Can you apply for accommodation at your insurance university now?

[BerryTwister]

DS2 is just finishing year 12, so will be applying for uni in a few months.

When DS1 applied 4 years ago, he was only able to reserve accommodation for his 1st (firm) choice uni, not his 2nd (insurance) uni. My understanding was that if he hadn’t got the grades for his first choice, and had ended up going to his second choice, he’d have had to join the queue applying for accommodation, and would likely have ended up in a less popular hall of residence.

I vaguely recall hearing that this had changed, and “insurance” universities were now allowing students to select the accommodation in advance. But I may have imagined it!

So those people who have applied for uni this September, what is the current rule? Or does it vary between universities?

thank you

It’ll vary between unis, no short cut I’m afraid - he’s just going to have to trawl websites.

Yes, as pp says it varies by university.

Wait until she has firm and insurance offers to accept and see what their accommodation pages outline at that time.

Warwick for example puts firms and insurance all together and you apply for accommodation by 18 August. Therefore potentially after you've learnt that you've got Warwick as your insurance. Then it is some sort of computer picking of accommodation from all those you got in via firm or insurance choices.

Other unis give firm choices preference.

I worked in university accommodation for years. The one piece of advice I always gave at open days was that wherever you end up applying and / or accepting a place at, check each one’s website carefully for what you need to do to apply for accommodation. They are all different, and also may change from year to year. Some treat insurance the same as firm - and you need to apply early ie before you know you are going there, others may guarantee you a place, but allocate you after firm students and others might not guarantee but still get most of them in, and others may not get them in at all. Where I worked we did guarantee insurance students - and it probably meant we got picked as insurance by a few more students than would otherwise have happened.

Every year we had students who had not managed to follow the very clear guidance about how to apply - and had been sent reminders as well and so were not guaranteed accommodation- though we did out best to find them a place.

@BerryTwister very oversubscribed universities with pressure on accommodation (e.g. Bristol) will only guarantee 1st year accommodation for firm offer holders, but universities that are less oversubscribed, with lots of accommodation, will guarantee 1st year accommodation for insurance offer holders too. Its easy enough to check on their websites.

My DC got guaranteed accommodation at his insurance choice, Southampton - its part of the reason he put it as his insurance choice, as well as it being an excellent course.

It varies. I recall DD’s insurance she needed to apply by end June for accommodation and was guaranteed accommodation even though it was insurance. It’s a good thing to check at open days. Her insurance had plentiful uni accommodation plus lots of private halls. She ended up at her firm but it was reassuring to know the insurance choice would have been smooth.