Frequently Asked Questions

If you're a new student who's secured a place through Clearing, and your academic place has been confirmed, we guarantee you an offer of accommodation owned, managed or approved by the University.

To take up our accommodation guarantee, you need to refer yourself to the University on UCAS Hub by the deadline given in your Clearing offer email, or by 5pm BST on 20 August (whichever date is earlier).

You'll need to apply for accommodation by 5pm BST on 23 August to be guaranteed accommodation, but we advise you apply as soon as you can. It can take up to 48 hours for our online accommodation system to update after you receive your You@York login details.

Our Accommodation Team will be on hand throughout the process to offer advice and support. If you have any questions or concerns, get in touch at accommodation@york.ac.uk – we're here to help.

*Clearing students will only have 24 hours to accept their accommodation offer - make sure you check your emails regularly once you have submitted your application.

We are working through accommodation applications from 12pm on Thursday 15 August. We would encourage you to check your emails regularly over the coming days as offers for accommodation will be sent out in batches.

We send room offers out in batches throughout the day, please do not worry if you have not received an offer yet.

We are really sorry that you have been offered a room which is not within your affordability. We do our best to ensure students receive a room offer from their list of preferences.

Our Cost of living support for students contains lots of information about how we're supporting our students with household bills, food bills, on-campus employment opportunities and more. Take a look before making a decision.

Unfortunately, we can't guarantee you your top preference. If we cannot allocate you to your preferred College or type of room, we aim to work down your preference list to offer an alternative. On rare occasions, we may not be able to match any of your preferences.

All applications are considered and we use a computerised auto-allocation system to select impartially from the applicants based on preferences. Rooms are not allocated on a “first-come, first-served” basis.

David Kato College and Anne Lister College have been significantly oversubscribed this year, which will result in students who have chosen them as the majority of their preferences being disappointed. Our advice is always to widen the scope of your preferences beyond one or two Colleges.

We would encourage you to accept your room offer, and if you would like to swap rooms, you will need to find another resident who is the same student type as you and is happy to take over your room type. 

This is a popular method of changing your room and is successful every year. 

More information about a room swap.  

All applications are considered and we use a computerised auto-allocation system to select impartially from the applicants based on preferences. Rooms are not allocated on a “first-come, first-served” basis.

You do not need to pay a deposit. You won’t need to make any accommodation payments until the first rent instalment is due in October 2024.

If your offer of accommodation has expired you will need to reactivate your accommodation application. Unfortunately any applicable accommodation guarantee is lost. 

We are working through current accommodation applications which will take precedence over new applications and applications which have expired.

We would urge you to apply as soon as possible. We will endeavour to support you, however we are working through current accommodation applications which will take precedence over new applications.

If you reject your room offer, you are no longer eligible for our accommodation guarantee. We would advise you to be very cautious about rejecting an offer. It may be possible instead to accept the offer and then look to swap rooms with another student who is seeking your room type. See the following information for details of how to Request to change/leave your room  

As you have rejected your room offer, you are no longer eligible for our accommodation guarantee. You will need to re-activate your application by logging in at the University of York accommodation portal before you can re-apply for accommodation.

We will try to assist you once we have assisted other guaranteed students who have not yet received a room offer from us. In the meantime, please check your emails regularly as there may be a short turnaround time associated with your offer.

Your "You@York" login details can be found in your original offer email from the University. If you can’t find that, you’ll need to get in touch with IT Services who will be able to help you. You can find out more information at What's You@York? - Study at York, University of York.

Congratulations, we look forward to seeing you in September! You will receive a room reveal email from us which will detail your room number and accommodation block from the week commencing 2 September.

We would advise you to close all of your internet tabs and windows and clear your device's browser history before trying to apply, this usually clears any errors from the system.

Our Undergraduate arrival dates are Friday 13 September for international students, and Saturday 14 to Sunday 15 September for UK home students. The exact arrival day will be based on your residence and you will be required to book an arrival time slot for this day through our booking system. You will be notified of your actual arrival date and where to collect your key, closer to the start of Semester One, once your accommodation has been confirmed.

Unfortunately, if you haven’t applied under our additional requirements process when you first made your accommodation application, at this stage we can’t guarantee we will be able to assist you with a specific room type. However, please get in touch with and provide medical evidence as soon as possible and we will do what we can to help you. 

If you need a mini-fridge for medication or equipment in your room, please get in contact as soon as possible with your medical evidence so we can advise what you need to do next. 

While many students do list self-catered as one of their primary room choices, there are lots of benefits to staying in catered accommodation too:

• Catering includes two full meals a day, Monday to Friday, so you shouldn’t have to pay much more on top of that for food during semester time. 
• Breakfast is served from 8am to 10.30am and dinner from 5pm to 7.15pm, meaning you have plenty of time to collect your meals. You can also take your food away. 
• Catering is a great way to meet other people in your college and socialise with your flatmates, especially those with different schedules to you.  
• Each dinner service will provide a range of options, typically including two meat/fish dishes and a vegetarian/vegan option. Our catering team are happy to speak to you about your dietary requirements including allergies. 

Find out more about catered accommodation.

While many students do list an ensuite as one of their primary room choices, sharing a bathroom has its benefits too.

All shared bathrooms are individually lockable and are cleaned three times per week and have toilet rolls replenished daily (except bank holidays), you’ll also have a washbasin in your bedroom.

It may seem like you will be sharing with strangers now, but after a few days, you’ll get to know your flatmates. You’ll also find that you’re not all on the same schedule, so queuing or waiting shouldn’t be a problem.

We find that after moving in, most students find that their initial concerns of a shared bathroom are no longer an issue.

Unfortunately, we do not offer single gender accommodation at the University of York.

You will need to submit your accommodation application on our website. Once you have made the University of York your Firm or Insurance choice on UCAS track you will need to wait up to 48 hours before being able to apply for accommodation.

Apply for accommodation

Yes you will need to be applying as a full time student at York to apply for our accommodation. Part time students are not eligible for the council tax exemption which covers our accommodation.

It can take up to 48 hours for UCAS track updates to transfer to our system, if you still can’t apply after 48 hours of making us your firm or insurance choice on UCAS track, try the following next steps:

• Clear your browser history and close all of your browsers, then try again. This usually clears any issues with the application. 
• Ensure you have selected a minimum of 7 room preferences (maximum 4 ensuite), and you don’t have any filters enabled so you can see all of the options. 
• Try opening the application system web page in a different browser, e.g. if you are using Safari, try using Google Chrome instead.

If you are still having issues with submitting your accommodation application, please contact us at accommodation@york.ac.uk.

No, our accommodation allocations process has changed slightly this year. All applications are considered and rooms are not allocated on a "first-come-first-served" basis, but use a computerised auto-allocation system to select impartially from the applicants based on preferences. 

However, if you want to be guaranteed an offer of a single-occupancy room in accommodation owned, managed or approved by the University you will need to apply for accommodation by 5pm BST on 31 July 2024.

Unfortunately, we do not offer group bookings as part of our application process.

When applying for accommodation you need to select seven preferences before you can submit your application. Out of the seven, a maximum of four ensuite rooms can be selected, leaving you to also choose three shared bathroom options. If you're hoping to be allocated an ensuite room, we'd suggest that you put the three shared bathroom options towards the end of your preference list. The order of preference is 1-7, 1 being your first choice and 7 being your last choice.

When you submit your accommodation application you will have the chance to include details on what your additional requirements are, what room type you feel you need and to upload supporting medical evidence. If we need more information from you, we will be in touch to discuss this further.

If you are struggling to upload documents to your accommodation application, please submit the application as normal, including any comments you want us to see, and send your documents to us as an email attachment instead at accommodation@york.ac.uk.

Unfortunately, we do not offer single gender accommodation at the University of York.

Yes, you can apply for accommodation if we are your insurance or firm choice.

Unfortunately not, you need to choose us as your firm or insurance choice in order to apply for University of York accommodation.

Yes, if you're completing an Additional requirements Supporting Evidence Form, it's no problem to complete it by hand and scan it in to attach to your accommodation application.

Yes, everyone who stays in catered accommodation has access to a kitchen too. Catering at the University means you get your breakfast and evening meal, Monday to Friday in semester time included in the price of your room. You may want to make your own lunch and snacks in your kitchen.

Yes, there's always plenty of choice at our catering outlets for different dietary requirements. If you're looking at catered accommodation, we'd recommend contacting our catering team on ycl-catering@york.ac.uk to check you're happy with the availability before applying for catered accommodation.

Halal food menus are available at all of our 'call to order' menu outlets, we also offer halal menus for our catered accommodation and college night meal sites. If you have a different dietary requirement, we'd recommend contacting our catering team on ycl-catering@york.ac.uk to check you're happy with the availability before applying for catered accommodation. See our web page: About our food. 

Breakfast is served 8am to 10.30am, dinner is served 5pm to 7.15pm.

• Our catered accommodation will be in Derwent, James and Vanbrugh Colleges, this includes breakfast and evening meals, Monday to Friday, in Semester time only. You can find more information on catered accommodation here.
• If you're a first year student, our Colleges on Campus East include a Weekly College Meal. You'll have dinner on campus at the Piazza restaurant one evening each week, with other students who live in your College. You can find more information on the weekly college meal here.
• If you do select a Catered or Weekly College meal, our prices are inclusive of that. Whether you select Catering or the Weekly College Meal.

Our semester starts on 16 September 2024, so new undergraduates will begin moving in on either 14 or 15 September, we'll let you know when to move in when you're allocated your room on UK A-Level Results Day.

Rent instalments are taken on the following dates for the 2024-25 academic year:

• 31 October 2024
• 31 January 2025
• 30 April 2025
  

For further information on payments, visit our Accommodation Payments web page.

Yes, you're more than welcome to bring house plants to your room / accommodation.

Unfortunately, we don't allow personal kitchen appliances to be brought onto campus. In your kitchen, you'll be provided with all of the essentials such as a fridge, freezer, microwave, kettle and toaster.

Unless you have specific needs that require you to store medication in a cool environment, we do not allow mini fridges to be brought on to campus and be used in your room. Explore our web page: New Undergraduates - What to bring. 

Unless you have specific needs that require assistance from a dog that's registered with a charitable organisation affiliated to Assistance Dogs UK, we are unfortunately unable to give permission for animals, including cats and dogs to be brought onto campus accommodation.

Yes, we have a range of rooms available to those with accessibility needs. You'll just need to tell us about any access needs you have when you apply for accommodation. Find out more on our Additional Requirements web page. 

It depends, some of our rooms have single beds and some have 3/4 or a small double bed. If you look up the specific room you're interested in on our website it will specify what size the bed is.

All of our accommodation is heated, it is turned off once the weather warms up in spring. We hope you're comfortable in your room, but it's always nice to have a blanket or big hoodie to hand for extra cosiness. Portable heaters aren't allowed.

We'd recommend you consider if you'd like ensuite or shared bathroom, catered or self-catered, and which campus you'd like to be on first. Then use our helpful College, rooms and prices web page to compare the 2024/25 room option availability.

Vacuum cleaners are provided but we do not provide irons or ironing boards, unless they're left behind by previous tenants. You might want to split the cost and purchase these with your flat mates if you don't find them in your kitchen cupboard after moving in.

Studios are furnished similarly to single-occupancy bedrooms in shared flats, but you will have exclusive use of your own kitchen and bathroom.

There's a Nisa on both Campus West and Campus East. The number 6 bus takes you to Clifton Moor from Campus East where there's lots of shops such as a Tesco Extra, B&M and Home Bargains. You can cycle or walk to Aldi in Fulford or Foss Islands which has a number of supermarkets on it too (Lidl, Waitrose and Morrisons). It's always an option to have your shopping delivered on campus too.

We don't have any quiet/alcohol free accommodation, however we do have a sober society and plenty of students on campus don't drink.