Accommodation

We prioritise applications from new undergraduate and new postgraduate students joining the University and we reserve the majority of our bed spaces to accommodate as many of these students as possible. 

In previous years, we have been able to guarantee an offer of accommodation for international postgraduate taught students (from outside the UK) who have submitted an application for accommodation by a set date (usually in June or July). Details of this will be confirmed by spring 2023 for those starting courses in September 2023. This guarantee does not apply to international postgraduate taught students who are applying for couples or family accommodation. 

For all other postgraduate students, we will allocate (subject to room availability) on a first-come, first-served basis in date and time order of when your application was received. 

To apply, you'll need to hold a conditional firm (CF) or unconditional firm (UF) offer to study with us, and then make an application for accommodation Online Accommodation System on our website. 

If you have accepted an offer to study with us in September 2023, we'll be in touch when accommodation applications open. This is likely to be in spring 2023. 

Details are still to be confirmed for the coming year but in the past, postgraduate students have been able to choose from four accommodation bands – V (George Eliot), W (Penrose Court), X (Gowar) and Y (Highfield). More information about each band can be found on the webpages. 

We provide students with a wide range of accommodation options, offering a comfortable home so that you can enjoy and make the most of your time at university. A number of our halls offer shared bathroom or en-suite facilities. More information can be found here. 

We are still confirming our application process for the coming year, but as a guide, in previous years we have let people know in July. 

If you don’t receive an offer email at the time you expect to receive one, don’t worry as sometimes our emails may end up in a junk mail or spam folder: just log onto the Online Accommodation System around the time you expect to receive an offer to check on the status of your application.

Unfortunately not. When processing a student’s application for accommodation, we’ll check the student’s ordering of accommodation preferences and offer a room that matches as high a preference as possible, subject to availability.

All offers are final and cannot be changed prior to a student moving in (exceptions are those with medical needs as approved by the Disability and Neurodiversity team). 

We have access to a small number of rooms in intercollegiate halls of residence in central London that are available to postgraduate students. More information can be found on our website.

The Students’ Union oversee a search engine, Student Pad (https://www.rhulstudentpad.co.uk/Accommodation) which offers a great starting point for finding accommodation in the private sector. The SU are also able to help with advice and checking private sector contracts etc. 

Unfortunately this isn’t an option at this time. 

All bands for postgraduate students are mixed gender, although some flats may end up being single gender by pure coincidence (e.g. more males applying for George Eliot compared to females).

As for study level, we try to allocate so that new postgraduates are housed together etc., however there may be the rare occasion where this isn’t possible and we may need to mix new undergraduates with continuing undergraduates, or undergraduates with postgraduates, so that we can offer accommodation to as many students as possible. 

Students must have confirmed their place at Royal Holloway and allow up to 48 hours for their profile to be created before they’ll be able to register with the Online Accommodation System in order to submit an application for halls. 

You will be given 5 calendar days to respond to the accommodation offer (with the exception of late applicants who apply after the 1 August who will have 2 or 5 calendar days depending on when the application is submitted). You will have the option to accept or decline your accommodation offer and we advise that you refer to the Terms and Conditions before accepting the offer. By accepting the offer you are accepting financial liability for the full duration of the contract. In order to accept your accommodation offer, you will need to make a prepayment of £300. This will be deducted from the first instalment of your accommodation fees.

You won’t be asked to pay a deposit, however as part of the offer acceptance process, you will be required to make a prepayment of £300 to firmly accept your offer of a place in halls accommodation. This amount will then offset your first instalment of accommodation fees due in early October.

This depends on the student type (new undergraduate, continuing undergraduate, new postgraduate etc.) as well as hall. In previous academic years all contracts have started the weekend prior to the start of term.

Further details of the moving-in process will be made available to students through the Online Application System when we switch on the accommodation induction and arrivals modules, normally in early September of each year. Students will be sent an email to let them know when these modules become available; it is also through the modules that students will find out their room number for the first time.

Accommodation fees are payable in instalments: this information can be seen by the student via their offer details in the Online Application System. The first term’s accommodation fees will be due around two weeks from the start of term and can be paid through any of the means listed on the College’s fees webpages.