Student parking

A valid parking permit will allow you to park in bays marked Approved University Permit Holder, which is most campus car park bays except for:

• Disabled parking bays
• Pay to Park areas
• Pre-booked Visitor (C4) carpark
• Family friendly spaces before 9.15am
• Science Park and Innovation Centres car park 
• Residential areas around campus where residential permits must be displayed
• Event Permit Only car parks
• Health Centre car park

Please make sure you always check the signage to ensure you are in a permitted permit holder area.

The cost of a student parking permit for each academic year is £105.00. 

In order to be eligible to apply for a permit, you must be in one or more of the following groups:

1. Students with health issues that restrict their use of public transport
2. Registered Blue Badge Holders (although the permit is free, you will still need to apply)
3. Students registered on the Sports Centre’s Talented Athlete Programme
4. Non resident students with principal caring responsibilities ie: parent of a child in pre-school childcare or in primary school and/or registered carer for a partner or relative
5. Student society or club members who look after club equipment that has to be stored off campus
6. Students who serve in the British Armed Forces reserves
7. Campus resident students  who have to travel from the campus to their placement – where the placement:
   • Occurs outside of a 1 hour journey radius; or
   • Starts or finishes when public transport is not operating; or
   • Starts or finishes at a time when only private transport will assist the student in meeting both placement and academic requirements
8. Students studying Music at Keele and transporting a large instrument to campus
9. Commuter students - those who live off campus with journey time over 1 hour on public transport or where the journey cannot be made by public transport.  Priority is given to those living in the family home. 

Please note that there will be no automatic entitlement to a permit for commuter students. 

For all permit categories you will be asked to provide evidence of your eligibility as part of your application.  Without this evidence, we are unable to consider your application.

NEW for 2024/25

Keele students who study or attend placement at UHNS Hospital may be entitled to free parking when on Keele campus.  To qualify for this you must provide evidence of holding a permit for the hospital site. 

Order of allocation

We will allocate permits to those who are eligible under categories 1 - 9. Commuter students applications (new and continuing) will only be considered after new students have had the opportunity to apply for their permit under one of the other criteria.

Once the first round of permits have been allocated, we will then allocate the remaining permits to commuter students starting with those living furthest away from the campus, until we reach the maximum number of permits we are able to allocate. The distance to the campus will be based on Google Maps public transport travel time.

We will let you know by email to your Keele account if your application has been approved and request payment (except blue badge which is free).

You will not be eligible to park on campus until  payment is received. 

Upon receipt of payment, you will will receive a second email explaining that your application is Fully Approved and you are able to park on campus in accordance with guidelines.

Please note that possession of a permit does not guarantee that there will be central parking space on campus. On busier days you may need to park further from the centre of campus. 

All drivers should comply with the Keele University Use of Estates Procedure and should only park in vacant, marked parking bays.

If your application is unsuccessful, you have the right to appeal this decision on one or both of the following grounds: 

      (I) Procedural irregularity in the application of the criteria for allocation of student parking permits as set out on www.keele.ac.uk/parking/studentparking; 
      (ii) Exceptional hardship factors which are not covered by the criteria for the allocation of student parking permits, providing that these    circumstances can be substantiated and there is a valid reason why these were not made known at the time of the original application.

Appeals should be raised from the Student Parking Portal as directed in the email informing you that your application was unsuccessful.   

Appeals will be considered in the first instance by a Senior Manager, who has not already seen your application.  They may uphold or reject the appeal based on the evidence supplied usually within 10 working days of the time it was submitted. 

Where the manager is unable to reach a decision, your appeal will be referred to the Parking Panel which will make its decision within three weeks of the submission of the appeal. The membership of the Parking Panel will consist of at least 3 members but will not include any officer of the University previously involved with consideration of the original application or the appeal. 

To apply for a parking permit, please click here. Only applications from Keele email accounts will be considered. 

Car Parking information for Vet School students
You are encouraged to use public transport where possible to support a green transport plan. In addition there will be a coach service to transport you between campuses departing from the host campus in the morning and returning in the evening on days when you need to study at your non-host institution.

You are allowed to make your own travel arrangements on travel days but please bear in mind that car parking at both campuses is restricted and you are only allowed to park if you have a permit.

Vet school students will need to apply separately for permits at Keele and Harper Adams University. Each permit is only valid for parking at the university where the permit is issued.

Parking at Keele University
At Keele, parking permits are limited and applications are reviewed based on a range of criteria. Vet School students will be considered under the University’s criteria for placement students in order to determine their eligibility for a parking permit.

Keele University applications are made through the Parking Portal Please note: this is different to Harper Adams applications which are made through eVision.

You can find out more about parking at Keele University here

Parking at Harper Adams University
Currently students are able to apply for a parking permit at Harper Adams, with no restrictions.

If you wish to park your car on Campus you will need to apply for an electronic permit. In the interest of security all students wishing to park on the University campus must ensure their vehicle(s) are registered and that their details are kept up to date.

Once requested an electronic record of your car will be held. Individuals registering vehicle details are expected to comply with the Harper Adams Motor Vehicles, Car Parking Policy and Regulations. These can be found here

Car parking enforcement at Harper Adams University is run by First Parking LLC. The only information that we share with them is the vehicle registration information, along with the dates that the permit is valid for and which car parks the registered vehicle is authorised to park in.

To register or delete a vehicle or to check the vehicle details that are held for you, log in to Keele evision and select ‘information’ from the drop down menu on the home page.