Temporary shared accommodation

To provide as much accommodation as possible for first year students, a number of rooms are set aside for students to share on a temporary basis. If you are allocated a shared room you will only pay 50% of the total cost of the room whilst sharing. When you move out, or the student you are sharing with moves out, you become liable for the full cost of the room from that date.

We understand that sharing a room isn't easy, but rest assured that you are our main priority for room moves. If you have a disability or health issue that will make it difficult to share please contact Disability Support & Inclusion.

We appreciate that sharing a single room is not ideal but it does mean that we can offer more accommodation on campus to first year students. With that in mind, it is important to know the following when it comes to living in temporary shared accommodation:

  • Consider carefully whether or not you feel able to share a room with someone you don't know before accepting
  • You only pay 50% of the total room cost whilst sharing
  • It will not necessarily be your permanent room
  • You will be offered your own room at the earliest opportunity
  • Temporary shared rooms are single rooms with bunk beds
  • It is not possible to share on a permanent basis
  • Don't bring too many belongings until you have your own room
  • We are unable to indicate how long you will have to share
  • You will only share with a person of the same gender
  • It is important to respect your roommate and their privacy
  • We ask that you do not have guests in your room while you are sharing
  • You may refuse two alternative room offers, but will have to move to the third room we offer you
  • Once you refuse a room, your priority is lowered and you will go to the bottom of the list

What happens next

Once you arrive at Keele we will contact you as soon as a suitable room becomes available. Our main priority is to get you into your own bedroom. You can always request to move again at a later date:

  • Where possible we will offer a room in your current block because we know that you might have made friends, but can’t guarantee this
  • We will email you and your roommate to let you know that a room has become available
  • We recommend that you both go and look at the room
  • You both decide who will move:
    • This may depend on the type of room and what either of you can afford
    • One of you may have friends nearby
  • If one of you accepts the room, you will have 24 hours in which to move and you will both need to accept a new contract
  • From the point of accepting a new contract, you will both be charged the full room rate
  • Should you refuse a room offer, it will be offered to another pair of students sharing a room and will be noted on your accommodation records.   You should be aware that it may take some time before we can make another room offer to you
  • If you refuse two offers to move, you will be required to move to the third one offered
  • Even if you are not 100% happy with your room offer, you can accept it and request a room move to your preferred choice of room

There may be rare occasions when only one person will be contacted to move rooms.  This is at the discretion of the University and is not something that we are able to discuss with the other occupant.

If you have any questions please speak to a member of the Student Accommodation team.