Apply for postgraduate accommodation

We offer a variety of student halls and houses for you to choose, depending on your lifestyle and budget. You may find it useful to consider the following factors when deciding on your living space:

• self-catered/meals provided
• availability of ensuite shower/toilet facilities
• rent
• how close it is to your academic building, the city centre, or your choice of social or sports facilities
• and for some students, the availability of residences during the summer vacation (all of the university residences allow you to stay during Christmas and Easter vacations)

To ensure you are guaranteed a single occupancy place in accommodation, you must:

• submit your online application and make a £250 non-refundable pre-payment by Monday 29 July 2024
• receive/accept an unconditional offer to study by Friday 30 August 2024

If you miss these deadlines, we will do our best to accommodate you and your application will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis.

Application order

Your application is processed in date order, according to two dates:

• the first is the date we receive confirmation from Admissions of your unconditional offer to study
• the second is the date of receipt of your application

British Council or sponsored postgraduates

British Council or sponsored postgraduate students are exempt from paying the £250 pre-payment.

To qualify for this exemption, you must save your online application and forward suitable documentary evidence that you are a British Council student, or alternatively proof of sponsorship of your living expenses, to the Residences Office by email: residences@cardiff.ac.uk or by fax: +44 (0)29 2087 4661.

If you do not save your online application and provide this evidence by Monday 29 July 2024, you will not be guaranteed a place in accommodation.

We will try to offer you one of your higher preferences when allocating you a place in accommodation.

If there is not a vacancy in your first choice of accommodation, we will consider all your other choices in priority order until we can locate a vacancy for you.

Because the residences vary in the numbers of students they accommodate and some are more popular than others, obtaining your higher preferences can't be guaranteed. If your preferred accommodation is no longer available, we will make you what we consider a suitable alternative offer.

It is our policy to house students in mixed flats in terms of gender and nationality/race wherever possible, including study bedrooms on the ground floor. If you would prefer to live in a single gender flat, please let us know in your online application.

If you will be living in Clodien House, the following does not apply and you will receive further information directly from Unite.

In late July/August/September, you will receive an email telling you that your application has been processed and asking you to view and accept your room offer online.

You must accept your online room offer within five days or your offer will expire and the room will be allocated to another student. Therefore it is important for you to check your email account during this period.

Please note: some email providers may treat the email as spam, so please check your spam/junk mail folder as well as your inbox.

Your online room offer contains:

• contract
• written statement/terms and conditions
• arrival Information
• paying for residences guidelines

When accepting your room offer / accommodation contract, you will be asked to confirm you do not have a relevant unspent criminal conviction where there are restrictions in place which may preclude you from living in University accommodation. Please contact us if you have a precluding criminal conviction. For further information on how we process your data, please read the student privacy notice.

Once you have accepted your room offer, your room will be reserved for you and you will receive an email confirming this.

You will be offered a place for a set period and once you accept your room offer, you become liable for the rent for the contract period stated on your contract.

To finally guarantee your place in accommodation, you must arrive and collect your room key within the dates/times specified in the arrival information.

If you are unable to arrive within the specified dates, your room offer will be withdrawn and your room allocated to another student. We will no longer be able to guarantee you a place in accommodation and you will need to contact the Residences Office when your travel date is confirmed to check room availability.