Regency Halls University Accomodation

...the chance to live in Regency Halls University Accommodation for my first year of university, I jumped at this chance as I felt it would give me a real experience of student life. Regency Halls University Accommodation was built in September of 2006, they provide accommodation for students attending the University of Gloucestershire. It is situated about 2 minutes from Cheltenham town centre opposite the local blockbuster. These halls are not situated ...
...Room
The rooms at Regency have a single bed, an en suite bathroom which has a shower and a toilet, a desk with a chair, a telephone and a wardrobe. My room size is around 11 feet in length by around 10 feet in width, the room sizes vary, as I was allocated with the room that is meant to be allocated to disabled people. The rooms have the capability of internet, terrestrial television and radio if you bring your own computer, television and ... more

In mid September 2006, I was offered the chance to live in Regency Halls University Accommodation for my first year of university, I jumped at this chance as I felt it would give me a real experience of student life. Regency Halls University Accommodation was built in September of 2006, they provide accommodation for students attending the University of Gloucestershire. It is situated about 2 minutes from Cheltenham town centre opposite the local blockbuster. These halls are not situated on campus, but they are about 15 minutes walk away from Francis Close Hall campus and Pittville campus. There are 99 rooms at these halls which have en suite bathrooms and a kitchen for each flat which consists of 8 to 9 rooms, there are 3 flats on each floor. These halls are self catering (as you will probably only live there if you are a student, like me). There are also two washing machines which charge £1.50 per wash and there is a dryer which charges £1.20.

The Room
The rooms at Regency have a single bed, an en suite bathroom which has a shower and a toilet, a desk with a chair, a telephone and a wardrobe. My room size is around 11 feet in length by around 10 feet in width, the room sizes vary, as I was allocated with the room that is meant to be allocated to disabled people. The rooms have the capability of internet, terrestrial television and radio if you bring your own computer, television and radio. There are 8 plug in points for electrical items, and these are situated around the desk area. There is also a desk lamp which is on the desk.

However to my amazement, the windows in this room cannot open due to the fact there is no way to open them unless you put your foot through it. I noticed the heat as soon as I arrived in September to start my studies at the University of Gloucestershire. The room temperature was around 30 degrees Celsius, and stayed for it for around 8 weeks and due to this, I have the opportunity to claim £100 in compensation for this period, I have the option to write to the accommodation office and ask for more, something which I will be doing!

I have been paying £89 a week since September for my accommodation this is including all my bills such as water and electricity, but I have to buy a TV licence myself, this has been slightly higher than people on other campus' who have been paying around £85 for their rooms a week. I pay for my accommodation 3 times over my year I spend here, which usually come to around £1,400.

Also on arrival, I noticed other basic facilities missing, like the light bulb in my light, how was I supposed to see?

Another issue in my halls is the noise, which should be expected to be honest, as I doubt drunken students stumbling in at 3am are not going to be very quiet. This issue has been addressed to us by our warden or "dean", somebody who I will complain and bitch about later in this review.

The Bathroom
My bathroom is considerably larger than any of my fellow students rooms, mainly due to the fact that it is suitable for people in wheelchairs. There is a walk-in shower which is great because I don't need to worry about falling over in the shower if I am hung-over the morning after a night out. There is also a sink which comes up to my knees my room is meant to be for people in wheelchairs. There is also a toilet, which requires more than one tug in order for it to flush. Now then, I feel the toilet is probably one of the worst toilets I have ever pooed in, not just for the functionality, but also due to the fact that it is rather like a basketball hoop turned 180 degrees, as your turd will often bounce in off the "back board" and as a result leave multiple skid marks. Which brings me to my next point, THERE IS NO TOILET BRUSH PROVIDED! Unfortunately this has provided to be an embarrassment for me as people other than myself are afraid to use the toilet as they think there is a dead rat in there.

The Hallway
The hallway is a long corridor with various parts jutting off. To create the concept of different rooms, The hallway was the coolest (temperature wise) area of the building to be, one of my fellow flatmates spent a lot of time down here as he was too hot in his room in the first 8 weeks. During this time, I placed a doorstop on my door to keep it open and to try and cool my room down.

The Kitchen
The kitchen is around 17 feet in length and 20 feet in width. There is a cooker with a grill, two sinks, a refrigerator and a freezer, a microwave and a two tables and 8 chairs. Each student in the flat is allocated a shelf in both the refrigerator and the freezer. Students are also provided with two cupboards, one of which is lockable.

The kitchen in my flat has various pros and cons. The first and only pro is that the things do their job. Now with the cons, and not due to the fact of the halls, but of the students living there. The sink is full of mouldy dishes, anybody for a bit of penicillin? Secondly, I have now had to lock my cupboard, due to the fact that food has been stolen from my cupboard, my cutlery and crockery has also gone missing and as a result I have moved it into my room so no more can be stolen. Unfortunately, I cannot prevent the bandits from taking my food in my fridge shelf and my freezer as these cannot be locked, and if I find these people who take my food, they WILL be castrated.

The "staff"
Firstly I will start with the cleaners. The first set of cleaners were Mongolian, and were recently sacked for not doing their jobs properly, as they were meant to clean each room once every 2 weeks, but only did it once every 6 weeks. Upon hearing that they were sacked, they decided to steal cash from American international students drawers. I also asked the cleaners to clean my skid mark infested toilet on many occasions, or to provide a brush that I could do it myself, but they did not. There was also a spill in the refrigerator which I asked them to clean up, but they didn't. Of course, I am a student and I am far too lazy to do these things myself.

Secondly there is the warden or the "dean" *shudders*. The job of this person is to make sure everything runs smoothly in halls, and problems are dealt with by them. My warden is called "Nicole". Where do I start? Recently, there was damage caused to my kitchen by as far as I know people who do not live in my flat. This damage was caused because they decided to throw plates against the walls, resulting in many dents in the walls. The warden explains to us that WE, the people in my flat who knew nothing to do with this are going to get charged to repair this damage, rather than the warden actually trying to find out who did it.

Secondly, the warden does pretty much nothing. My shower was turned off as a result of cowboy plumbers fixing a leak, and it took over a week for the warden to call maintenance. When we complained that the building was too hot, the excuse was that the building was "new".

Thirdly, and this is where I blew my top. About a week ago, the warden decided to call a fire drill at 8am when I was in the shower and getting ready for a 9.15am lecture. It was obvious, that she had woken up about an hour before hand, and got ready to call this fire drill, had a shower, had breakfast unlike the rest of us. However, this was no ordinary fire drill, we were forced to stand outside in the cold whilst "Nicole" ranted to us about the noise levels in Halls, she also included that she was going to "ruin our experience in halls".

Conclusion
In conclusion, I feel that if you were offered this kind of accommodation to study at University, you should only reject it if you do not want to meet truly brilliant people, and that is pretty much the only positive factor with living in Regency Halls, the people. However, if you want to focus on your studies rather than a social life, I would recommend looking for a house to rent, because you may not be able to cope with the noise levels as a result of drunk and rowdy students, and the fact that your food will probably get stolen.
 

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