Clearing 2015: How to find the best student accommodation

Google Street View can help you out decide your next home, but there are things to consider

Degrees of luxury: Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA ), iQ in Shoreditch (Alamy)

Now you have the university place it’s time to find somewhere to live. The earlier you start, the better, as the most popular halls are quickly snapped up.

Being happy in the place you call yours is important, especially during the first few weeks, so it might help to ask yourself a few questions before you book.

Do you want to share a flat and bathrooms with a small group of students or would you prefer an en suite room in a hall where you can choose who you see first thing in the morning?

Can you be bothered to shop, cook and clean up the kitchen or would a catered hall with meals provided be easier? Will you get up to go to lectures if it takes half an hour to get there?

Many students say that the things that were important to them – such as en suite bathrooms and modern kitchens – changed once they started living independently. Unite Students, the largest private provider of student accommodation, commissions an annual survey of undergraduate choices. This year, for the first time, wi-fi came top as the most important factor in accommodation.

Some student accommodation rents in London are around £500 per week (Getty)

Nearly four fifths – 78 per cent – ranked wi-fi as the most important factor when choosing accommodation. ‘Reasonably priced’ trailed at 64 per cent. Postgraduate applicants are far more likely to rate cleanliness as important; only 57 per cent of 2015 undergraduates thought it very important.

So how does it work? Those who usually get priority are students who have taken a gap year and have a firm place before A-level results are published, and those who put the university as their first choice.

Students who chose the university as an insurance option come next, followed by those that come in through Clearing and Adjustment – though universities may offer accommodation to some late applicants as a sweetener to help recruit them. Quite a few universities nowadays offer a guarantee of accommodation to all new undergraduates and some have extended it to late applicants who confirm offers before 1 September, such as Manchester and Bristol.

If you don’t get a place in either accommodation run by the university or a private company providing halls on its behalf, then don’t despair, there are other options such as a privately run hall or shared house, or a flat in the private sector. University accommodation offices or student unions will help you find places.

Another option is to live in a hostel or bed and breakfast and go on the university’s accommodation waiting list. Places do become free during the first few weeks as students drop out or swap to different accommodation.

Sometimes it’s quite hard to work out exactly where halls of residence are in relation to where you study. It may look a five minute walk until you find out there is a river or motorway to negotiate. Use Google maps and Street View to get the full picture.

Caroline Hamilton, who manages the contact centre for Unite Students, suggests don’t delay by emailing questions when rooms are filling up fast. “You can save yourself time and stress by going to the help section of an accommodation website instead of calling in or emailing very often others are asking the same things,” she says.

It’s important to check cancellation policies and the number of weeks on the contract, she says. Contracts can vary from 33 weeks to 52 and most are around 44 weeks. If you are not there, you are still paying for your room. Unite Students does not ask students to move out at Christmas and Easter but some university halls do and that can be a major disruption.

Consult sites such as thestudentroom.com and use social media to find students who have lived there. Put the name of the university and hall in a search engine and you might find reviews on web pages or university newspapers. The Tab student newspaper, for example, gives a gloomy picture of “Manchester’s shittest halls” – but the students pictured in them look happy enough. That’s one of the university accommodation enigmas – very often the oldest, most run-down and cheapest halls are where you find the party.

University rooms are expensive, often more costly than rents in the private sector – though you do get bills included, and usually a warden service and good security. Expect to pay anywhere from £70 to £140 a week, or approaching £300 if you go for a luxury pad.

Catered halls where you get two or three meals a day are going out of fashion and not all universities now offer them. If you are a fussy eater, a late riser or likely to be involved in a lot of sport or societies that conflict with mealtimes then you run the risk of missing out and having to buy your own food.

On the plus side, it’s nice to have meals put in front of you and not to have to clear up afterwards.

Of course, the cheapest option is to continue to live at home if you have a university nearby. That’s what William Reckitt has done to keep down his student debt. The BSc economics student at Hull University Business School commutes from his parents’ home 12 miles away. “It does make social life a bit more difficult but there’s nothing to stop you going out. You just have to plan it a bit more. I’ve made lots of friends and joined a sports team. Friends will always offer me their floor after a night out,” he says.

Students use their rooms differently nowadays says Chris Paget, the estates director at the University of Hull. Today’s students are digital natives and they require different things from their accommodation. People like to have four foot beds, for example. They spend a lot of time sitting on the bed working and socialising with their phones and laptops. We have wi-fi throughout so they can go from the their rooms to the kitchen and still pick up their messages. The room is a living, learning, research environment and important to new students so we offer a guarantee of a place to Clearing applicants as well,” he says.

If you are about to turn down a room because you have to share a bathroom then think again.

Karen Burke, the chair of the Association for Student Residential Accommodation (Asra) says sharing a shower and toilet with people other than your parents may sound “gross” from the comfort of the family home – but you’ll probably be happy to share later on when you move into private rented accommodation.

“Sharing a bathroom is quite a social thing, it gets people out of their rooms and talking. Great relationships and even marriages have been started by sharing a bathroom,” says Burke, also the accommodation services manager at Sheffield Hallam University.

Make sure you will be living with other first year students at the same university, says Siân Harvey, Nottingham Trent University’s team leader at the student accommodation services. “We offer an accommodation guarantee to all our first year undergraduates, including those coming to us through Clearing so we can keep them together.

“We get students coming to us saying they have seen a really good deal with a private provider. They need to check that they will be with other NTU first year students because there are two universities in Nottingham,” Harvey says. “Our advice would be to check the contracts carefully and check who they’ll be sharing with as private providers attract second and third years and students from other universities and colleges.”

If you make a mistake, don’t worry, a fair amount of swapping rooms happens in the first few weeks though choices are more limited. The most common reason for students wanting to move is because they don’t get on with housemates. The next is financial – the realisation that they have over-stretched their budgets. Sometimes it’s possible to change to a cheaper room but there is no guarantee and you may incur higher travel costs.

So if you want enough in the bank to enjoy university life to the full, work out your budget before you book. Then the fun begins.

Case studies

Emily Johnston, 21 - University of Newcastle - BA in Modern Languages & Business Studies

“Sitting in the comfort of your family home, it’s easy to want an en suite bathroom in luxury accommodation. These were my feelings before starting at Newcastle. I had applied quite late and got a hall I hadn’t chosen, Richardson Road. I was initially very upset because it didn’t look very nice from the pictures.

I was very nervous as I had never really been away from home before but soon there was nowhere else I would have chosen to be. I loved the social aspect of living in Richardson Road, there was never time to feel homesick.

The décor left a lot to be desired and was quite daunting when I arrived but after a couple of days, and with posters up on the wall, none of it seemed to matter. Things I would ask before booking a hall are: what’s its reputation? Is it tailored towards a certain course or age? How secure are the halls? Is it an easy commute to university and the town?”

Curtis Smith, 22, University of Bath - BA in Business Administration)

“I was lucky to secure accommodation on campus in my first year. It was the cheapest option: a large house with one shared kitchen and 10 other students. It sounds a lot to share a kitchen but it was very big and as we all had different schedules we didn’t all cook at once.

I met so many people from many walks of life, had some fantastic nights out, made some of my best university friends and still live with some today. If you’re a clean person you’ll have to pick your battles wisely. Set some agreed group rules and come up with funny punishments!

Whether you get your first choice or not, the room and building really won’t matter – you’ll have a fantastic time and meet loads of new people whichever style of accommodation you get.”

Cameron Sutherland, University of the West of England - BA in Journalism & Public Relations

“I remember standing in the doorway before I left for university, thinking yet again: ‘Have I got everything?’

It’s normally half way to your destination when you feel that sudden pang shoot through you as you realise those lucky socks and that Woody toy with your name scrawled into the sole of its shoe have been left to fend for themselves.

First things first, your shoes will be ruined in Freshers week. So pack a can of water and stain repellent shoe spray in order to keep them looking glorious.

But mainly, don’t worry. You’ll quickly realise it’s not about what you’ve brought with you but what you gain once you’re there.

In my first year I shared a flat with three others in Unite Students accommodation which was perfect.

I had an en-suite room with a four foot bed that lifted up for extra storage and all the bills were included.

Looking back from a shared house in the private sector, that en suite bathroom was a god-send!”

Anna Nicholas,21, University of Hertfordshire - BA in International Business

“Location was a big factor for me in the first year. I chose de Havilland Hall because it was just two minutes from the business school.

Some of my friends stayed on the other campus 20 minutes away. A lot of the time they didn’t come to lectures because they thought it was too far.

As an 18-year-old leaving home for the first time having an en suite bathroom was a huge factor for me. I didn’t want to share a toilet and bathroom with random strangers.

Later on, in my first year abroad at San Jose State University in California, I shared a room with another student to keep costs down and there were shared bathrooms. In fact, it was fine.I would choose the same accommodation again, a shared flat with or without en suite.

The only bad part was two boys in the flat who were extremely messy. One didn’t have his own cutlery and crockery and left ours dirty in his room or piled up going mouldy in the kitchen. One day we had no mugs to drink out of and found 15 in his room!”