Most British Universities and Colleges will guarantee accommodation to non-European students as long as they have accepted an unconditional offer to a full time course and have applied by the deadline date set by the institution’s accommodation office. If you apply after this deadline then the institution will try and provide you with accommodation depending on the availability of accommodation, but there will be no guarantee of an allocation. Generally accommodation offered by London based universities fills up very quickly and hence early applications are encouraged as private accommodation in London can be very expensive.

In order for universities to plan accommodation requirements for students, universities may ask students to pay a deposit to confirm their accommodation acceptance.

Once accommodation is allocated to you the University/College will send you a lease (this is a legal document for renting properties) and ask you to make a decision on whether to accept the offer of accommodation. You will usually only be given a few weeks in which to make this decision. You cannot delay making the decision until you get to the UK unless the Institution allows this. If you accept this offer you will normally be required to send a deposit to the Institution along with the signed lease to reserve the accommodation. Failure to return the signed lease document and the deposit may lead to the offer of accommodation being withdrawn.

If you have signed the lease you cannot leave the accommodation without prior permission from the University/College. Failure to do this could mean that the University/College will invoice you for the cost of the accommodation until they find a replacement. If you are not sure whether you want University/College accommodation then you should plan to travel a few weeks early to the UK in order to look at both University/College and private accommodation. You should note that if you do this and decide that you do want University/College accommodation then there is a risk that they may not have any rooms available as you will be a late applicant.