chester university accomodation sham

john.xs

daughter is going to chester uni next month.
she has been granted her 4th choice accomodation but having requested self catering has been told she has to go full board.
was interested to hear from others if they have had similar experiences.
i dont they have been open as they should have been.
i thought university life was about having to grow up and fend for yourself a little bit.
it is going to cost her more in initial outlay.what if she didnt want 3 meals a day.they couldnt say when facilities were open or offer a sample of food on offer.she has arranged to do p/t job which may mean she misses mealtimes if ther are not flexible.if she decides not to stay on campus all the time she will not be getting her moneys worth.
am i being unreasonable in feeling really narked as if she had been aware of scenario may have opted for somewhere else?

scottishlass

I've had the joys of working in a university accommodation office and sometimes we did have to allocate people to full board as there werent enough self catering accommodation to go around but they would usually get their first choice of room.

I'm not sure how Chester's accommodation works but what you need to do is first make sure it is definately going to be more expensive (some self catering charge for more weeks than catered) if it is more expensive then phone the accommodation office and tell them the reason she chose this option was because of the cost although be prepared to be given a different room type in self catering (assuming that you have standard, en suite etc)

On a personal note I found catered halls to be much more fun and pretty flexible but it is a personal choice so give them a call and explain everything and see what they say.

Stella1986

Have you had a look at the accomadation? I remember at my uni if u were in catered halls you recieved a meal card which was topped up with enough money to eat 3 meals a day for the whole of the academic year, which you could use in several eating places on campus, and top it up if needs be. I'm not sure if u can get a refund on these at the end of the year. I don't know what chester's system is. However I'm sure they will offer a basic kitchenette to cook some meals. And there is always the hope of getting a transfer later on

dollywops

My son did not get either his 1st or 2nd choice of accommodation. 1st being catered ensuite, and 2nd being self-catering ensuite. He was offered shared, catered. The only problem, being, that when we went to the accommodation open day, this accommodation was dire. He said he would not stay there under any circumstances, and we had to agree with him. When he was offered this accommodation yesterday, he was gutted. I have since discovered that as soon as he received his offers in January, that was the time to put in his accommodation request. They work on a first-come served basis, and have to accommodate the gap-year students.

We have learned that when we do this again for my daughter, she will be requesting her accommodation as soon as she can.

scottishlass

dollywops wrote: »

I have since discovered that as soon as he received his offers in January, that was the time to put in his accommodation request. They work on a first-come served basis, and have to accommodate the gap-year students.

I'm surprised they do this - it would mean a lot of re-allocating once the grades came out and people didnt get in. Admitedly I can understand them allocating gapyear students earlier but the majority of the Universitys that I know off have a limit for gap year students per each accommodation.

smallvillex

I couldn't stand my Uni accomodation...so didn't even bother staying in halls for the 1st year...just got my own place..

john.xs

thanks for all your replies
my daughter put her accomodation request in as early as she was allowed by uni. when we rang up she was told they do not allcate on a first come first served basis.
she was told 500 people had asked for 150 s/c places and that she had to have full board.i cant understand why they cant have the room without the full board .they originally said there was a half board option available but when i enquired stated she had to have full board.
iit seems to me they want students to fall in with their system rather than offer students what they want.it seems to me we are becoming a bigger nanny state by the day.what ever happened to radical/ revolutionary student ways?

Gingernutmeg

Up until a few years ago (alongside the massive expansion in universities) almost all university accommodation was catered. It's only in the past few years that universities have started to build more self-catered accommodation, and, because it's newer and generally has en-suite facilities etc, it's often massively oversubscribed. I know that at my uni only the accommodation built in the last four years was self-catering, the majority of on-campus rooms were still traditional catered halls. Sadly not everyone is going to get what they want, it's not a nanny state, it's just that it's taking the universities time to catch up with the changing demands of students.

john.xs

you learn something every day.for years i ve accepted the bleating re poor students etc
now i wonder what they were moaning at if they were getting educated for nowt in the good old days and catered for as well then they werent as poor as id been led to believe !

laurad85

hi, when i went to university in sunderland a few years ago there was no catered accomodation but looking back i wish there was. i ate ready meals, pot noodles and take aways and drunk far too much alcohol, if i had the chance to have gone full board i would have been over the moon! if i was you i would be pleased your daugher is going to have the opportunity to get 3 meals a day and will not want to spent food money on drink like me and my flatmates did! lol
laura

emmaglet

I am at Chester Uni, and this is common. One friend asked for a non-shared room, no en-suite, self catered. She got a shared room, en-suite and fully catered.

I was lucky enough for my parents to buy me a house roughly a mile away from campus, so didn't have to put up with the accommodation.

I would stronly advise the private sector! Loads of really nice houses, and lots of first year students are put into them. Plus with catered you are stuck to having to eat at certain times, so in case of her going out somewhere or not being able to get to the food halls, she will be paying for food she isn't eating.

What is she studying?