Living Essex : accommodation

University Accommodation - Off Campus - At Home

Living in university accommodation

The Colchester Campus offers a variety of places to live. From looming high-rise flats accommodating up to 16 students on each floor, to communal houses of four or six of you, there’s something to suit everyone. Each accommodation building has its own unique atmosphere: from loud-and-lively to calm-and-spacious. Watch a short video about living at the Colchester Campus by clicking here.

Wherever you choose to live in your first year, all rooms come with a free phone and the option of 24-hour internet access; you just need to buy a connection cable from the computing service helpdesk. If you don't have a computer there are loads of computer labs with free internet connections on campus.

From your room telephone you can automatically make free internal calls all across campus. You can also receive incoming external calls without having to pay any charges. This means that the folks back home can give you a call, anytime, to check that you haven’t run out of clean underwear and that you’re eating properly, that you’re okay and that you’re coming back for Christmas... You only need to pay if you want to make out-going external calls, and in that case you purchase a card with phone credit on.

Ready for 2010 entry, University Square has 561 student rooms in seven blocks situated around a central enclosed courtyard. All rooms are en-suite and there are eight to twelve bedrooms in each flat sharing a communal kitchen. The ten-storey building will feature an underground car park, shops on the ground floor, a launderette and is directly opposite a big supermarket, right in the middle of town and some rooms have sea views!

There is also a selection of studio flats suitable for either single or couple occupancy that have their own kitchenette and bathroom facilities. Some of the studio flats have been adapted for wheel chair users.

Click here for more information or to apply for accommodation.

Living off campus

In your second year you move off campus into privately rented local accommodation with friends you've made in your first year. It all sounds a bit scary, what with everyone using complicated words like landlords, contracts, tenancy agreements and so on – but actually it's really easy! There are loads of estate agents around Colchester and Southend that you can go through, with a wide range of different places available.

Although this is a very different experience to living on campus – it's still great fun and plus you get to have a sofa! Living in a house is much more homely, and you and your mates can make it your own. It also gives you a lot more independence and a more 'adult' lifestyle, you have to start paying bills and sorting things out like the internet. One of the best things about living in a house has to be being able to have house parties whenever you feel like it and not worrying about what your parents will say. Don’t worry about transport to the campuses – there are really cheap and regular bus services!

Living at home

Despite all the rumours you might have heard, living at home doesn’t mean you’re on your own when it comes to making friends at uni. Due to the rising costs of studying, more and more students are choosing to live with their folks whilst studying for their degree. This means that when your friends are shelling out £100 per week on food and rent, you’ll be able to live at home for much less – leaving more student loan to splash out on fun nights out and shopping trips to London!

Just because you live with your parents doesn’t mean you have to miss out on all the campus fun. In fact, you’ll probably find you make more friends because you’ll get to know your coursemates and their flatmates too. And if you can’t be bothered to get a taxi home after a particularly heavy night on campus, you can just stay over your friends flat, so you have the best of both worlds - all the fun of living on campus but you get your clothes washed and ironed and your dinner on the table! If you do feel the need to start doing your own washing, and to learn how to cook most parents won’t object!