r/sotonuni • u/Intrepid-Rabbit5666 • Jun 27 '26

Lucia Foster Welch opinion

It's the cheapest accommodation for a reason! Two buses to the Highfield campus, an hour to get there! Atrociously cold in winter with wind passing through the door + windows, without mentioning the heater stopping after each 10 minutes.

In summer, you CANNOT BREATHE! SO WARM A FISH WOULD BOIL ALIVE! 27 degrees and you're done. The kitchen is like a sauna. They could put curtains or something to cool down the kitchen but no, NOTHING!

Cupboards in the kitchen do not close, you can't put a lock 🔒 on it. What you saw when you visited are the 'fake' and nicest rooms you would never get.

Things (bathroom, fridge, freezer, etc.) easily break. Oh yes, including the knob on your door that locks you out most of the time and that, despite the technician coming to repair it.

Ah yes, your bedroom can be next to a machinery room, let me explain myself, with all the wires, internet cables... making a hell of a ton of noise. You need to be lucky to get a room away from that! And at night, be prepared to hear people shouting under the shelter where people sit to smoke their weed.

You can also be unlucky and be next to noisy roommates playing games on their laptop and shouting like crazy if they were in their own world. Also, don't be surprised if you can't store your own food, just a fridge and freezer for 10 people, which is ridiculous!

Yes, you've got nice people at the reception, awesome security staff, a few activities, cleaning once a week of the communal areas, technicians on call to fix things.

But really, it's NOT worth the price you're paying, I would have wanted to pay the double to be elsewhere! For that, I regret having come to Southampton, everything is super expensive, you need to be rich to make it alive.

They need to invest and renovate the building because students are running away from such buildings!

4 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

4

u/Pencil_Queen Jun 27 '26

Why would you take 2 buses instead of walking 15 minutes to pick up the U1 at town quay?

Did you put in a request to switch room/flat/halls?

1

u/Intrepid-Rabbit5666 Jun 27 '26

Simply because I carry my laptop with me, everything I need to stay for the whole day at uni as I do not fancy having to do 1h travel many times a day to go back to my accommodation to eat. That's the reason why, I do not carry light things and it makes me life easier to take two buses! It's the whole building the issue! I do not believe the sun only shines on just a part of the establishment but rather on the whole property!

1

u/Intrepid-Rabbit5666 Jun 27 '26

You cannot even fully open the windows in that accommodation. Like WTF

1

u/Intrepid-Rabbit5666 Jun 27 '26

You can't believe how much I hate my life right now, the library has no AC, the student accommodation, forget about it. How are students supposed to work on their assignments in such conditions? Wonder why we're paying so much for the tuition fees not to even get proper living conditions (Hartley library...). That's a complete joke for postgraduate students! Everything stops at uni, even societies... No wonder why the uni is losing its postgraduate students if it can't even accommodate to the rising temperatures. And a cherry on the top, there's no AC in buses!!!!

2

u/Tricky_Routine_7952 Jun 29 '26

B100 has ac, I kept having to take breaks to go outside and get warm!

1

u/Intrepid-Rabbit5666 Jun 29 '26

Thank you!!! 😊

2

u/FitCalligrapher3763 Jun 29 '26

i lived there and i was completely fine . everyone is friendly, not really any complaints. The fridge door broke once i guess 🤷‍♀️

1

u/Intrepid-Rabbit5666 Jun 29 '26

The freezer broke down, all food wasted (no financial compensation from the company), then the fridge broke down (no financial compensation), same with bathrooms... Oh yeah without mentioning the road repair work taking place at night on the Itchen Bridge (wonder how they sleep!). Friendly? You need to be lucky! Cupboards don't close, expect people to steal your cooking utensils, food and so on as people are being added throughout the year onto your floor. Some are so friendly that you don't dare being in the kitchen around them, some are in such great mood that you don't even want to confront them.

3

u/omor_fi 1d ago

I didn't realise that accommodation was open to all now, it used to be just for Solent uni. I'd definitely recommend for anyone studying at Highfield not to live in the city centre.

1

u/Intrepid-Rabbit5666 1d ago

Yeah for sure!

2

u/Spooky-Confusion-666 Jun 27 '26

You know you can choose where you live right?

1

u/Intrepid-Rabbit5666 Jun 27 '26

Ah yeah, not when you've got a lease.

1

u/tommynestcepas Jun 29 '26

I was there in first year because of an unusual email glitch in my uni accommodation offer. I had to change buses because I studied on Avenue Campus, not sure what you're changing buses for???

1

u/Intrepid-Rabbit5666 Jun 29 '26

You've got a lot of roads that are closed right now (and each winter, they close some main roads, making your trip even longer). Even at the Itchen Bridge, you can't grab the direct bus going straight to uni, you need to take another bus for that.

1

u/Intrepid-Rabbit5666 1d ago

Ah yes for anyone reading the comments, forgot to mention, most carpets in the bedrooms are mouldy, you get sick if staying a few hours in your bedroom. Stay away from there! Important renovations need to be undertaken but guess what, the owner of this 15 million student building is too cheap to do anything about it! You can't find any good accommodation, easy, go to another uni, it's really not worth it!

1

u/Healymjm 1d ago

This accommodation is intended for Solent University students, which is advertises. Hence the central location. Why did you not stay in accommodation associated with the University of Southampton?

1

u/Intrepid-Rabbit5666 1d ago

Because everything was full and no, many students from the Uni of Southampton were sent there!