Summary
First year accommodation is always a hit or miss, sometimes you love your flatmates, sometimes you can’t stand them, and sometimes you’re ambivalent towards them.
First year accommodation is always a hit or miss, sometimes you love your flatmates, sometimes you can’t stand them, and sometimes you’re ambivalent towards them.
No matter how it is, by the end of the year, many cannot wait to leave student halls. However, it is incredibly difficult to find a place to live outside of student halls in Stirling.
Finding Accommodation
The way the university requires students to apply for accommodation is odd – putting down six options when you only want the first one, having to wait until July or August to find out if you have somewhere to live, and then not knowing how many people you live with. There must be a better way to do this.
The alternative is to go private, which is also difficult to do.
The lack of student housing companies in Stirling means many students are left to deal with estate agents and landlords on their own, with no prior experience in handling this.
If you do not want to live in university owned accommodation, you will have to wait until the summer to attempt to find a private flat, which is, of course, not guaranteed. The anxiety of not knowing if you have a place to live is not ideal.
My Experience
My first year was spent in on-campus accommodation, my second in off-campus accommodation. The plan was to have a private flat in third year.
The stress of trying to find somewhere is crippling, and when you’re not sure if you’re friends are going to be around when you finally found somewhere adds on to that.
Eventually, I had to go with a studio flat owned by a private student accommodation company, something that is a bit out of budget, but necessary for my peace of mind.
So how do you go about finding second, third, and fourth-year accommodation? Unfortunately, there is no one, easy way of doing it and every year will be a struggle. The university has a duty of care towards its students, and in my opinion, they should provide guidance for student housing.
Good luck to everyone fighting this battle, it is no easy feat.
Image credit: Pexels.com
Braw Magazine co-editor for Stirling University’s Brig and a third year English and Journalism student.
