University of Strathclyde
Thinking of Staying in Collegelands? Read this first!!!
I was thrown into Collegelands by the accommodation team at Strathclyde (they rent a massive number of rooms from Collegelands every year) on a 39 week contract at £125p/week. Having stayed in Halls before, I had a rough idea of what to expect from standard student halls, but went along a few weeks before moving in any way to check the place out. On arrival at reception, I was told by a rather condescending member of staff that I wasn't able to view my room and it would be 'inappropriate' to see any of the other rooms (all 600 odd of them), as there were contractors in the building at the time. After a brief tour of the downstairs facilities (common room, laundry etc.) by the receptionist, I was sent on my way.
So, I moved in blind, with only the pictures on the Fresh Student Living website to go from as an indicator as to what my room may look like. No matter, I thought, how bad can it be? Well as it turned out, first impressions weren’t great. On arrival in the flat, it looked and smelled like someone had a party a long time ago and hadn’t returned since. The Hallway smelled disgusting, the kitchen was messy, and the fridges were dirty. A quick dive down to reception, and they sent a cleaner up to sort it out. Interestingly enough, that was the only time in my stay here that I actually saw a cleaner in a flat.
Now that was dealt with, I stepped into my phone box (read: room). Squeezing myself through the (less than 30 inch) space between the wardrobe and the head of the bed, I was met with what appeared to be the smallest desk it could have been humanly possible to find. Firing my monitor and keyboard on the desk, I quickly realised that it was damn near impossible to sit anything else on it , definitely not enough space even for an open ring binder - Disappointing.
There’s no way around the fact that the rooms, at least the en-suite room I’d been put in, are cramped. Sitting at the desk, I (6 foot tall) can’t extend my legs with the chair pushed back against the bed as far as it would go - Definitely not good for comfort, or more importantly, for studying. As far as standing space is concerned, it’s not a winner there either. Open the large wardrobe doors and I’m afraid you’re not going anywhere until you’ve closed them again. At its widest point, the space between the desk and the bed is about 2 and a half feet.
Admittedly the bathroom was pretty standard. Standard student halls pre-fab plastic bathroom pod, the shower was alright, and the water was hot. One thing to note is that the lights and extractor fans in the bathrooms are on a sensor – once they’re on, you’re not getting them off for at least another twenty minutes. A blessing, you might end up saying, as it’s possibly the only way to get some ventilation into the room.
The window, on arrival, seemed to be locked to open vertically only, to less than 10 degrees, leaving about a 10cm gap for ventilation at the top. I could see that the window was able to swing open, but had been locked to open from the top. Time to see reception again, hopefully someone could give me a key. No Chance. Accommodation manager cited ‘the health and safety law’ stating that the windows had to be restricted or, heaven forbid, we might fall out! It was suggested that I might buy a fan, but I was reluctant to spend any more money on supplies for the flat.
It’s worth noting that the ‘bare essentials’ as you may consider are not included in the rent. Previous halls I’ve stayed in provided simple things such as a kettle, toaster, vacuum cleaner, mop and bucket, iron and ironing board. None of these are included at Collegelands. It’s only with the good will of my flatmate that had a kettle and toaster from the previous year that I was able to make a cup of tea. Hoovers can be borrowed from reception, but they’ll hold your student card to ransom until you give it back, and good luck getting a hold of one of these around inspection time, at one point I was trying for a fortnight!
The kitchens in the flat are about the only spacious thing in the place, each person has 2 cupboards (one above your head and one under the counter) and a drawer. There’s a fridge freezer and a smaller fridge – which can be a bit tight when everyone’s buying frozen food. There’s usually two rock hard ‘couches’ and a coffee table as well. Some people brought Xboxes and PS4’s with them, only to find out that the wi-fi in the building doesn’t support them connecting, so that’s woth noting as well if you’re a FIFA or whatever fan, as you’re not getting any online play unless you plug it into the Ethernet ports (1 per room, none in the kitchen)
The location isn’t dreadful. If you’re at Strathclyde, you can be at the Graham Hills building in 5 minutes and at the Thomas Graham on Cathedral Street in less than 15. High Street train station is just across the car park and is less than 5 minutes’ walk. I was on the north side of the building, with a beautifully picturesque view over Duke Street multi-story car park, which is a lovely sight. It might be worth noting that the Collegelands area is under continuous construction, there’s a new building under proposal to the east of the current building at the time of writing (mid 2015) so you may find yourself living next to a building site for the duration of your stay.
The atmosphere in the place largely depends on what flat you’re in and what your flatmates are like. I was lucky to end up with a good bunch of guys, and got on well with them. The place was fairly decent during freshers’ and quietened down a little over the year. The standard student halls practice (at least for the first few weeks) of keeping your door open isn’t possible here, as every door’s a fire door and you’ll struggle to jam them open, so we didn’t necessarily meet as many people around us as it would’ve been nice to. ‘Staying in is the new going out’ is a phrase pinned up with the other advertising on the front of the building, and doesn’t necessarily hold true here. You can have a flat party, but you’ll struggle to have people stay and sleep on the couch afterwards, as the kitchen lights are on a sensor, and you can’t turn them off. A minor niggle, but it was bloody annoying, we bought a projector for the living room but couldn’t see the thing.
If you did ever have a problem, the management staff were largely unhelpful in my experience. Being fobbed off and told to buy a fan for a swelteringly hot room wasn’t acceptable, and they seemed to spend an awful lot of time organising ‘free pizza’ and ‘come decorate your [insert holiday here] cookies’ over actually addressing issues like these.
Overall, I don’t think the place is great for studying in. I’ve stayed in halls before and paid the same for more space and I could open the windows and turn on and off the lights. I’d honestly look elsewhere for a decent experience, have a look at the UNITE places before thinking about booking here. If you’re desperate, Barlinnie is just up the road, and I think they do free food at her majesty’s expense, you might have to open a Collegelands window to qualify to get in there though.
So, I moved in blind, with only the pictures on the Fresh Student Living website to go from as an indicator as to what my room may look like. No matter, I thought, how bad can it be? Well as it turned out, first impressions weren’t great. On arrival in the flat, it looked and smelled like someone had a party a long time ago and hadn’t returned since. The Hallway smelled disgusting, the kitchen was messy, and the fridges were dirty. A quick dive down to reception, and they sent a cleaner up to sort it out. Interestingly enough, that was the only time in my stay here that I actually saw a cleaner in a flat.
Now that was dealt with, I stepped into my phone box (read: room). Squeezing myself through the (less than 30 inch) space between the wardrobe and the head of the bed, I was met with what appeared to be the smallest desk it could have been humanly possible to find. Firing my monitor and keyboard on the desk, I quickly realised that it was damn near impossible to sit anything else on it , definitely not enough space even for an open ring binder - Disappointing.
There’s no way around the fact that the rooms, at least the en-suite room I’d been put in, are cramped. Sitting at the desk, I (6 foot tall) can’t extend my legs with the chair pushed back against the bed as far as it would go - Definitely not good for comfort, or more importantly, for studying. As far as standing space is concerned, it’s not a winner there either. Open the large wardrobe doors and I’m afraid you’re not going anywhere until you’ve closed them again. At its widest point, the space between the desk and the bed is about 2 and a half feet.
Admittedly the bathroom was pretty standard. Standard student halls pre-fab plastic bathroom pod, the shower was alright, and the water was hot. One thing to note is that the lights and extractor fans in the bathrooms are on a sensor – once they’re on, you’re not getting them off for at least another twenty minutes. A blessing, you might end up saying, as it’s possibly the only way to get some ventilation into the room.
The window, on arrival, seemed to be locked to open vertically only, to less than 10 degrees, leaving about a 10cm gap for ventilation at the top. I could see that the window was able to swing open, but had been locked to open from the top. Time to see reception again, hopefully someone could give me a key. No Chance. Accommodation manager cited ‘the health and safety law’ stating that the windows had to be restricted or, heaven forbid, we might fall out! It was suggested that I might buy a fan, but I was reluctant to spend any more money on supplies for the flat.
It’s worth noting that the ‘bare essentials’ as you may consider are not included in the rent. Previous halls I’ve stayed in provided simple things such as a kettle, toaster, vacuum cleaner, mop and bucket, iron and ironing board. None of these are included at Collegelands. It’s only with the good will of my flatmate that had a kettle and toaster from the previous year that I was able to make a cup of tea. Hoovers can be borrowed from reception, but they’ll hold your student card to ransom until you give it back, and good luck getting a hold of one of these around inspection time, at one point I was trying for a fortnight!
The kitchens in the flat are about the only spacious thing in the place, each person has 2 cupboards (one above your head and one under the counter) and a drawer. There’s a fridge freezer and a smaller fridge – which can be a bit tight when everyone’s buying frozen food. There’s usually two rock hard ‘couches’ and a coffee table as well. Some people brought Xboxes and PS4’s with them, only to find out that the wi-fi in the building doesn’t support them connecting, so that’s woth noting as well if you’re a FIFA or whatever fan, as you’re not getting any online play unless you plug it into the Ethernet ports (1 per room, none in the kitchen)
The location isn’t dreadful. If you’re at Strathclyde, you can be at the Graham Hills building in 5 minutes and at the Thomas Graham on Cathedral Street in less than 15. High Street train station is just across the car park and is less than 5 minutes’ walk. I was on the north side of the building, with a beautifully picturesque view over Duke Street multi-story car park, which is a lovely sight. It might be worth noting that the Collegelands area is under continuous construction, there’s a new building under proposal to the east of the current building at the time of writing (mid 2015) so you may find yourself living next to a building site for the duration of your stay.
The atmosphere in the place largely depends on what flat you’re in and what your flatmates are like. I was lucky to end up with a good bunch of guys, and got on well with them. The place was fairly decent during freshers’ and quietened down a little over the year. The standard student halls practice (at least for the first few weeks) of keeping your door open isn’t possible here, as every door’s a fire door and you’ll struggle to jam them open, so we didn’t necessarily meet as many people around us as it would’ve been nice to. ‘Staying in is the new going out’ is a phrase pinned up with the other advertising on the front of the building, and doesn’t necessarily hold true here. You can have a flat party, but you’ll struggle to have people stay and sleep on the couch afterwards, as the kitchen lights are on a sensor, and you can’t turn them off. A minor niggle, but it was bloody annoying, we bought a projector for the living room but couldn’t see the thing.
If you did ever have a problem, the management staff were largely unhelpful in my experience. Being fobbed off and told to buy a fan for a swelteringly hot room wasn’t acceptable, and they seemed to spend an awful lot of time organising ‘free pizza’ and ‘come decorate your [insert holiday here] cookies’ over actually addressing issues like these.
Overall, I don’t think the place is great for studying in. I’ve stayed in halls before and paid the same for more space and I could open the windows and turn on and off the lights. I’d honestly look elsewhere for a decent experience, have a look at the UNITE places before thinking about booking here. If you’re desperate, Barlinnie is just up the road, and I think they do free food at her majesty’s expense, you might have to open a Collegelands window to qualify to get in there though.
Ok, so I'm definitely not going to apply for a room there. What a pity.. it looks so nice online 
I've been looking at James Young and James Blyth as well. They look alright online but after reading your post I'm a little bit worried about picking accommodation based on what it looks like online. Do you have any info about the two? Could you perhaps recommend something? (En-suite preferably but its not a big deal if it isnt)
I've been looking at James Young and James Blyth as well. They look alright online but after reading your post I'm a little bit worried about picking accommodation based on what it looks like online. Do you have any info about the two? Could you perhaps recommend something? (En-suite preferably but its not a big deal if it isnt)
University of Strathclyde
Guys I get this person has had a bad experience but this isn't true for every person. I've had a great year at collegelands.
The staff were always friendly, and it's fair you can't tour inside the rooms before you stay as that is someone else's flat at that point. The reason that's the only time a cleaner was in the flat is that you are not paying for a cleaner - it's your flat and your responsibility.
The room is on the smaller side but is completely packed with the necessities - a student doesn't need a huge room, I found it completely fine. Plus, one of the common rooms is a study room which I've found very useful.
I asked security about the windows and he said someone had fallen out the third story window drunk in a building they also own and made it common practice over all their buildings for them to have a lock - that's fair enough, they're doing their job.
The worst thing about collegelands is probably the space but like I said - you aren't on holiday nor is this your dream house - it's student accommodation and you pay for what you get.
I would stay there again - had a great year there. A lot of my friends that stayed in Strathclyde halls are opting to move in to college lands because you are getting a good experience for what you're paying for.
I get everyone has different experiences, I'm just saying that most of mine were positive.
The staff were always friendly, and it's fair you can't tour inside the rooms before you stay as that is someone else's flat at that point. The reason that's the only time a cleaner was in the flat is that you are not paying for a cleaner - it's your flat and your responsibility.
The room is on the smaller side but is completely packed with the necessities - a student doesn't need a huge room, I found it completely fine. Plus, one of the common rooms is a study room which I've found very useful.
I asked security about the windows and he said someone had fallen out the third story window drunk in a building they also own and made it common practice over all their buildings for them to have a lock - that's fair enough, they're doing their job.
The worst thing about collegelands is probably the space but like I said - you aren't on holiday nor is this your dream house - it's student accommodation and you pay for what you get.
I would stay there again - had a great year there. A lot of my friends that stayed in Strathclyde halls are opting to move in to college lands because you are getting a good experience for what you're paying for.
I get everyone has different experiences, I'm just saying that most of mine were positive.
Well I'm sure the above poster is the kind of person that will love the place, maybe you will? Personally, I wouldn't take the chance.
Nonsense, If I'm paying close to £550 a month, I expect a reasonable standard of accommodation, that kind of reasoning doesn't wash. I've stayed in halls with comparable rates, and I've had enough room to swing a cat. (and a cleaner and window)
Look at UNITE's stuff, I've had friends staying there and it's a little bit more spacious, and I've actually heard of UNITE, this Fresh Student Living mob have sort of sprung out of nowhere over the last couple of years...
Original post by Abbie :)
The worst thing about collegelands is probably the space but like I said - you aren't on holiday nor is this your dream house - it's student accommodation and you pay for what you get.
Nonsense, If I'm paying close to £550 a month, I expect a reasonable standard of accommodation, that kind of reasoning doesn't wash. I've stayed in halls with comparable rates, and I've had enough room to swing a cat. (and a cleaner and window)
Look at UNITE's stuff, I've had friends staying there and it's a little bit more spacious, and I've actually heard of UNITE, this Fresh Student Living mob have sort of sprung out of nowhere over the last couple of years...
Original post by ImChrisM
Well I'm sure the above poster is the kind of person that will love the place, maybe you will? Personally, I wouldn't take the chance.
Nonsense, If I'm paying close to £550 a month, I expect a reasonable standard of accommodation, that kind of reasoning doesn't wash. I've stayed in halls with comparable rates, and I've had enough room to swing a cat. (and a cleaner and window)
Look at UNITE's stuff, I've had friends staying there and it's a little bit more spacious, and I've actually heard of UNITE, this Fresh Student Living mob have sort of sprung out of nowhere over the last couple of years...
Nonsense, If I'm paying close to £550 a month, I expect a reasonable standard of accommodation, that kind of reasoning doesn't wash. I've stayed in halls with comparable rates, and I've had enough room to swing a cat. (and a cleaner and window)
Look at UNITE's stuff, I've had friends staying there and it's a little bit more spacious, and I've actually heard of UNITE, this Fresh Student Living mob have sort of sprung out of nowhere over the last couple of years...
Oh, how times have changed... 550 a month?
College lands is now taking from 9435 to 12400 a year, depending on which precious metal band you choose to stay in... I find it exceedingly odd that there are no decent pictures of the rooms. There is no way to see what a studio looks like before booking it, and those are at the top of the range. Imagine paying that money to find out that you can't stretch your legs out fully.
I am deliberating on booking college lands before everything is sold out completely but your comment about automatic lights is a no winner and a total stopper for me. There is just no need for that at any price range.
Students generally never get to view their rooms ahead of moving in, although some student residences hold open days with show flats.
If a room is not occupied already (high demand for student housing means close to 100% occupancy rate plus a waiting list) then the few void periods are used for repairs, redecoration and refurbs.
Restrictors on windows are common not just in student halls.
I see that ensuite rooms were £125 eight years ago and they are generally at least £150 or more per week in the City.
This has been due to a large number of landlords withdrawing from the private rental market when the Scottish Government made it much harder to evict tenants or raise the rent.
It was also also exacerbated by an explosion in student numbers, particularly from International Students wanting to stay on and work in the UK.
I don't know about the current situation with automatic light sensors in the communal spaces in that student residence. I expect it's to save on energy and is seen as good for sustainability and student unions are hot on this. Get an inflatable mattress for a bedroom for visitors to get round this.
I also wonder if it's used to combat the practice of some students who routinely to let their friends stay to reduce their housing costs or who put up their homeless friends.
I worked in student accommodation services briefly and we came across lots of non authorised residents, including those bringing in extra mattresses into lounge areas.
I came across adverts on social media from students advertising letting out the lounges in their flats in private student residences which is contrary to their tenancy agreements.
If a room is not occupied already (high demand for student housing means close to 100% occupancy rate plus a waiting list) then the few void periods are used for repairs, redecoration and refurbs.
Restrictors on windows are common not just in student halls.
I see that ensuite rooms were £125 eight years ago and they are generally at least £150 or more per week in the City.
This has been due to a large number of landlords withdrawing from the private rental market when the Scottish Government made it much harder to evict tenants or raise the rent.
It was also also exacerbated by an explosion in student numbers, particularly from International Students wanting to stay on and work in the UK.
I don't know about the current situation with automatic light sensors in the communal spaces in that student residence. I expect it's to save on energy and is seen as good for sustainability and student unions are hot on this. Get an inflatable mattress for a bedroom for visitors to get round this.
I also wonder if it's used to combat the practice of some students who routinely to let their friends stay to reduce their housing costs or who put up their homeless friends.
I worked in student accommodation services briefly and we came across lots of non authorised residents, including those bringing in extra mattresses into lounge areas.
I came across adverts on social media from students advertising letting out the lounges in their flats in private student residences which is contrary to their tenancy agreements.
I think the problem with automatic sensors was that they installed them in the bathroom of your bedroom, in the ensuite... I've stayed in a hotel like that, where the extractor fan in the bathroom was unstoppable. It just made me go and pee in the dark instead.
I think the automatic light sensor should definitely be kept to a minimum. For example the basement lights, or in the games hall it would be appropriate to have it on a sensor. But I would never put that in the kitchen, and absolutely not in the ensuite.
I think the automatic light sensor should definitely be kept to a minimum. For example the basement lights, or in the games hall it would be appropriate to have it on a sensor. But I would never put that in the kitchen, and absolutely not in the ensuite.
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