Where your rent goes

We know how important it is to stay online for both your studies and relaxing.

The IT Network cost funds the daily maintenance of the Wi-Fi and network service inside your room and communal areas. You have access to 100mb of bandwidth capable of downloading up to 100 megabytes of data per second on demand and providing you with access to all of your University  accounts, wherever you are on campus.

We want you to have peace of mind while living here and basic contents insurance is included in your rent through Howden Insurance.

This helps protect your personal belongings in case something goes wrong in your room. More details are available on the Safety and Security page. You can find out what is covered and how to claim if you need to whilst you are living in university accommodation.

All key utilities are included within your rent so there are no additional costs. This includes all the water, electricity, gas and heating that you use. Whether you're taking a hot shower or charging your laptop, it’s all included.

We understand that general wear and tear happens and that sometimes things may break in your accommodation. We hold a maintenance budget to ensure that if something breaks, we can fix it. This covers everything from planned works (like a repaint) to reactive repairs (like fixing a leaky tap, or replacement of an oven door). This doesn't cover deliberate damage caused by residents, which has to be managed separately, and charges will be incurred.

If you are in accommodation that is catered, then a portion of your rent goes toward your meals from Monday to Friday and includes breakfast and an evening meal available from the college dining room. Catering costs don’t just include the cost of fresh food, they also include the preparation of all meals, running the dining rooms outlets, the wages for all catering staff and keeping the dining areas clean and tidy.

If you live on Campus East, then the weekly college meal is factored into your rent, providing you with the opportunity to meet up with friends and neighbours in a social setting.

Campus Safety is available on site 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to provide support to students and ensure the campus is as safe as possible. Campus Safety support includes regular campus patrols and welfare checks, as well as emergency call outs, dealing with anti-social behaviour and providing first aid and mental health first aid support. Find out more about Campus Safety support and how to contact them.

Your accommodation is cleaned regularly by our cleaning team, including kitchen and shared space cleaning. The cleaning team gets to know our students well and can help signpost additional support available around campus, including accommodation support.

Your rent supports our dedicated Accommodation Team who manage accommodation applications, assign your rooms, handle your housing agreements and are there to answer any questions to make sure your move in and stay are as easy as possible.

A large portion of your rent covers the cost of the accommodation buildings themselves. To build some of our newer accommodation buildings on campus, we have had to partner with specialist Student Accommodation Providers who financed and built the accommodation and who continue to manage the buildings for us for a long period of time. 

This means that the University does not directly own around half of our on-campus housing. Instead we have agreements to pass rent to the Student Accommodation Provider who built and continues to manage these buildings.

Just like the price of any goods, the costs we have to pay the Student Accommodation Providers can go up and down. Each year, they review and adjust the rents we owe them based on factors such as inflation, building maintenance costs and staffing.  

In some areas of the campus there is also a ground rent that is paid to the owners of the land on which some accommodation is built. 

Our Student Accommodation Providers enable us to offer a variety of room types, self-catering and catered options and locations across campus, which we would not be able to do without them. Without working with Student Accommodation Providers, our students would be more reliant on private rented accommodation in the city and surrounding areas.