There is now less than a week to go until our 2019/20 applications for accommodation open so this week’s blog is dedicated to getting you ready to make your application.
When do applications open?
Applications for 2019/20 will open from 10:00am on Monday 8 April 2019. Please do not attempt to apply before 10:00am as the relevant application options for New Undergraduate and New Postgraduate will not be live. If you use an incorrect option then your application is likely to be rejected and you will need to re-apply.
Registering an accommodation account
If you are a prospective student joining us from September 2019 and have firmly accepted an offer to study on a 2019/20 course then you will be able to register an accommodation account ahead of the applications opening. This account will be where you need to go to make your application, view your offer of accommodation and confirm your acceptance, so it is worth adding the link to your internet Favourites.
On your first visit to the Login page you will be asked to register an account. You can do this by choosing either “Register” in the top menu bar or clicking the link under the Login button – “First Visit? Please register an account“.
We also have a “How to activate an accommodation account” video which guides you through the process.
What information do I need to register an account?
In order to set up an accommodation account you will need the following:
- To have firmly accepted an offer to study at the University of Exeter on a course starting in September 2019.
- Your nine digit Exeter Student ID. This usually starts with a 68 or 69 and is not the same as your UCAS ID. You should be able to find your Exeter Student ID on any recent correspondence you have received from our Admissions team.
- Have a valid personal email address that you will be able to access before and after your arrival at university in September. This is the email address we will use to send your offer and any important deadline reminders, so it is important that you will have ongoing access to it. Please do not use your current school/college email address as these tend to be closed down once you have left.
- To have read and understood which students are covered under our accommodation guarantee.
What is the accommodation guarantee?
Please familiarise yourself with our accommodation guarantee to find out whether you will be eligible. If you are covered by our guarantee then you must ensure that you apply by our guarantee deadline of Wednesday 31 July 2019. Our guarantee is that an offer of accommodation will be made to you, and we discussed a little more about preferences of accommodation in last Tuesday’s blog.
Do you process applications on a first come, first served basis?
It depends what type of applicant you are.
- If you are an undergraduate student, including full-year Erasmus/study abroad students, then these applications are not dealt with on a first come, first served basis and we will not take into account the date that you applied.
- If you are a short term (one semester) Study Abroad, International Exchange or Erasmus student then we have a limited number of rooms and applications will be dealt with in date order of receipt.
- If you are a postgraduate student then your application will be dealt with on a first come, first served basis.
You can take a look at our Room Allocation procedure to find out more about what the Accommodation Office do and do not take into consideration when allocating rooms to students.
What can I do in preparation for making my application?
Between now and our accommodation applications opening, we recommend that you use our Search for Accommodation page and decide on your top preferences of where you wish to stay. You can also look at our catered and self-catered residence pages for specific information on each of our residences. We have new self-catered and catered accommodation videos available to view, in which students give you an insight into the choice of accommodation they made.
If you are considering self-catered accommodation then we mentioned in last week’s blog about the essential repairs and maintenance programme which is affecting some of our on campus residences. We recommend you refer to our dedicated webpage to understand more about these works prior to making your application.
Applying for accommodation
Once you are ready and applications have opened, log in to your Accommodation Account and work through the stages. If you get stuck at all then have a look at our ‘How to apply for accommodation‘ video which will give you step by step information on submitting your application and some of the questions involved.
Undergraduate students are able to give four preferences of residence in their application, while postgraduate students can give three preferences.
Within the application you will be asked to give us a bit more information about where you wish to stay so that we can allocate you to a room which we feel would be suited to you based on your requirements and those of other applicants:
- If you would prefer a quiet flat (i.e. to live with other people who have mentioned this within their application)
- The age range of people you would prefer to live with
- If you would prefer to live on the ground floor
- If you would prefer to live with people who do not drink alcohol
- If you would prefer to live with people of the same gender as you
We also ask you to tell us about your hobbies and interests so that we can match you with students who have expressed similar interests. You will be required to select a minimum of four interests from a list: sport, music, socialising, clubs, pubs, shopping/fashion, culture, reading, TV/cinema, travel, art, drama/theatre, current affairs, outdoors, gaming, others.
When we are allocating rooms, we do take into consideration the above preferences and read any notes that you make on your application. Further information about this can be found in our “Room Allocation Procedure“.
Please note – if you have been sent an offer to study at our Penryn (Cornwall) campus then you will need to apply via their own booking system. Please refer to the Cornwall accommodation webpage for further information about how to apply.
If you have any questions then the Accommodation Office is available between 9:00am – 5:00pm Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays) by telephoning 0300 555 0444, emailing sid@exeter.ac.uk or via our University of Exeter Accommodation Facebook page.
Next week we will have some further information about the building programme and works on the Exeter campus.
Accommodation Meridith