Home / Residence life
Living here
Residence life
The house rules, who you live with, and what happens when something breaks at eleven at night.
Quiet hours
Quiet hours run from 11pm to 8am on weeknights and midnight to 9am at weekends, and they tighten during the December and April examination periods. A residence full of people writing finals polices this better than any staff member could.
Who you live with
You get a private bedroom in a four-bedroom suite. We place people by year of study, programme and the answers you give on the application about sleep and tidiness. Tell us if you want to be placed with someone specific and we will hold rooms in the same suite where we can.
Guests
Guests are welcome and overnight guests are fine for a night or two. Beyond that it stops being a guest and starts being a fifth person in a four-person suite, which the other three did not agree to. Talk to your suitemates first — that is the whole rule.
Getting in and staying safe
Controlled entrances, cameras at the door, and a lock on your own bedroom as well as on the suite. Nobody gets into the building behind you unless you let them, and you should not let them.
When something breaks
Report it and on-site maintenance handles it. Heat, water and power are ours to fix and they are already in your rent, so there is no bill at the end of it and no reason to live with a tap that drips for a term.
No pets, no smoking
Neither, in either building. Both rules exist because a shared suite gives one person’s exception to three other people without asking them.
The year
Nine months, September to May
The lease runs 9 months, which covers the academic year with room at either end for the week you arrive and the week you pack. Quiet hours tighten in December and April, because a building full of people writing finals sets its own rules.
A shorter summer term runs June to August on the two larger room types, at a lower weekly rate. It is the right option for a co-op placement or a summer of research that does not need a full year’s lease.
A residence works when four people who did not choose each other can still find the kitchen clean. Most of these rules are just that idea, written down.