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Are Halls a Recipe for Disaster?

Ingredients:
Gather together a large group of students who have never lived away from home before, add alcohol, a large bag of hormones and loud music. Separate students into their own rooms and gradually sieve through to common room, shared kitchen and unisex bathroom. Leave to settle in for Freshers Week till alcohol levels rise and cook up to a warm temperature. Leave over night and serve up with hangover and fry up to lecturers, deadlines and assessment.

student halls Living in Halls is a great way to make new friends and to experience living away from home under a protected environment without the extra hassle of excess bills and dodgy landlords. By living in Halls you can guarantee that you have somewhere convenient, safe and warm to stay for your first year.

The most common arrangement is a single study bedroom with access to kitchen facilities, which is known as 'single self catering'. Other types of self-catering arrangements also exist, the most predominant being 'self-catering en suite'. In addition to self-catering, some universities and colleges have accommodation that offers a part or full board arrangement providing a certain number of meals (i.e. breakfast and evening meal) Some will also own or manage houses which they rent to students on a shared basis.

Whatever halls your college or university has available for its students, the most important aspect of living in halls is learning to live with people from all over the UK that you have never met before. CCUK offers you some top tips for smooth sailing in your new home

"Love thy Neighbour" - remember that your neighbour, or neighbours, have
as much right to be there as you, so be polite and try and make the effort get along.

"Respect in da house" - whilst you may be the coolest 'Hard House Techno Trance Kid' on the block, not everyone is going to share your taste in music so try and show a bit of respect by not blasting it out of your room every minute of the day!

"What time d'ya call this?" - living with a mixture of people means that you are likely to share different social habits. Therefore, if you are staggering in at all hours of the morning remember that there may be students who have exams or important assessments in the morning, so 'keep the noise down!'

"Who pinched my sausage?" - one of the greatest arguments amongst students, particularly in self-catering halls, is the pinching of other people's food or the misuse of others cooking utensils. It really is important, in order to keep a happy ship, to respect the property of others - no matter how much you've got the munchies. So stop being lazy, put your trainers on, pop down to the local shop and as the note will most likely otherwise say on the fridge "buy your own food!"

This may make it sound like living in halls is a recipe for disaster. However, each year, thousands of students relish in the 'halls experience' making some fantastic friends and establishing a firm foundation for the rest of their time at university. So learn to find the balance between enjoying your newfound freedom and respecting others, and then get stuck in and cook yourself up a treat!

For more information on living at halls contact the student-housing department at your university or college, or contact the National Union of Student by logging onto www.nusonline.co.uk

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Are Halls a Recipe for Disaster?

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