Halls with shared bathrooms

[MissFlynn]

When bedrooms in halls on campus come with shared bathrooms, are the bathrooms shared by male and female students?

Looked at halls at Uni open day that were flats of 8 students with 2 bathrooms between them. A flat that is mixed m/f sounds great but dd was wondering about the bathrooms - we don’t think to ask on the day!

Ours were single sex - fabulous old cast iron baths that filled in minutes and incredible water pressure in the showers. Love a traditional catered hall with shared bathrooms - so much better set up than the ensuite s et of catered halls unis push now.

Completely dependent on the uni I believe @MissFlynn.

Do some research and try to pick accommodation wisely as it really can change the experience IMO.

Every building on my campus had a different set up - I stayed in a block which had single sex flats of 4 students. En-suite bedrooms with shared open plan living space and kitchen. That was the most expensive option at the time. Then there were various cheaper levels with more people sharing flats and more shared facilities etc. Some blocks had 12-14 people in a flat (some single sex flats and some mixed) - they had 2 showers and 2 WCs per flat of 12-14 students. I personally would have hated that and it would have changed my whole experience so I’m glad I opted for the more expensive accommodation (as much as working to pay for it while studying nearly finished me off 😂)

In his first year ds was in ‘halls’ (actually accommodation a bit like a town house with 12 rooms and a huge kitchen/living space), where the arrangement was one bathroom (a small shower room/loo) between 2 people. It was all randomly mixed, and sharing was organised by room number, whoever the occupants happened to be. He was bathroom buddies with a girl who became (and still is) one of his best friends, so it must have gone ok!

My DS is currently in first year halls. We applied for en suite but didn’t get it. In a flat of 6 (3 boys, 3 girls) there are 2 bathrooms and they’ve designated one for M and one F. He has a basin in his room which works really well and the bathrooms get cleaned once a fortnight by a cleaner.

Mine were mixed and it was never a problem and I was a fussy girl! 7 boys and 7 girls on one floor sharing 4 bathrooms I think. Totally fine. Still friends with most of them 25 years later. All went to each others weddings etc 😀

I agree. Assuming that all young men at university are perfectly safe with regard to the privacy and safety of young women is a very big assumption.

The "they share bathrooms in shared houses I subsequent years"argument misses the fact that students tend to know who they choose to go into shared housing with.

My DD, who is pretty good at managing boys as she has had plenty of practice with brothers and at school, remarked that some of the boys in her first year hall of residence were very obviously hormonally challenged by so many girls in nightwear and dressing gowns on their corridor. Said boys didn't have to behave badly in order to be visibly excited by the company.

Many years ago when I was in halls, it was all mixed. I never thought anything of it.

Bathrooms and bedrooms cleaned every day and my bed was made too. That was in the days of sheets and blankets.