Supported returning students

We accept written support from:

Wellbeing Services

The University of Exeter Wellbeing Services team, made up of counsellors and mental health practitioners, are all highly skilled and experienced.  
 
Our Mental Health and Psychological Therapies teams are available to offer advice, therapeutic and practical support to help students cope personally and to manage their studies. 

• Telephone: 01392 724381 
• Email: wellbeing@exeter.ac.uk 

Our AccessAbility team are disability specialists dedicated to supporting students with a disability or long-term health condition including Specific Learning Difficulties and Autism Spectrum Conditions. 

• Telephone: 01392 723880 

• Email: AccessAbility@exeter.ac.uk 

As there are a number of teams within Wellbeing Services, if you are unsure which team to speak to please call 01392 724381, email wellbeing@exeter.ac.uk or speak to them on instant chat and the team will be happy to guide you. 

Student Health Centre

The Student Health Centre is available to all registered University of Exeter students and is located within Reed Mews on the Streatham Campus. 

Please note - written support from the Student Health Centre must be sent to Wellbeing Services. 

Exeter Cares 

If you have engaged with the Exeter Cares team then you are able to apply for Supported Returners accommodation. Please write in the application notes that you are receiving support from Exeter Cares, and we will verify this with the team when we come to process your application. 

• Applications for wellbeing-supported returning students will open from 9:00am on Tuesday 25 February 2025. We recommend that you submit your application by Tuesday 12 March 2025 (the "initial deadline").
• All applications for returning students will be made via the online accommodation portal. If you already have an accommodation account active, you will need to use the same login details as you have previously. If you have not previously applied for accommodation you will need to use the First Visit section to validate your account in order to apply.
• You will need to apply using the application type 'Wellbeing Supported Returner'.
• Within the application, you will need to indicate that you have a medical/wellbeing requirement or that you are an Exeter Cares student. 
  
• Please be advised that without written confirmation of support from one of the University of Exeter support services, your application will be not be processed. 
  
• Please note that we are unable to guarantee availability or preferred residence and will keep in touch with you during this process. 

We appreciate that wellbeing-supported students will have highly individual requirements.   

• When applying for accommodation, you will not be given the options for specific residences and will only be able to choose the type of accommodation and the standard of room you require to meet your needs. 
   
• Please then advise us in the notes section, on the second page of the application form, the residence and contract length you would prefer. We also recommend that you advise us of any additional preferences, such as wanting to live in designated quiet accommodation, that you might have. We would reiterate, however, that we cannot guarantee to be able to meet your preference of residence.
   
• Our  Adjustments to accommodation webpage provides specific information about accessible accommodation and other adjustments which can be made to support you living with us. 

As we house mainly first year undergraduate students and new international postgraduates, any returning students will need to understand that they are highly likely to be allocated to accommodation amongst students who are not of a similar age or study level to themselves.

If you are a wellbeing supported returning student then you are most likely to be living with predominantly 18 year-old freshers. 

• You can indicate certain lifestyle-related preferences in your application, which we will consider when allocating you accommodation. Whether we can meet these preferences depends on the number of students making similar requests and the availability of accommodation. If you indicate multiple additional preferences, we cannot prioritise one additional preference over another, so we may be able to meet one or some, but not all requests. 
  
  
• Due to students moving rooms throughout the year, it may not be possible to maintain the initial dominant preference of a flat. We will, however, ensure that a flat remains single gender.  
  
  
• Due to projected demand, it may also be necessary for us to change a residence from being undergraduate to postgraduate (or vice versa) from one academic year to another. We may also need to alter the contract length that a residence is available for. Therefore, please check the information on our website (available from late January) to see if there have been any changes made to a residence which you are interested in for the coming academic year. 

Where there is sufficient demand and we have the availability, we are able to offer designated quiet accommodation across most of our university owned and managed self-catered undergraduate residences. If you feel you would benefit from living in designated quiet accommodation then please select this additional preference on your application form. 

Though we don't implement formal restrictions, we anticipate students will reach an informal agreement and set expectations amongst themselves to show extra consideration to their flatmates and neighbours by keeping noise to a minimum wherever possible, and to adopt a moderated lifestyle in respect of the way they socialise within the accommodation.

We provide signage in our quiet flats to encourage residents and their guests to be mindful to avoid making unnecessary noise. Communal living will always involve some level of noise and unfortunately, we can’t control the level of external or environmental noises.

Due to the layout of the catered residences, we cannot offer designated quiet catered accommodation. We will look to group students together who express a preference for quiet catered accommodation, but this may be alongside other students who have not requested quiet.

Once your application is received, and after the initial closing date, we will then review all the applications. 

This will include: 

• Checking your student status to see if you are currently enrolled or on a period of interruption
• Confirming the room type requested is available 
• Confirming with Wellbeing Services that the allocation proposed is suitable 

This process can take some time, as we need to liaise with multiple parties and want to ensure we find a room which will meet your requirements. However, we do appreciate that this delay can cause worry and we do therefore try and keep you updated as much as possible throughout the process.  
 
Once we have assessed your application, if you are currently enrolled we will write to you to confirm if we are able to offer you accommodation or if not, why this has not been possible. This will be no later than the end of term two. Please see the next question which explains what happens if you are on a period of interruption.
 
If your accommodation application is received before April, we will confirm by email that we are holding a room for you including the location and cost of this room. 
 
From April you will be sent a formal offer of accommodation, which you will need to accept to confirm that you require the room. Under the Terms and Conditions of Residence, if you owe money in connection with any previous accommodation that you occupied we may terminate the agreement up to 4 weeks before the start of the contract, therefore, we will make checks in July to confirm that all money outstanding relating to accommodation has been paid. 

If you are currently interrupted from your studies we would still encourage you submit your application as early as possible. If you know that you will be restarting in year 1 then please apply as a 'New Undergraduate' student. If you will be progressing to the next year of study then please use the 'Wellbeing Supported Returner' application type. In all instances, please also speak to Wellbeing Services to get their support for your accommodation application. We will write to confirm that your application has been received, however we will not be able to process your application until your student status shows that you are cleared to enrol for the next academic year. This might not happen until later into the summer.

Student Records will email you, usually in July, asking you to confirm whether you intend to return to your studies in September. If you are on a period of Medical Interruption then you may also be asked to complete a self-assessment form and submit a medical certificate from your doctor which approves your fitness to return to study. Please try and complete these actions as quickly as possible so that your student status can be updated, as the availability of accommodation will decrease significantly the closer it gets to the contract start date in September. 

Where possible, we would encourage you to apply during the February/March period so that we can process your application and advise you if accommodation is available. 
 
However, we understand that circumstances do change and that you may only make the decision about requiring accommodation later in the academic year. If this is the case, we would ask that you submit an application and request your medical support as soon as you are aware that you require accommodation. 
 
We will need to carry out all the normal checks before we can allocate accommodation which include: 

• Confirming the room type requested is available 
• Confirming with Wellbeing Services that the allocation proposed is suitable 

We are unable to confirm a timescale as each application is treated separately and some are more complex than others. 
 
We do have a limited number of rooms available, and so will make decisions on a case-by-case basis as applications are received. 

If we are able to make you an offer then you will be sent a formal offer of accommodation via your Accommodation Account, which you will need to accept to confirm that you require the room. Under the Terms and Conditions of Residence, if you owe money in connection with any previous accommodation that you occupied we may terminate the agreement up to 4 weeks before the start of the contract, therefore, we will make checks in July to confirm that all money outstanding relating to accommodation has been paid.