New student accommodation contract I don’t need

purplepancake

Feel that University have let my daughter down , they had not issued any information , my daughter struggles with confidence but had pushed herself to book a room in private halls, then just four days later (in the week first rent payment is due) she has been told via having to email student union that she only has four sessions on site this term before January practically the whole term is online. Needless to say she doesn’t want to borrow over £10k to pay for a room for a year when it’s so uncertain what will happen from January too. So my question is: is there  new guidance for students who have barely entered into a contract which their learning provider then deems unnecessary , it’s bad enough that the degree is not going to be the same quality as it would be under normal circumstances without having this stress over a contract which I feel she’s been encouraged to enter into (in theory she close enough to commute, 1-1.5 hours) but the university/accommodation providers make it look too easy to book a room ☹️ Any advice greatly appreciated and I hope this post isn’t too long, thanks.

silvercar

If she has booked a private hall, then the link with the university isn't that strong. First year students more often than not live in university owned halls. So I'm struggling to see how she feels pushed into having taken out a contract with a private hall.
That said some private halls eg unite were very quick to allow students to cancel contracts at the start of lockdown, so they may allow a cooling off period. Contact them and see what they say.
That said, part of the uni experience is living away from home, so I wouldn't discount it totally.
Student loans are only completely cleared by 17% of students and repayments are a set percentage of income however much loan is taken, so this extra money may well never be paid back and written off, so the general advice is that for anyone who doesn't expect to be a super high earner, they should take the full loans.

purplepancake

Yes thanks , what I feel happens is students feel that booking a room is part of the process and it feels short term (40 weeks in this case) whereas planning where to live , maybe moving out of your parents house, and to rent for the first time is something you look into a lot more carefully. The situation was going to be living in halls and spending time at the uni would be some interaction as with being careful with social distancing she would barely be doing anything else, now though she would be spending all of her time in the room apart from going for a walk , so it’s just not a good time for the student experience, so the decision is stay at home with family around. The halls have said the usual- if you find a new tenant to take over etc, but she’s barely only just got the tenancy it just wrong to put this onus on someone in a situation not of their making (with the uni not telling them the plans) when the halls could simply just re-list the room. So I just came to Mse to see if there were gov Covid rules to help with this 🙏