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!

@HighburyHope Thanks, yes, was rounding, as in this argument it doesn't matter! The point I was trying to make is that it's not the cheaper options that are over-subscribed, the opposite.

I think the morale of the story is if cost is a reasonable issue then to choose carefully with the 'criteria' (not the 4 hall preferences, as they are different).
If your preferences are maybe an S/C ensuite because the cost could be afforded, then choose cost, self-catered, shared, as your criteria (if you then aren't allocated one of your preferences), to try to ensure you're not allocated one way out of your price bracket.
This doesn't just apply to Exeter though!

@LittlePineapple
As you're probably aware, at Exeter the cheapest options range from £139-£161 a week.
I thought I'd check Liverpool as you may expect that to be cheaper - their cheapest is £173!
I do know Lancaster has some in the £132-142 range.
Nottingham, again, £132-£150.
So Exeter isn't way out of range.

Y2/3 may be different though.

Thankyou. I actually hadn't looked at accommodation yet (yr 12j- we've got an open day booked for October half term and she's set on going there for the course. It was this thread popping up that has made me panic.

We've fallen through the cracks of life a bit and so often feel I'm not providing what I'd like to for her.

Shes autistic (hence wanting to not be too far from home) which affects a lot of things too.

That's reassuring if the "cheaper" ones are available. Thankyou.

We have friends in Australia where it's so normal to live at home and go to a selection of good unis in your city. Similar to London really I guess. It feels crazy money to me but really want her to get through it. I had assumed full loan would be a manageable. 😬.

I would be interested to see just how they allocate though. I have seen people on Facebook say they’ve been allocated catered when they asked for self catered! It would not surprise me one bit if their allocation is pretty random as they are so overwhelmed and not using a very sophisticated allocation tool.

Another point I’d like to hammer home is this - we knew accommodation is expensive however the one we were allocated was 25% more at over £10k and off campus.

@LittlePineappleif your DD is autistic she needs to put this on her form as she’s way more likely to get her preference.

I thought that was standard, my dds first year of uni the halls cost us 10800. Monthly cost was double what my mortgage is now!

@LittlePineapple PM me if you want to talk about it more. We went to the open day in June.

@WIWIKAA
I don't agree with Exeter's (and poss others) allocation policy. I don't think it's helping people.
"For unaccompanied full-year undergraduates who have applied by our guarantee deadline, our system will select an application at random to be processed, where possible, in line with the preferences specified in that application."

I.e. it is application-led, if you are processed last (someone has to be) then you may/will not get anything. But if your top preference was undersubscribed (either as top preferences or even the 4 preferences) there are others allocated that one based on criteria alone.
If it was hall-led, then you'd get your top choice (if undersubscribed).

I.e. the policy should be to give more top (or second) preferences.

@LittlePineapple and indeed others: there are unis which offer cheaper halls accomm options at least.

I’ve said it before but Loughborough, Leicester, Leeds, Newcastle and I am sure lots of other unis have halls available at less than £6k for the year. Leicester indeed has a number where the weekly cost is less than £100.

Obvs none of those are in the south but my point is, this can be a factor and can be searched. Not all uni accomm is en-suite and £200 pw

We only qualify for the minimum grant. DS1 went to Cardiff and this just about covered the cost of his halls.

DS2 is off to Exeter and we have to find an extra 6k a year to make up the difference.

Of course there are food and entertainment costs on top but there’s a huge difference in accommodation costs between Universities.

Definitely worth investigating before hand

@kenyaswhiterefrigerator
But £6k on top of the minimum is not looking at the cheaper shared bathroom self catering halls though?!

@stubiffunfortunately as there is huge demand for accommodation you get what you’re given. DS got his first choice but many of his friends were allocated halls they didn’t even put down for consideration.

A lot of the halls have already gone to the deferred students and so many this year were allocated private halls.

The catered halls are more expensive (D S is self catering and sharing a bathroom is not much of a cost difference.

Apparently house rentals in the 2nd/3rd year are also eye wateringly expensive.

To be fair when we visited accommodation at the Open Day they were very open about all of this and we were given costs of various halls up fromt

@LittlePineapple look on rightmove and choose ‘student property to rent’. I’ve found that to be a fairly accurate guide as to which cities are cheaper for year 2 onwards.

For year 1, we’ve found private halls can be much cheaper - Ds has just got an Ensuite in Nottingham for less than £5,200. He was considering Liverpool and it was the same there - private halls cheaper than uni-owned ones. Also, we gave our dd the challenge of finding year 2 onwards accommodation (also Nottingham) for less than or around about minimum loan and she’s managed it for three years in a row now. Most students don’t seem to consider costs and go for a £150pw house, but there are plenty of cheaper ones (especially come spring /summer).

@HighburyHope Slightly bizarre that the current web site is what I posted though. Have not seen your colourful one on the accommodations web site. So why they publish 2 sets of ratios is even more confusing. 3.1:1 on 25/26 info for students. However both are poor and both indicate to avoid that hall.

@TizerorFizz
I posted the link to the colourful one earlier.
It's because the one you link to would have been created at the start of the '25 cycle, this time last year probably, with ratio data from July '24.
The colourful one is explicitly from the July '25 data.
I.e. the most up to date.
TBF the numbers are similar so doesn't really matter!

I’m encouraging my dd to live at home for uni. These costs are insane. On income she will only get minimum loan but we have other children and the cut off is very low for those that live in expensive col cities. Fingers crossed she gets in (and grateful we live in a tier 1 uni city).

@stubiff Yes. Info is key.

Just to note, DD is going into year 3 at Exeter. The cost of Halls are less than rents on the private rental market. We were paying £880 a month last year for a room in a shared 6 bed house and this year it's gone up to £930 a month (inc bills). This is average when we were shopping around.

That's why we did a budgeting exercise with DC: available financial support (with and without potential job) v cost (accommodation & living).

DC decided to take a year out and work in order to save money to afford the uni of their choice. Another plus point was that the application was based on actual grades so DC got 1st choice accommodation as an early applicant.

Definitely something to consider if money is tight.

@DancefloorAcrobatics The problem with a year out is that some courses don’t recommend it. Eg maths. Four or five year courses get very much strung out in terms of age and there can be qualifications dc need afterwards. It’s not always best to take a year out.

Meant to add: it’s not always possible for dc to find jobs either. Many adults need them and dc might need a car and be able to drive to access jobs where there’s no transport.

@TizerorFizz DS took a gap year and changed course to apply for maths and got a Cambridge offer.

@Lordofmyflies yes, that’s what they said at the Open Day. Private rentals make the halls look a bargain. To be fair the University were very upfront about all of this

@TizerorFizz that might be the case in a perfect world... but we are all restricted by finances. So sometimes we have to work around it.
I also can't imagine any university dismissing a prospective student because they took some time out after A-Levels. Some of DC friends at uni have done a gap year travelling.
As it happened, DC was lucky enough to get a job in an area they wanted to study at uni. They also found that they did not like the reality of working in this profession day to day ...
But there are many other professionals working within the sector so they found something that relates but finds it far more interesting and satisfying.

And don't forget schools will always push for DC to go to university straight after A-Levels for their own statistical reasons.

@DancefloorAcrobatics They may well not offer a place if a deferral is requested or dc apply with grades. Top unis for maths might well take this view. You have to ask for a deferral and there are judgements made on whether a year out is acceptable prep for the course.

@Woollyguru Well done DS but many maths depts are not keen.

@WIWIKAA where is the thread about Warwick