REVEALED: The most and least popular UoB student halls

Jarratt Hall got HOW many applications?


Which Birmingham halls are the best? This is the question you’ve always wanted to know.

Whether you’re reminiscing about the unlimited heating in your first year halls, or still experiencing the weekly battle with Circuit Laundry, we found out the most and least popular halls at UoB.

Thanks to some data obtained by The Tab Birmingham in a Freedom of Information request, we can now statistically verify which halls reigned supreme in the last academic year.

The classic halls pic

First place goes to Mason, with 1,812 applications to 800 places. That accounts for 20 per cent of all applications. You either lived here or went to a pres here, and probably found the extremely long kitchens particularly strange. Mason also has the weirdest bathroom/wet room situation I’ve ever encountered. For £175 a week, you would expect a proper bathroom door?

The full list, showing number of applications to each Birmingham halls

Coming in second place is Jarratt Hall, with a staggering 1,273 applications in the last academic year (20/21). This is the epicentre of Selly accommodation I have never stumbled across, despite being in final year. I guess people can’t resist being five minutes away from both Aldi and campus.

Third is Chamberlain, aka “Tory Tower”, with 1,165 applications. It’s known for its hotel-like lifts, impressive views across the vale, and the superiority complex it gives freshers. That is until, come second year, they are downgraded to the land of Selly Oak with everyone else.

Ranking in the middle is Shackleton, Maple Bank and Ashcroft. Clearly upcoming UoB students recoil at the thought of having to share a bathroom.

At the bottom of the list is (shock) Aitken, probably the most irrelevant halls on The Vale. With a measly 152 applications, I’m sure those freshers got their top choice of the least exciting accommodation.

This leaves one question left unanswered. Who is applying to Jarratt Hall and Bournbrook? Seriously?

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• Which UoB accommodation best suits you?

• The comprehensive guide to renting in Selly Oak

• UoB students went ‘Peaky Blinders’ to track down burglar who ‘stole £3,000 worth of goods’