Accommodation Provided by Your Educational Institution

• As a first-year student can I live in a University College or Hall of Residence?
• What happens if I cannot, or do not want to live in Institutionally Provided Accommodation?
• What happens if I want to live in institutionally provided accommodation after the first year?
• What happens if I Want to live in Institutionally Provided Accommodation Mid Way through a Year?
• What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Living in Institutionally Provided Accommodation?

Q: As a first-year student can I live in a University, College or Hall of Residence?

A: Royal Holloway offers a wide range of halls of residence directly to first year students, which is subject to availability. Information about Royal Holloway halls of residence should be available in the main prospectus and on the accommodation web site. It is important, if you are applying for halls of residence at Royal Holloway, to follow the procedures properly. It is no good simply ringing or turning up a few days before you plan to live there and expecting a room to be yours.

Q: What happens if I cannot, or do not want to live in institutionally provided accommodation?

A: Royal Holloway does not guarantee accommodation for all first year students and some students will live in the private rented sector right from the beginning of their studies.

Royal Holloway has a number of special services to help first year students find housing and introduce them to other, similar students and these arrangements can be obtained directly from Royal Holloway’s accommodation website.

Some students, often those who are older or more independent, simply do not wish to live in halls provided by the university. Again, the Student Housing Bureau can assist students in seeking private sector housing, or they can simply follow the advice given here for returning students, most of whom live in the private sector.    

Q: What happens if I want to live in institutionally provided accommodation after the first year?

A: Royal Holloway does offer a limited number of halls to returning undergraduate students. Further information about the application and allocation process can be found on the Student Housing Bureau website.

The large majority of returning undergraduates will need to look in the private sector after the first year.

Q: What happens if I want to live in institutionally provided accommodation mid-way through a year?

A: It is sometimes the case that rooms become available throughout the year when students move out. The reasons for this, including withdrawals from study, requests to leave halls, and students who simply wish to leave halls for personal reasons; however, it is very difficult for the Student Housing Bureau to anticipate the number of rooms which would become available through this, or indeed the rooms which will become available.

Students should be aware that if our waiting lists are still active then we have a duty to honour the order of the waiting lists, which are administered on a first-come first-served basis. Please contact the Student Housing Bureau directly to enquire about this option.

Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in institutionally provided accommodation?

A: In first year, it is clearly much easier to rent a room from the College or University than house hunting in an area that you do not know well. There are also often social advantages in moving into a building full of similar, newly arrived students.

The advantages also signal the disadvantages: institutional accommodation tends to have a large number of first year students in it who do not know each other and do not necessarily "get on". Noise in high density buildings can also be a problem - everyone likes making noise on their special day, but in a large building, there is a special day for someone every day.

If you want to cook, choose self-catered halls on your online application. If you want to live in a particularly social situation, choose halls that offer traditional halls-style residence compared to small contained flats. If you want a mixed flat, clearly indicate this on your application.

The way in which Royal Holloway allocates its halls of residence is through a preference system. We ask students in their application to select a minimum number of halls in order of their preference, and to select other criteria which they prefer for accommodation (e.g. floor level, mixed / single gender etc.) Every effort is made to meet students’ highest preferences, but we cannot physically offer all students their first-choices. It is worth bearing in mind this when you are applying for accommodation, as it may avoid unnecessary disappointment.

Universities often have large portfolios that offer a considerable amount of choice: exercise that choice positively.