Northern Irish freshers left out in the cold by accommodation ‘nightmare’

An accommodation blunder has left hundreds of Northern Irish freshers in the dark about where they’ll live.

The university said freshers within a certain radius of Belfast will be denied accommodation – on top of anyone who applied after the August 1 deadline.

But newbies living in BT35 say they have already heard from the university, while others living further away have not.

The uni have blamed the gaffe on a “high volume of applicants”. Angry students have called it a “nightmare”

Ciara Reynolds was eventually offered accommodation by the university this month, but was still denied the housing she applied for.

The Social Work fresher said: “Basically, there’s too many students and not enough places.

“I had applied for Mount Charles. Instead I’ve got Guthrie House which is same sex and six flats sharing.”

Rooms in Guthrie House, where bumbling QUB accommodation staff have offered Ciara housing

Mount Charles is currently being refurbished, but the university had promised to house Ciara in Elms Village until the start of October and then transfer her over.

The first year added: “They’ve offered me the opposite of I asked for. All my choices were for mixed sex and mature living.”

Rooms in Mount Charles

When she went to QUB in person to complain, Ciara was turned away by snowed under staff and told to email her complaints instead.

She said: “Its quite difficult just to get an answer from them and paying over £4500 for a standard room somewhere you didn’t even make a last option is pretty frustrating.

“You think exams and interviews were the stressful bits of the application.”

The uncertainty about choices and availability led many freshers to speculate online whether they would even be given accommodation at all.

Students who have been denied their first choice may be housed in same sex, quiet living or even non-alcohol accommodation. One fresher said: “I think I might cry.”

Freshers on Facebook complained of being shunted into halls of residence that they didn’t ask for

A room at Elms Village can cost up to £4,180 for the year

Another QUB fresher, who wants to remain anonymous, said: “I received my accommodation offer 12 days after I was supposed to find out just, as did many other people”

When asked to explain the delay QUB claimed “high volume of applicants” was the reason.

One Northern Irish student scrambling for accommodation received a letter from the university attempting to explain the situation.

In it the university said: “We are currently working through allocations for postcodes BT93 to BT41 (inclusive), in rank order, for students living in Northern Ireland who applied by the closing date.

“At this stage we cannot guarantee that all students living in these postcodes will receive an offer of accommodation.”

Any students living within a 19 mile radius who applied before the closing date up to and including BT25) will not receive an accommodation offer.

On top of this, any new students from Northern Ireland who applied after the closing date of 1^st August 2014 would also not receive any offers.

The uni added: “We understand how disappointed you must be.” They offered students a chance to linger on a waiting list, but only if they call the accommodation office’s line to ask to be included.

Conceding that the uncertainty of a waiting list is not enough for many students, Queen’s said: “We appreciate that this option may not suit you” before providing a brief link to a private accommodation website for students to find their own housing.

Many first years who have been denied campus housing vented their anger in freshers Facebook groups.

One desperate first year even posted: “This is really pulling at straws here but by any chance is this accommodation going ladies first? Haven’t heard of one lad getting Halls from BT35 yet all the girls have.”

We contacted QUB to ask whether they felt if they had given students enough time to sort alternative housing ahead of freshers and if they wanted to apologise for the cock-up.

The university were unavailable for comment.

Have you been denied housing by Queen’s? Let us know in the comments or tell us your story.