In this episode of Life at the Lanyon Podcast, Raymond chats to Euan, International Allocations Co-ordinator, and Clare, Residential Life Co-ordinator at Queen’s Accommodation, who discuss all things Queen’s Accommodation. Find out about our Accommodation locations, room options, facilities, events taking place and support available. Whether you prefer a student village or city centre apartments, we can help make Queen’s your home from home.
00:00-02:03 Queen’s Is Like No Other
02:03-06:30 Queen’s Accommodation – Overview
06:30-07:50 BT9 Elms Village
07:50-10:58 BT1 & BT2 City Centre
10:58-12:07 Postgraduate Accommodation
12:07-13:40 Viewing Accommodation
13:40-18:42 Applying for Queen’s Accommodation
18:42-20:12 Allocation of Rooms
20:12-21:56 Moving Day
21:56-28:44 Myths about Accommodation
28:44-33:04 Facilities in Queen’s Accommodation
33:04-38:17 Residential Life Team, Events & Trips
39:09-40:20 Maintenance
41:12-43:40 Advice & Ending
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I kind of feel that living in student accommodation is part of the whole university experience even if you only do it for your first year come down and do it you know as you and said there’s lots of support there’s great facilities and it’s just there’s goat yoga yeah
There’s goat yoga I mean what more could you want there’s free buns and you know tea and coffee and no there’s there’s lots going on and particularly if you’re living away from home for the first time it’s a great opportunity to meet people make friends and I think it’s a bit of
Reassurance for your parents or Guardians to know that there’s that bit of support there as well there’s always somebody um looking out for you and there’s always somebody you can talk to as well which you’re not really going to get in private accommodation hello everybody and welcome to Queens University Belfast
Life at the lanan podcast for those that don’t know the lanan building sits at the heart of our campus here at queens and it’s one of the most beautiful renowned buildings across Belfast my name is Raymond Miller and I’m the undergraduate recruitment officer here at queens and today our podcast is all
About Queens accommodation your home from home I’m joined here by a couple of guests who work in Queens accommodation we have Yan and Claire so guys I’ll let you introduce yourself hi my name is Yan I’m the international allocations coordinator within Queens accommodation hi my name is Claire I’m
One of the residential life coordinators currently based up in bt9 but but we also cover the other sites as well so Yan you’re C currently doing that allocations role prior to that you did something different is that right yeah I was a residential fees assistant okay
And you’re moving soon to a new role within accomodation right I’m moving to be a residential life coordinator like CLA so so basically what’s the space Yun could be running accommodation he he’s working his way around he’s working out what’s best for him trying each department he’s trying trying them all
Out to work out what’s best but it’s good that you have that wealth of experience across the accommodation and you can kind of draw on your experience in this podcast so we’ll get a really good Insight um first thing I want to talk about in terms of accommodation how
Many accommodation locations do we actually have at Queens where are they and how do people kind of decide between one accommodation or the other so so let’s start with what are the different types of accommodation that we have here at Queen so generally speaking our three
Main sites would be bt9 which is also known as the elm student Village uh that’s just down on the Malone Road just south of the University uh and then we have two City Center locations so bt1 uh which is up opposite inst the school up
There in a city hall uh and then you’ve got bt2 which is just in the Grand Central Hotel on mlin Street and bt1 129 post codes I assume is that why they’re called yeah yeah absolutely cuz some some people are probably like what is all this stuff about so that’s the post
Code where they’re located across Belfast yeah they are okay excellent um so you have those three different uh locations in terms of number of rooms does it vary between the three uh the number of rooms available so how many rooms are kind of in each one I think generally speaking you know
Around around 1,800 to 2,000 in the Elms Village okay and then bt2 is a little bit smaller than BT well 747 exactly and I know that cuz the Boeing 747 that’s how I remember so in total you’re talking around three and a half thousand rooms there’s three about 300 in bt2 but I’m
Not 100% in the exact number there but so yeah roughly 3,000 so there’s there’s plenty of kind of spaces available and um the types of rooms I assume they’re not not all the same as well you know you’re going to have different room types in each of those locations you do
Most of our options are on site you know it’s certainly proved to be quite a popular option you know as student comination developed over the years we do have some standard options which would be shared facilities so you tend to have you know for example a flat of
10 or 11 people you’d have at least a couple of shower rooms and a couple of separate toilets as well uh what that does is it lets us bring the price down on that so you know generally speaking they’re at least 2030 pound a week cheaper uh it’s a really good affordable
Option still have all the same other facilities that the on rooms have uh but just provides a little bit of a cheaper alternative and on price what are we talking like people out there are told all the time that you know our accommodation is some of the cheapest
The living in Belfast is some of the cheapest what actually is the rent kind of ranging from what does it start at and what does it go to so generally speaking so standard option which would be the one with shared facilities uh is around 110 pound per week now that price
Has pretty much stayed the same for the last couple of years uh on Suite options are a tiny bit more expensive you’re looking between 140 to 150 per week depending on which site you choose I just one one of them is a little bit more expensive than the other two still
Very very affordable in comparison to either private Alternatives or or the public sector and I suppose what makes that even more of a affordable option is that I assume that price there’s no kind of hidden cost you get all your our bills and stuff included within that CLA
So your utility TV license in the communal areas and the big thing as well I find is people don’t realize is if there’s any issues they get resolved quickly whereas if you’re living in landlord accommodation and say your boiler isn’t working you could wait you know over a week or sometimes weeks for
It to be fixed whereas any issues are resolved in a house so yeah no that’s good so that that price that you described are kind of 110 did you say to kind of 150ish is that rough around that price yeah that will include your your heating your hot water your electricity
Your Wi-Fi bill I assume yeah wi um Insurance attached to limit accommodation so all of those things that you would have to pay outside of your standard rent is all included within the price for our accomodation which is a really uh big plus point and rooms obviously are furnished as well
You’ve got your bed your mattress um your storage which again some most landlords will include but some won’t so yeah no it’s a good point to make because you’re paying your rent you’re paying your bills and you arrive and you’ve knowwhere to sit exactly it’s another thing you have to consider I
Think it’s also worth mention as well things like you know internet and heating and everything it’s not we don’t base it on usage um so you can pretty much within reason use as much as you want I know certainly myself and other friends that have been students you know
You had to you know switch the Heat and off because couldn’t afford it here it’s all covered you can leave it on all day if you want so if the bills are going up it’s because the sh are leaving all all day um but no that’s it is a fair point
You know obviously most people will do that within reason but if you do kind of forget to turn your heat off for a couple of hours you’re not going there is timers and things so yeah that probably helps as well you definitely so if we if we look at each of those three
Accommodation locations that you mentioned J bt9 elm’s Village I assume it has like a village fa is that kind of the type of people who want to kind of live in a we Village is that the type of people that that would live there little bit he’s got really social field to I
Tend to describe it as whenever you’ve seen you know an American movie where you’ve got a campus looks a bit like that yeah it’s a real Community F B9 um you know we’ve got the treehouse in the middle um which is our social space which we’ll obviously talk a little bit
More about later on but that’s kind of like the central Hub where people get together and meet up so and in terms of years would First Years primarily go into Elms bt9 or who who would live there primarily yeah so generally speaking so bt9 is open to anyone that’s
Become coming into Fair first year this between 18 and 21 mature students which would be 21 and upwards we would tend to you know encourage towards the city center locations a little bit more suitable for them bt9 also does have you know certain areas that couldn’t offer family accommodation and postgraduate
Accommodation but the the sole focus of most of the site is for first year students and I suppose another part of that is the fact that there are so many people there it’s the biggest accommodation location you’re going to meet more people H more First Years there it it probably helps you settle
Into University life a we bit more by living in Elms uh okay next one then bt1 so who’s the type of student that I assume first year can still move into bt1 or bt2 absolutely but primarily most would go to bt9 yeah you would find the majority would go to bt9 because they’ve
Heard about bt9 and they’ve heard you know the atmosphere and they’ve heard you know about events and things that go on but there are um sort of social events going on in bt1 and two as well so I wouldn’t want people to think that by choosing bt1 or two it’s going to be
A quiet building with with nothing happening we’ve got residential life teams down there as well so excellent um so bt1 somebody that wants to live in the city center somebody that wants to I don’t know um grab a coffee go out into the city is it is it is that kind
Of the personality type you would think would be living in the city center that kind of style I mean one other thing that’s really cool about bt1 um and bt2 can access this too is it’s got its own onsite gym um and as part of the accommodation package that gym is run by
Queen sport um and they do classes in there the actual quality the equipment is exactly the same as the stuff we would have in the main PC Center um so you know compared to kind of maybe private gems I’ve seen in other recommendations in the past the quality
Is amazing that’s really good so for those are supposed to give context for those living in bt9 Elms Village you’re quite close to the physical education center which has a gym so for those living in the city center you still have that access to the the the bt1 gym yeah
Can people living in bt2 use the bt1 gym yep and they do quite often yeah that’s good so it’s good that you have the kind of that gym access in the city center as well as um close to bt9 and then bt2 then quite slightly smaller than bt1 um
Again the type of student that lives in there could be first year um I think there’s kind of a myth that maybe more International students would live in the city center is that true or not I think International students are attracted to the city center because a lot of local
Students would know about B9 and maybe have their brothers or sisters have been in elm’s Village maybe they’ve you know visited friends in elm’s Village so they tend to know about B9 whereas I think when International students are looking at accommodation they’re looking at oh great that’s near the city center Center
That’s convenient if we want to get a job um you know so they’re thinking about how far it is from the University but how far it is from social life as well no I think that’s a good so I think that’s why it would appeal to International students so supposed to
Summarize whether you’re International domestic first year or otherwise you can apply to live in any of those three that we’ve described yeah but primarily it would be first year students going to Elms bt9 see yeah more of a more of a village more of a community Spirit maybe
A few more activities going on but that’s not to say that the other ones don’t also have activity absolutely yeah one thing I would say in terms of there’s a little bit of a misconception that bt9 is really close to the university and bt1 and two are Miles
Away um bt1 bt9 is the closest because it’s only about a 50- minute walk from the front gate of the Elms Village to the front gate of the university bt1 and bt2 are actually still within about 25 minute walk it’s not far and there is a direct TransLink bus route that goes
Straight past the University from outside both are look locations that we have then that students may choose to to live in what are our other options and when would you think about those other options you so we do have a number of other you know sites within the city so
Places like Mount Charles um 76 Malone Road Grant house places like that so some of them are open to undergraduates some of them are more for postgraduate students so you may think if you’re look you know looking to being combination again when you look at dinner Masters or
Something like that there are options for those too uh we have certain ones that are set aside for um for students that maybe want you know again a slightly quieter feel some we have certain options that are kind of set aside as quiet living options um and
Again we have also had a couple of sites in the past couple of years we ran a an Irish language pilot scheme uh where students wanted to you know we either studying Irish or spoke Irish as part of their as part of their lifestyle um that
They you know could could do that within an accommodation setting and they set aside one of the external properties for that a couple of years ago just to try that out so after first year there may be other options for you you could choose to go live in the city center in
Private accommodation or there may be other options for you uh in terms of Queen’s accommodation as well um that’s good and I suppose if people are listening to this or watching this how do they go and look at Rooms look at pictures I assume all this information
Is on your guys website is all right yeah Queens accommodation website you see just type Q accommodation into Google and it’ll get you there and all everything you need to know lots of pictures contact details as well so they can even pick up the phone and you know
Know give reception a ring even can give one of us a ring and we’re happy to answer any questions too most people who are thinking about coming to Queens will probably see the accommodation as part of maybe an open day or an offer holder day or some sort of visit is there scope
To see the accommodation or do we tend to keep it to those kind of open days and offer holder days generally speaking we would we would keep it to the offer holder off holder days you know generally speaking the last couple of ones we’ve had have been around 3,000
People turning up so they’ve been really really popular tours every half an hour the they’re a really good opportunity to see it in full swing uh as as CL mentioned in terms of the rest of the year we don’t tend to do too much in the
Way of in-person Tours uh again it can be based on availability and if they come through one of the main site teams then maybe the opportunity to look at it uh but the accommodation website has videos virtual tours photos it’s actually a really good way of looking
And still getting a good feel um in terms of you know if people actually just want to come down and walk around the main the main bt9 site or around outside the buildings they are welcome to do that throughout the year we may not be able to accompany them uh just
Due to Staffing levels at the time um but they’re more than welcome to come down have a little look around still get the feel of the place I think if I was starting first year again I’d want to go to bt1 get access to that gym I think
That’s that’s a nice part it’s a big boner so people out there thinking right you’ve sold it to me it sounds great how do you actually apply when do you apply what do you do in terms of the application process so in terms of applying generally speaking around
February time is when it opens we will release a certain date uh year on year as to when people can apply from now people do Panic a little bit they think oh I need to put my application straight away otherwise I’m going to miss out the application period actually lost from
Around February time to the 30th of June and you can pretty much apply throughout that entire period that your only class is a late applicant if you apply after the 30th of June we do put guarantees in place so the current allocation policy when it comes to applying is that as
Long as someone has picked Queens is their firm choice of University and they’ve applied by the 30th of June International students GB and Republic of Island students if they hit all of those criteria they guaranteed accommodation Northern Irish students again preference is given they’re not guaranteed accommodation but preference
Is given to anyone that applies before the 30th of June and whilst people when we introduced that part of the policy worried a little bit they thought oh no we’re not guarantees we’re not going to get accommodation given the number of rooms we’ve got and the fact we’re still
Increasing that year on year we’ve found basic the two years that we’ve run that policy we’ve had more than enough accommodation even people that have applied late have still got in so everybody apply between February and the 30th of June um International Roi TB students guaranteed a room if you
Do that and if you make us uh their firm choice choice s their point one thing also to mention is if we’ve got anyone that’s watching that is coming through clearings they’ve not gotten into their first choice University and app plan has come to Queens through clearing we do
Each year put aside a set number of rooms in preparation for results day because we know that we’re going to have this huge influx of students that you know didn’t get into their first choice University and now coming to Queens are still going to need somewhere to live so
Obviously there’s not as many rooms as there would be for people that are applying for Queens their first choice but if people are coming through clearing we do set aside a number of rooms for that excellent so when people are a plan you would obviously put down
Some preferences I assume in terms of the the rooms can you how many choices do you make or how does that actually work so we’ve broken it down a little bit this year it used to be you know H get up to 10 choices you can still add
Those if you want we encourage students to pick uh options one to six really with one being their firm choice and six being their their least you know their least favorite Choice out of the ones they’ve chosen and again they can be quite specific with it they could say
Bt1 and within bt1 i’ prefer to be in a in a four bed flat or a five bed or a six bed um BT one and two have those different options where they four five and six bed options uh bt9 all the flats are really between 10 or 11 people and
Can they choose to say people are currently in school and they want to live with their friend can you kind of put that preference down or it does it not work like that we we get that all the time particularly with domestic students where a lot of people would be
Coming with people maybe they know um what we’ve said this year is that we can’t guarantee it by any means you know if everyone said that that it be it would be impossible to kind of put those together we do still say you know if you’d really like that put it in the
Notes there’s a there’s an an additional information box where people can put anything else they want us to consider they can put that option down you know I’d like to live with Jess and you know put her full name or something like that and you know if if we can make it work
We’ll make it work we just don’t guarantee it I think that’s fair the one thing we’re saying is both parties would need to put that in their notes because one person could want to live with the friend but the other person might not want to so we would would advise that
Both parties put it in their notes 100% be like yeah yeah I’ll put it in my form and they’re like yeah absolutely um no I think it’s good to know that that you know if you will try and accommodate that as best as you can to kind of live with friends and for
Some people that can’t be comforting initially but I suppose whenever you’re you’re thinking about moving to accommodation it’s about meeting new people as well it’s not just about the same old and if your friends are living somewhere else you can still meet up with them you know it’s it’s not going
To be a massive issue for people out there who are be thinking for for whatever reason they maybe want to live in you know same sex accommodation they don’t want to live with people who are maybe having alcohol are those options is there any other options that people
Can choose yeah so we have some lifestyle options that we’ve set aside for people that maybe have specific requirements the main ones being single sex um so people from the opposite sex aren’t allowed in to the flat at any point so there’ll be you know if you got personal preference or for religious
Reasons you need set that kind of ACC combination layout we have that option available and that is for both male and female uh we have a no alcohol option which again you know the consumption of alcohol is not allowed at any time now again you know you tend to you wouldn’t
Usually be put in that accommodation option unless you pick that but that option is open to people as well um and then quiet living as well so if you know if you if you’re still a really intensive course where you need a little bit of quiet obviously you know we would
Still encourage a social life we’d still encourage people to you know to get out there and and enjoy their time at University but people have chosen that option um for the reason of you know having the flat be qu Qui place in a most study focused environment I think
It’s important to know that those options are there for people you know especially if it’s you like you say an intensive course or for religious reasons those are all important things um to to consider when you’re choosing accommodation so when it comes to actually allocating room so you you’ve
Had a look at the accommodation you’ve maybe visited it you’re you love the look of it you’ve applied to live wherever you’ve applied to live with with or without your friend maybe your friend is has ditchy on the application um when will you find out if you’ve had
Being allocated a room then after you apply by the 30th of June so the main allocation part uh section of the Year happens from results day onwards uh so what we encourage students is you know we start allocating on the 17th and we just have a block of the 17th of August
Which is usually when results St is and then we just have a blocker about 3 weeks where we just working constantly allocating now that doesn’t mean that everyone will find out on the 17th so again we get people that call us at the end of the 17th gun I’ve not heard have
I not got a place you know it’s not worth panicking and you know we just encourage people just check your accommodation uh email address which whatever you’ve given us as your main email address uh throughout the next few days keep an eye out again those guarantees are in place to try and give
A bit of reassurance you know if you’re someone from the Republic of Ireland and you know it’s got to the 18th and you’re like I’ve not heard anything yet you know did did you did you make qu your first choice did you put did you apply
By the 30th of June if you did you going be guaranteed a room anyway so you don’t need to worry just wait results time is a a difficult time for people you know some have got the results others haven’t so having that extra thing of whether or
Not I’m going to get a room it can be um you know it can’t be a worry on time for people but having that guarantee for a lot of students is great and I suppose if you know that you’ve applied by the deadline it is a case of just sitting
Tight and waiting until H you get allocated a room so then I assume there’s a there’s a big moving in day where everybody moves in or is moving in staggered or how does the moving in process work clar um we generally do have our main check in days um I know in
Previous years um there’s been like checkin day for local students and check and day for international students I’m not too sure this year if it’s going to be I don’t think there’s anything in in place to kind of separate the two there is you know I think it’s more just a
Main just to me and check and day check and day is my absolute favorite day I absolutely love it I love seeing everybody come down with their families it’s a great Buzz great atmosphere we have the treeh house open tea coffee usually some tray bics as well um you
Know people can use the Pull tables table tennis so even with their families we would see a lot of families would go up have a look at the room and then come back down to the Treehouse and you know enjoy the social space and it it must be
It must be quite an emotional time too you know people moving away from home parents will probably be really excited for them but equally a bit you know apprehensive so a lot of emotions going on but I imagine everyone moving in on that day meeting people for the first
Time seeing your room for the first time it must be a really lovely atmosphere it is it’s really exciting and yeah you do see a little bit of a motion but it’s really exciting at the same time and we sort of absorb that excitement as well
So it’s it’s a good day for us too and then I suppose all the staff are there to kind of help people move in it’s not like you you rock up you’re Chuck de K and Away you go it’s the one day of the year when pretty much every staff
Members on duty um so there’s lots of Buzz and activity but there’s also lots of Staff about so if you need anything there’s always somebody about to give you a hand excellent now in this podcast we like to do what called the mythbuster section so sometimes students will will
Come to myself as a recruitment officer I’m sure they ask you guys these questions as well but we kind of want to see if these myths are true or false or or chat around them a we bit so the first one is that student accommodation
Is really dated and old and a bit of a mess that’s a direct quote from a student I asked a student the other day and I was like what was your perception before you came to Queens and they said it’s it’s going to be really old it’s
Going to be really dated and it’s going to be a mess is that the case um no um I mean we have on-site maintenance teams so you know the advantage to being in um like Queen’s accommodation over private accommodation we have a maintenance team on site if there’s any issues any
Problems anything that’s needs fixed it usually gets done pretty quickly and we have also got a fantastic housekeeping team as well and they keep on top of all the communal areas um what it will say yeah they’re not going to go into your exactly so it’s really up to the
Students what way they want to live in their personal areas is you know if if you keep your room a mess that’s entirely up to you and even in the way the communal kitchens and things um I mean if you’ve got 11 people that don’t clear up after themselves well you know
That’s going to be the environment you’re living in but generally we find that you know because you’re living as a group most students would sort of clear up after themselves and look after themselves and work well as a team we help in that residential life help and that because um we would support
Students if they want us to help them with cleaning rotors um a lot of students have never lived away from home so they don’t know how to clean and that’s where we can support as well we can give advice and um generally sort of be their parents for the first few weeks
And just support them where we can it’s about like me I go to my wife cuz I don’t know how to claim I think one other thing to mention as well in terms of you mentioned you know is is it dated I think well bt1 and
Bt2 were only built in 2018 yeah so you know they they’re really new comparatively one thing we’ve heard a lot of open days you know particularly people with with parents in Northern Ireland or even from the Republic is that um you know they’ll say oh the Elms
That’s where the towers are isn’t it cuz way back in the day kind of they would have been these big T tower blocks down there I never even knew that so there were big TOS it’s not like that proper Village so we have a rolling refurbishment plan um and there is a
Full life cycle in place for the next few years you know in terms of okay these blocks need to be refurbished I mean the ones that got refurbished last year some of um some of our on Suite build buildings within bt9 look amazing they’re really really good we also then
Updated the treeh house as well so as CL mentioned the treeh house you know was it is the social Center we’ve moved reception there as well there’s the coffee bar there there’s brand new there’s a karaoke room which is great uh there’s a full breakout area um you know
There hosting kitchens so you can actually bring friends and family to The elm’s Treehouse and have a bit of a party in one of our kitchens I was down at the start of this year actually one of your colleagues showed me around the Treehouse and I was like this is
Unbelievable like I’m not even just saying this those hosting kitens or class you know when you want to bring friends and family across and you’re maybe in a communal kitchen or you’re all trying to eat in your room having that space where you can bring everybody
Have a mail around the table it it’s prant like and there’s an outdoor area as well summer it’s fantastic yeah really really good no I I’m thinking of like maybe hosting my kids next birthday party in it or something it’s it’s honestly it is really really good so I
Think we have we’ve squashed that one it’s not D it it’s not old not a mess it’s new it’s constantly being refurbished and there’s loads of amazing facilities there if you don’t like your room you have to stay there all year probably that’s going to happen at
Some point for people so is there processes in place uh for people to move rooms if they need to and when would that be generally we wouldn’t encourage um room moves in the first sort of few weeks or even months because there is that adjustment in settling in Period so
Especially you know if you’ve never lived away from home you could walk in and go oh this isn’t for me but moving isn’t necessarily going to solve the problem it’s more of an adjustment in the settling in Period so we would rather let that period pass first and um
If people still are feeling that way they can come and talk to the residential life team for example or they can talk to allocations and sort of talk to us about why they feel they’re not comfortable in that space and and really if it is something that’s going
To affect their well-being then yes um there is opportunities there to move room but we would usually try and encourage students to resolve the issues first there’s going to be a lot of people that move at home for the first time they’re going to be feeling a bit
Anxious and it is like you say it’s not a room thing it’s just a situation thing getting used to being away from home and then as you say there CLA our well-being of our students is Absolut Paramount so if it is going to affect your well-being
It will be something that that we can look into moving so um no that’s a thank you for for explaining that the next one then it can be lonely in student accom a quite a negative to we’ been so busy quite a negative but I’m sure it can’t
Be lonely for people at times you know they’re we’ve just said there moving away for the first time do you have do you experience that that people are feeling yeah I mean it’s only natural again moving away from everything you’ve known in the past um you know and you’ve
Got your own bedroom so it can happen where students sort of do feel that loneliness because it’s different to everything they’ve known before um but the one thing I will say is that uh you know that’s part of my role as residential life coordinator we’re doing everything we can to promote a community
Environment we’ve got lots going on um so you know there’s lots of ways to get involved and meet people you don’t have to come as part of a grip some people think oh I I would only go if if my friend comes with me but no you know
Lots of people come on their own to trips to events and that’s how you meet people and and make friends again part main part of our role is making Ure the students are supported and um you know signposting them in the right direction if they are struggling um so you know
There’s people that they can talk to and we can suggest ways of you know getting involved or you know if if you do feel that you want to speak to somebody more on a on toone basis that’s something that we can arrange and sign post as
Well yeah like you said there it is inevitable some people are going to feel lonely others are going to jump into accommodation it’s just going to be like straight away they’re going to have an amazing experience others there will be a bit of an adjustment but I think the
Really interesting important thing there is that there is support available and you will be supported and we don’t just pay lip service to that like there’s so much support at coins for any students that are suffering with anything and loneliness and accommodation is one of those key things so it’s great that you
Guys are are in place to help with that we’ve talked a lot about their the application process the rooms a we bit about what it’s like and we’ll talk about that a bit more in a second but what are the other elements of accommodation that people maybe don’t
Expect so the one that always stands out to me is security security there is there’s 24 hour security at our accommodation location isn’t that right so within bt9 we have a security barrier um you know people can walk around it you know in terms of students that don’t
Have to you know beep in every time they come in and out the village the way that it works is throughout the day you know visitors and people can come and go as they please you know there is a security guard there throughout the day overnight
There is then you know a security guard at the barrier and an increased security presence on site and you know after a certain time people will just get challenged and you just show your student card just to prove your a student especially for parents maybe watching you that gives a little bit of
Reassurance that you know you can’t just you know anyone can’t just walk on you know they there needs to be kind of some form of proving and you know but at the same time it’s not obstructive so the students that live here AR thinking why am I getting challenged going into my
Own house um bt1 and two again they’ve got reception there between 8:00 a. and 800 p.m. and again they have to beep into the building uh with their with their key fob and then at night time there’s security around as well and in bt1 and two even though there’s not a
Security guard on site 24 hours a day there is a safety team just at the other end of the the phone so if they did feel that they needed to speak to somebody from the safety team there is always someone available excellent good to know the other thing I wanted to mention was
And you’ve already touched on it was the The Cleaning Service uh that they offer through the housekeepers so it is just to verify it is just communal areas but when we’re talking about communal areas we’re talking about communal kitchens um sort of social spaces what other areas
Would they kind of clean well in terms of the communal areas it does differ a little bit between El’s Village and City Center accommodation so in Elms Village b29 the housekeepers would um sort of do a light clean of the kitchen area and if you’re shared bathroom sell you know do
A light clean of those but again we do still encourage students to clean up their own mess because it’s not for the housekeepers coming in and you know emptying overflowing bins or you know trying to clean dish or sinks that are full of dishes in bt1 and two though
However the housekeepers don’t go into the communial kitchens everyone has an own Suite room in bt1 and two so they’re responsible for cleaning their own bathroom and the housekeepers don’t clean the communal kitens the reason for this is because it’s slightly smaller Flats whereas in bt9 it would you’d be
Sharing 10 to 11 people in BT one and two you’d be sharing maximum five or six yeah six would be the maximum so again we do encourage students to um you know get together as a group and arrange clean rers and things like that the
Other thing I heard and I wasn’t sure on it there’s a laundry service but it’s not people are going to do your laundry no it there’s there’s like washers and dryers and stuff onite um so you still have to do some washing yeah yeah yeah but it’s amazing that you have those
Facilities so that people you you maybe pay a small fee for those is it or how they work yeah it is it’s an itte company called circuit laundry that um oversee it all but again um all the laundry rooms are quite close to reception or residential life so again
If you’ve never used a washing machine before there’s always somebody that can show you and give you a bit of a hand amazing so there are those other elements to it the last thing I um a student told me about there’s a postal service whereby if you get a package delivered to
Accommodation you just go pick it up a reception they sign for and stuff yeah so um when the parcels arrive reception log it onto our computerized parcel system which would then automatically send the student an email to set it’s ready to collect and you can come and collect it
Um as you can imagine in September there’s a lot of parcels so you may get notification from Amazon that your Parcels arrived but you do need to wait for the email from the reception team because they need a bit of time to log up I suppose the good thing about that
Is you’re not making any trips to the post office cuz you the delivery so all your Parcels are going to get delivery yeah there’s no reason why um a parcel would be left anywhere or taken back to the depot cuz we can look after all Parcels even if you’re gone home for a
Couple of weeks we’ll actually hang on your Parcels for up to a month so if you go home for a couple of weeks or you’re away on holiday your parcel will be there when you get back excellent now CL you’ve spoken a few times about residential life and that is your role
Want to chat specifically about that for a couple of minutes so what what and who are the residential Lifetime and what do you guys actually do okay so the residential lifetime we have residential life coordinators based in bt9 bt1 and bt2 at the minute um and they’re
Employed staff un their Queen staff um so our role really is to promote student well-being to provide support and then there’s also the fun side of the job as well we do events and trips and basically lots of fun activities and to encourage people to get involved and you
Know make friends and um we also have a team of residential assistants that are students now the one thing about being a residential assistant is you need to have lived in student accommodation before so quite a a lot of our residential assistants are returning students um but we also have residential
Assistants that are new to Queens but have lived in student accommodation maybe they’re postgraduates and did their undergraduate in a different University so first thing I want to touch on there is tell me about some of these events and trips yeah and can I come along yes to be honest although all
Our events and trips are geared towards students particularly the events there’s no reason why you can’t come along by all means what sort of stuff we talking here you mentioned karaoke earli I a big fan of karaoke yeah karaoke Mike nights um the funny thing we laugh about it
Quite often the most popular events that we run involve food you know students you know we all love a free meal somewhere along the line um luckily this year we had some fantastic Bakers and Cooks on our res um as part of the residential assistant team so we’ve had cinnamon roll night
We’ve had potluck dinners um we’ve had Valentine’s cookies um mocktails has has been a big head as well um but apart from food we also do like craft events um one big hit they year was a a crochet event that we ran so it was it was a big hit um we also
Had karaoke Open Mic nights um and also quizzes I love a quiz yeah well and that’s we have had a couple of quizzes but that’s something that we’re planning to pay more Focus to next year because quizzes are really really popular Bingo as well you know all the kind of
Traditional stuff too and all this happens within the accommodation locations you know it’ll happen in the treehouse it’ll happen in in Social spaces in bt1 or two um amazing and then are there there those are kind of events in House events are there trips that you
Guys do outside of the the campus y so during the main academic year up until exam period really we run a trip once a week usually on a Saturday um actually we usually run one on a Saturday and a Sunday um during the main part of the
Year and some of the trips this year have been ice skating we went ice skating uh we a new one for this year was goat yoga goat yoga yeah which is fantastic yeah we got some pictures up in the treehouse and on our socials so
If anybody wants to have a look at that what is goat yoga got to explain that to me so goat yoga is basically we take the students to a big barn and we’ve got a yoga instructor there and there’s little pygmy goats just basically running free
So while you’re doing your salute to the Sun or whatever the your the goat could be on your shoulders or nibbling at your feet but um say everybody really really enjoyed that so we’ll definitely be doing that again next year um at the start of the Academic Year we do quite a
Lot of sort of shoing trips to help people get set set up in their rooms so there’ll be the likes of Ikea um Asian supermarket um we’ve done a trip up to Forest side shoping Center as well um so things like that that are actually going
To help students um so it it means that they don’t need to bring everything with them they know that we we’ll head up to ik care and they can pick up all their bits and pieces too I thought recording podcast was fun I want to be a residen live coordinator that’s sounds amazing
Fun there’s all those things happening and you mentioned that the residential assistants help with that yeah and that they have to have lived in in Queens accommodation um and they have to have lived in student accommodation s okay um I assume if anyone out there’s
Thinking I would love to do that at some stage I assume there’s there’s perks to that there’s going to be the obvious perks of helping run those events and gaining the skills from those communication skills leadership organization did they get paid do they get money off their rent how does how
Does that work for so um it has actually changed quite recently um this the residential assistance now get paid through Q work um so and we guarantee them 15 hours a week of paid work in within accommodation so the sort of um rules that they would be carrying out
Would be running our free coffee bar which I didn’t mentioned before we do have free coffee bars in all sites for the students to come along all the time all day um in elm’s Village it’s all day um we’re looking at possibly doing it all day in the city Center but because
There’re smaller um accommodations we’re maybe going to try it and see how popular it is um but certainly in the evenings on all sides there’s free tea and coffee so the residential assistants would be helping to run that um they would also be doing drop-ins at the in the accommodations in the communal
Kitchens so that gives students who live in accommodation an opportunity to ask questions but the residential assistants will also keep an eye and and say they see anything maybe that needs fixed or if there’s any housekeeping issues they would report them back to us or communicate with the students if they
Feel that there’s something that the the students could be doing to make their environment more comfortable too you mentioned there about maintenance and that’s inevitable of of living away from home things are going to need fixed or or done up and we have a maintenance team in place yeah what kind of things
Might go wrong or Does anything go wrong surely not too much goes wrong does it uh well to be honest I mean it’s like any sort of accommodation you know things things happen um unexpected can happen but again maybe a lake or your show is not working all those things
Their staff there to kind of sort it the maintenance team are actually on 24-hour call out as well so you know if something is an emergency and it goes wrong at 2 o’clock in the morning we can call somebody out disorted I mean we’re not going to call somebody out at 2
O’clock in the morning to change a light bulb but you know there is somebody always available if if need be what as a has there been any 2 a.m. College oh a lot yeah I did I did hear one where literally that we had we had a student
That kind of said you know the called the emergency line and was like my lights won’t turn off like this is turn off won’t turn off like you I I can’t go to sleep like there’s this automatic light it won’t turn off you know and you
Know this is 2: in the morning you know they give give the guy the guy and call you know a shout and kind of said look can you come out you know this is this is the case came out you know was there to to help fix the students light you
Know where’s the automatic light that won’t turn off it wasn’t actually an automatic light at a light switch they had not seen oh my God so he literally got in and was like let off fixed but he did it he did he fixed the problem my goodness imagine 2 a.m. the automatic
Lights aren’t working we’ve had similar situations with Heaton as well where you know especially in the winter if Heaton’s not working it is a cight um and we’ve had a maintenance engineer come out and basically turn on the radiator which is yeah so it sounds like there’s nothing wrong with que
Accommodation people just don’t know how to turn on light switches and turn on but I suppose again it’s important to note that for those we maintenance things that can go wrong and will crop up in any accommodation there’s staff there that can can help with that 100%
Amazing okay folks I’m going to um kind of sum up and summarize sort of final thoughts so if there’s anyone out there listening to this and thinks that sounds great watching this and they’re thinking I’d love to live in Queen’s accommodation what would be your bit of advice to anybody that’s thinking of
Moving into Queens accommodation firstly Don’t Panic as as I’ve tried to reiterate a few times with there’s so many different areas particularly with the application process and choosing where they’re going to be and you know there’s so much support within Queens accommodation just call us or ask you
Know the there’s a reception team if there’s anything people need you know help with in terms of that the allocations team in terms of you know the the application in terms of room types and like that you know people worrying about what life’s going to be like there there’s a whole residential
Life team as cla’s mentioned um you know there’s so much support there but I suppose if you’re applying or if you’ve got any questions ask them check the website call us email us we we we’re here to help people kind of feel they’re bothering us by giving us a call it’s
Our job like so um I’d say that’s probably my biggest tip I kind of feel that living in student accommodation is part of the whole university experience even if you only do it for your first year come down and do it you know as y said there’s lots of support there’s
Great facilities and it’s just a there’s goat yoga yeah there’s goat yoga I mean what more could you want there’s free buns and you know tea coffee and no there’s there’s lots going on and particularly if you’re living away from home for the first time it’s a great
Opportunity to meet people make friends and I think it’s a bit of reassurance for your parents or Guardians to know that there’s that bit of support there as well there’s always somebody um looking out for you and there’s always somebody you can talk to as well which
You’re not not really going to get in private accommodation amazing both of you thank you so much for joining us today that’s been really really insightful really really helpful um and I don’t know about you but I’m going straight to the treeh house to get some
Free tea and coffee I’m going to go and Google goat yoga no idea yeah don’t make sure that happens next year too thank you both so much for joining us and thank you everyone for listening to this or watching this podcast if you do need any more information about the
Combination at Queens you can obviously check out their website as the guys uh said or you can email student recruitment at qub.ac.uk and we will forward any questions to the guys that you might have thank you very much for listening and hopefully see you all on
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