Stressed and scared postgraduate

First of all, don't worry! You will find somewhere :-) Accommodation in St Andrews is stupidly expensive (if you have money, supposedly it's not that difficult to find somewhere), in comparison to the majority of other universities and its relative isolation makes it more difficult.

Dundee is on the 99 bus route. It takes about half an hour, and if you get a Unirider pass, commuting isn't too expensive (£95 for four weeks, so just over £3 a day if you use it every day: http://www.stagecoachbus.com/Fife-and-Strathtay-Unirider.aspx). During the day it's pretty frequent (every ten minutes); early morning, it's every twenty minutes; after 6pm, it's every half an hour. The last bus back to Dundee is at 11pm (although there's also a way to get back on the buses at 11.50pm!), which makes it difficult to go out. A taxi is stupidly expensive (maybe £30-£40, which is okay if there are five of you after a night out, not if you're on your own). You could live somewhere else on that 99 route (Leuchars or Guardbridge maybe), closer to St Andrews. Dundee is okay as a city, and they're doing loads of redevelopment, so in a few years it should be pretty good! If you are looking at Dundee places, think about where it's located. The West End/Perth Road area is nice, but then you have to think about a way to get to the bus station in the centre.


Any questions, let me know!

Thank for all your help! I've actually just been sent an offer for St Gregory's accommodation, so I'm extremely happy at the moment

Congratulations! St Gregory's pretty much looks out over the sea and is thirty seconds from Castle Sands (the best beach in town). It's also really close to town, so you can easily stagger home late at night from the pub. Sorry, I mean easily get home after working late at night in the library.

Haha, thanks! It sounds like the perfect place for me then!

Haha, thanks! It sounds like the perfect place for me then!

Hi Becky.

I am considering applying for entry in 2015. Can I ask, why is it so difficult to get accommodation for Postgrad? Is this just a temporary thing?

Also, is it difficult to get in, I'm wanting to do an MLitt in International Relations.

Thanks!

Don't hold me to this as it's just an observation, but I think they've made Gannochy House, which was PG, into an undergrad residence (or at least a combined residence, as it's now listed under both categories - http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/accommodation/ug/residences/). Also they've closed Eden Court, which isn't a massive difference, but still would have an impact. Also the undergrad residences are way oversubscribed, so fewer 2-4th years are getting in, so more of them are living in the town. Any way you slice it, there's an accommodation shortage within St Andrews, it's not just the PGs.

Yes but specifically postgraduate housing is completely limited compared to even undergraduate housing. They have been sending emails for a month to all postgraduates about how there would be basically zero postgraduate housing. As an international postgrad coming in, I found this whole process very unnerving. I got very lucky and was able to find an apartment earlier on, but it has been a total mess as far as postgraduate housing. At least undergraduates had the opportunity for first year housing at least. Almost all other postgraduate programs in other comparable universities in the UK guarantee first year postgraduate housing.

But surely tings will ease next year when the new Fyfe Park comes on stream.Son was lucky in getting DRA last year and is sticking with it.

As far as I understand, no new HMO licences have been granted in the centre of St Andrews for at least three years. I would be very surprised if rents have not increased during that period (and I imagine house prices have gone up too!). Essentially, landlords have a captive audience. The availability of accommodation that is affordable in St Andrews is awful. It compares terribly to every other Scottish town. There are some rooms available throughout town, but they are just so expensive.

If I remember what I read correctly, locals aren't liking the number of uni students living in the centre of town, hence the lack of HMO licenses being granted (ridiculous, obviously. It's a university town, what do they expect?). But the student population is only getting bigger - they're going to have to figure something out within the next few years.

Apparently they're building another hall/set of flats soon: http://www.thesaint-online.com/2013/10/plans-for-private-student-hall-approved/

It's ridiculous though - most uni towns are difficult, but not this bad! I know of some peoples' parents buying houses for they and their friends because rentals are so impossible. Madness.

I've just read that article. The new flats were opposed by some! The problem is that that new halls will take time to build and an extra 250 rooms will only allow the university to guarantee accommodation again to first years. It won't solve the problem for others.

The main problem, I think, is the high rent, not so much the lack of rooms. In Glasgow £250 would get you a nice room in a shared flat ten minutes walk from university. Here it's at least double that!

If the people wanting to limit student accommodation are the people benefiting from either increasing rents as landlords or increasing value of their property as house owners, then it seems to me that there is a clear conflict of interest.

The university administration have decided that the postgrad population must always be a particular proportion of the overall student population (roughly 15%). So every time College Gate tells the Schools they have to increase the first year intake (every year!) they also have to increase the postgrad intake. This has a knock-on effect not just on housing but on teaching and space provision for postgrads. The university desperately does not want to talk about it, and they also don't want to talk about the phased reduction of affordable student accommodation - Albany Park and Fife Park houses are to be replaced with DRA style apartments, but they haven't announced a firm date for this yet - because they don't want to admit that the stereotype of St Andrews being a rich-kids university are actually pretty accurate when it comes to cost of living. I've been here for a long time and I've been very happy here and I love it here, but I have been shocked at the dramatic increase in the cost of living just over the past 5 or so years. I think it affects postgrads more than undergrads because the loan structures in place for undergrads aren't there for postgrads, and so such huge rents are less of a problem if you have a £7000-£9000 per year maintenance grant to spend.