Parents of Warwick freshers 2026

[Fabfabfab]

I can see some of the other Universities have a thread so thought I'd set one up for Warwick too :). DC is looking forward to starting in September and will be studying History BA.

Thanky you for the thread. My DS will be studying Maths and Stats. We have not applied for accomodation yet.

@Fabfabfab, do you mean having a car on campus as a student? If so the daily parking rate is expensive, £8 ish. Free parking is a 20 min walk from the campus on a residential road, you don’t need a car on campus to get around or get to the off campus accommodation.

I did see this online in case it’s useful to anyone- image of dates this academic year

Thank you, that's helpful to know. £8 is quite a lot for parking! DC is thinking of bringing his car as his GF is at another University so is it possible to park 20 minutes away and leave the car there without having a permit? A car would also be helpful if he ends up in halls outside of campus although less so if he has to pay £8/day.

Great to see so many people on this thread with Warwick Fresher DC! I agree that they should now be looking into the ins and outs of Uni life but as a parent I find it helpful to get access to some of this info too so I can help DC along with his journey to adult independence.

How is everyone getting on with the accommodation applications? What are they hoping for? Do you know when they will hear? DC put Cryfield townhouse as his top choice but am aware this is probably unlikely.

Yes he needs to look for a residential road to park on, search the FB page for tips.

1 of the moderators on the FB page has posted a comprehensive list of what you need to take.
FYI, the Amazon lockers on the site are excellent, according to goggle the Amazon lockers near Rootes called Ivory are the busiest in England. We placed an order once we saw my dc’s room. Also we arrived on a Friday which was good - not too busy but enough people to go out with that night.

@poppybuttons Good to know about the Amazon lockers.

Can you decide which day you want to arrive or do you get allocated a slot? It seems to say arrival is between Thursday-Sunday. Guessing most people don't want to first, or last, to arrive.

Does anyone know how the pre-season sports works? Is it only for county level players? DC is at a high standard but not quite county. He hasn't applied yet so could be too late in any case but it says that if they are selected, they arrive a week early.

Yes, Coventry does have its own hospital, University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (known as UHCW or by older locals as "the Walsgrave" because that's what it was called before the rebuild 22 years ago ) It's the teaching hospital for the University of Warwick's medical school and for the associated health degrees (nursing/midwifery etc) at Coventry University. No need to go to Birmingham unless very specialized care needed and hopefully most undergraduates will never set foot in there unless they are medics. There is a GP practice on campus for the usual minors.
Parking on campus has always been a nightmare. Even 30+ years ago when I was a student you needed a permit to have a car on campus overnight and they were hard to get, basically for medical needs only. Much as I love my adopted city, like all cities there are areas of higher crime and I'd not be leaving a car unattended for probably days in the residential area twenty minutes from campus that doesn't have restricted parking... A bike is useful for getting around campus if your accommodation is further from lecture theatres or lectures are at Gibbet Hill or Westwood parts of the campus. Otherwise walking is easy and also doable if you don't have a bike. Campus is very well served by bus routes and the number 12 goes from campus to Coventry station via the popular (and nice) studenty areas of Earlsdon and Chaplefields. I don't think a car is a very realistic option. The train line is the main London to Edinburgh line and from Coventry you can go directly to London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bournemouth, Oxford etc. etc. etc. For some destinations you'd need to change in Birmingham but there are at least four trains an hour (including the local stopping trains) between Cov and Birmingham.
Warwick is a classic campus university; in their first year students can be in a bit of a campus bubble with everything on site. It's in later years when they live out - usually in Earlsdon or Leamington- they tend to access the local area. There is Cannon Park shopping centre on the edge of campus. That has a. decent size Tesco and Iceland and is always full of students doing the weekly shop. There is a small (expensive) supermarket on campus and a post office counter.

Yes we planned for Friday as we thought we would get a slot with Saturday being the most popular day. The whole process is very well organised and for an on campus hall you can park outside and unpack and then move the car to stay on site for longer. You can eat at the restaurants on campus etc.
I don’t know about the sports socs apart from a relative did hockey and started a week early because they had friends from school who put them forward for a team - you have to stay with someone in the second / third year who has accommodation already, ie a spare room in their shared house.

@Covsouth sounds like bringing the car might not be such a good idea then but good to hear positive things about public transport options.

@poppybuttons thank you - good to hear it's well organised as I imagine it could otherwise very easily be quite chaotic.

@Fabfabfab, @poppybuttons, yes DS first choice moving in day is also Friday - or rather was, as his sister wants to come along and will be in school then. So he’ll try for Saturday first.

DS is planning on bringing his bike. At the OHD we saw lots of people cycling and what looked like lots of bike storage. He’s not planning on bringing a car in his first year.

He also put Cryfield townhouses as his first choice, @Fabfabfab. He is a climber and does a lot of gym so is hoping to use the sport centre a lot, and also loves the Cryfield and lakes area of campus.

The university actively discourages cars on campus. Students and staff. Hence the high daily parking charges.

Students who live on-campus usually decide fairly quickly that having a car is more trouble than it’s worth. I wouldn’t advise leaving a car in the surrounding residential areas. Students who live off-campus and want to travel in by car generally lift share to keep parking costs down.

@Thebore that's helpful. Looks like DC will be bringing his bike instead. And getting the train to see his GF. In some ways I think that's safer as well as he's only been driving for 6 months and I wouldn't be that keen on him driving around too much on unfamiliar roads.

@ComingInByAnsible The climbing walls looks amazing and what a great place to be if you are into climbing!
I wonder if Cryfield townhouse is one of the most popular options. It looks lovely and I've heard it's supposed to be really sociable. At the OHD we only looked at two different ones and the first one we saw wasn't particularly nice. As Warwick wasn't his Firm, we stupidly didn't make a note of it and now can't remember which one it was. In any case, he'll be pleased just to be on campus, or in one of the nearby partnership places, rather than in Coventry, so fingers crossed...

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I think the townhouses would be out of a lot of people’s budgets so only popular within the subset of people going for the top-end options, and the subset within that of the more sociable students. So you could have a good shot if you’ve put them top. They do look nice. Funny how there’s always an unknown - as soon as the offer is confirmed there’s barely a beat before wondering which halls they’ll get. I’m just crossing fingers for any one of the seven rather than ending up off campus.

Parents of new Warwick students, and possibly the students themselves, may be interested in this 1970 film “On campus”.

https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/collections/filmvideo/oncampus/

Some things never change!

Thanks for sharing @Thebore . DC is studying History so will be interested in this from that angle as well :)

It sounds like some of the accommodation allocation has now happened as a couple of DC’s friends have heard today (both got their first choice). No news here though. Would be great to know soon so we can start shopping 🛍️ . Anyone else heard anything yet?

We got Lakeside today (first choice). Hope you hear soon x

Dd got Rootes (bottom choice), she really wanted an en-suite. The location and cost are great. 18 to a kitchen sounds a bit chaotic!

Surprised to get first choice but glad - it's Cryfield Standard so thankfully won't break the bank. Glad it's come through sooner than expected too. Good luck to those still waiting to hear.

My dd was in Rootes, it’s good fun and easy to meet people and the bathroom/loos are cleaned by the cleaners. The kitchens are large. She will get a cupboard, drawer, shelf in fridge and freezer. It’s good value too.

As a Coventry resident within your 20 minutes, please don't bring cars and leave them semi abandoned on residential streets, parking is bad enough without students doing this.
I am not anti student or anti Warwick. My son takes his car to uni and pays the parking. I also frequently get the number 11 bus from the top of my road to the Arts Centre.
By the way the number 12 is an express route running between town, the railway station and campus, the 11 goes through the residential areas.