warwick maybe – more expensive areas. "Cheaper areas" as defined by you would perhaps be big northern cities with more of a range of private accomm? So Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle maybe? Nothing wrong with those unis tho.

But you say that "lower-tier unis are cheaper"? So that's different from cheaper areas maybe? Can you give some examples of this? A friend has a DC looking at what I suspect is a very low-tier uni (I had never heard of it) and they looked at accomm costing £230 pw – I would call that very very expensive tbh.

Winchester (for example) is probably a lower tier uni but I bet it's not a cheap place to live.

Really?! You’ve extrapolated, but that doesn’t surprise me.
I’ll try to be clearer - allegedly there is a higher proportion of London/SE students there. Averagely they will be better off than those from the north, so would again averagely be able to more afford the en-suites/catered/newer. See Holland Hall for evidence, it won’t be empty.
Ensuite is about £30-50 a week more, so yes, it will rule out some people, but ruled out from ordinary students? It’s more and more requested now. And price wise, as mentioned before, ia lot of their accom is similar to other places. They don’t have an issue filling places.

@LargeChestofDrawers
Not sure which bit Tizer is quoting as can’t see the full details.
See the green box in this link
https://www.exeter.ac.uk/study/accommodation/applyingandpaying/
There is an Allocation link for 2025 and other years.
@TizerorFizz East Park en-suite is 3.9:1.

Edit: the most over subscribed are the newer ones and/or en-suite.

@stubiff and @TizerorFizz thank you so much.

@claryno I can’t give an example so perhaps I am wrongly assuming this! We only looked at unis DC had researched courses for. Perhaps the majority of uni accommodation is now ridiculously expensive but that supports my objective - look at accommodation availability and cost before you choose and don’t assume the guarantee will give you on campus.

@LargeChestofDrawers
I think you’ll find that Exeter are very transparent there, and at the majority of Unis you’re going to get a similar lottery of actually getting in to your top accom choice. If you want something more prescriptive then Sheffield open tranches of accom after DC has firmed, assuming you get an offer! You literally select the actual room you want in the hall you want, so if you’re early enough you can get one of the ones you want.

So more than once on this thread you have stated "lower tier unis are cheaper". But you are just assuming this rather than having any concrete examples?

I just researched a few unis that I guess could be classed as lower tier – Leeds Beckett cheapest uni accomm is £177 pw; Nottingham Trent has ensuite rooms at about £150 pw (its cheaper rooms seem to be for postgrads); Northumbria has a couple of options at less than £130 pw; Liverpool John Moores has a range starting around £100; Edge Hill has one block starting at £90 pw but most are from £148 pw; UWE for the main campus or the city centre starts at about £160 pw.

So a massive variation. The only ones I would say are genuinely cheaper there are LJMU and Northumbria. But Leeds B and UWE main campus are no cheaper than the main unis in those cities.

I do agree tho it's worth researching accommodation cost and availability as part of the research into which uni.

Rents in the South West are insane in general. DS2 went to Plymouth in 2019 & even though he got a full student loan due to my low income it still didn’t come close to covering rent.

Luckily his nan offered to help, but I was definitely shocked how expensive it was.

@stubiff I can see that’s a good option however many unis leave it very very late to offer. Although I suppose if students are then guaranteed they’d might commit sooner. The whole system is a mess and getting too expensive.

Actually, if you’re in the position to buy a flat in Exeter or somewhere easily commutable (public transport is good) then that could work out cheaper.

Oh gosh. My daughter is starting yr 12 and very keen on Exeter. She's applying for their Exter scholars programme to get a reduced offer.

We have no spare money whatsoever. I had no idea. I will literally need to remortgage.

She also is intersted in Southampton. (And London but we already knew that will be too expensive).

We live in the south. She needs to be easily able to get home if needed. We are far from rich but we can't access unis further away for the cheaper living.

Its so so different from when I went 😔.

@stubiff The 25/26 allocation data for East Park is 1.9:1 and 3.1:1. This is the most recent data. So no, currently not 4:1! Students have taken note and applied elsewhere. Also look at the prices. Also, realistically how many northern students want Exeter? It’s hard to get to by public transport from most northern areas so what would attract a student to it? It’s got a highish number from private schools (28% from memory) but that’s fairly normal for more affluent SW and London. It might also account for some halls being popular. I rather think the privately educated from Newcastle or Leeds maybe aren’t that bothered about going there.

@WIWIKAA it’s really difficult to know how many dc will get the entry grades though so, as you can see, applications for halls vary. I think all students can do is look at the most recent stats and swerve the higher ratio ones.

@TizerorFizz
the link I quoted has 3.9:1, the one you quote is 2024. Either way over subscribed !

@stubiffHere’s the full table for 25/26 for the avoidance of doubt,

@TizerorFizz
it’s blurred, did you follow my link?!

Lower ranking for what?

Edinburgh Uni has a high ranking but scores the lowest of all for the student experience. The only think keeping its rankings high is the quality of research, which makes little difference to the average student.

I’m encouraging my daughter to choose the uni which suits her, regardless of rankings.

Will your DD get the maximum loan (HH income of less than £25k from memory)? if not, then you will realistically need to support her financially to some extent, regardless of which uni she goes to.

Or when you say you have no spare money, did you mean beyond supporting to the extent of the usual loan?

We need to top it up a bit due to income to get to the total amount and I hadn't budgeted beyond that as that will stretch us.

So your DD will get more than the minimum but less than the max? I guess you need to let her know that she will have to bear that in mind when looking at unis – get her to consider how much she will have (10.5k for this academic year, so if to top up to the max loan, she will get a bit more for 2027 I presume) and figure out a max cost for accommodation which is the biggest expense, and bear that in mind when looking at unis. It’s not a terrible thing for this to be a factor IMHO.

@stubiff My screenshot isn’t blurred so not sure what has happened. Anyway there’s over subscribed and under subscribed. Info is easy to find.

They also say 30% of new students are off site. I guess it’s a case of reading every tucked away sentence.

@LittlePineapple There’s no really cheap place for y1. Look at y2 costs. This isn’t your day these days. I do think parents need to look a bit earlier into costs but obviously not all in the South have money!

We've never really had any money so knowing earlier wouldn't have made any difference tbh. It's so difficult 😔. We're pretty shot for pensions too so naively had hoped to save once both kids weren't at home.

@LittlePineapple Then dd is limited to cheaper places. Or defers and works to save up. With 350,000 18 year olds going the nation doesn’t pay for students any longer in terms of fees and full costs. If she wants to keep coming home, you don’t have much choice.

@TizerorFizz the East Park ensuite application ratio for incoming 2025 freshers is stated as 3.9:1 which is of course jolly close to the 4:1 previously mentioned.