The Headington campus is two sites a few minutes’ walk apart, the Gipsy Lane site with the John Henry Brookes Building and the Headington Hill site across Headington Road. Health courses are taught at Marston Road, about 20 minutes’ walk from Gipsy Lane, and adult nursing also in Swindon. Teaching and library services moved from Harcourt Hill, above Botley, to Headington before the 2025/26 academic year, though the university still houses students there. Brookes had 25,947 students in 2024/25.
The university’s rooms for 2026/27 cost from £139.02 a week for a single room with a shared bathroom to £255.43 a week for a studio, with utility bills and contents insurance in the rent, mostly on 38-week contracts that end in early June. Private starting prices are £215 to £289 a week with bills included, on contracts of 15 to 51 weeks, and a private year costs more partly because the contract runs longer. Save the Student’s 2026 National Student Accommodation Survey puts the average rent paid by its Oxford Brookes respondents at £838 a month, about £193 a week, compared with £575 a month across the UK.
Oxford Brookes University guarantees an offer of accommodation to every full-time first year who makes Brookes a firm or insurance choice, applies by the deadline and meets the academic criteria of the offer. It does not promise one of your top three residences, and it makes no guarantee to January starters. Most residences are managed by the university and let on a licence to occupy; a few are partnership residences, where Brookes allocates the room but the contract and the rent are with the building’s provider.
Oxford Brookes University accommodation for 2026/27 runs from Crescent Hall, 2.1 miles from the campus, where a room with a shared bathroom is £139.02 a week over 38 weeks, to Westminster Studios at Harcourt Hill at £255.43 a week. Cheney Student Village, beside the campus, has en-suite rooms at £204.96 a week on 50 weeks only, and Clive Booth Student Village, a 10 to 15 minute walk away at the foot of Headington Hill, has en-suite rooms from £185.36 a week on 38 weeks. You pay through the university’s accommodation portal in one payment, three instalments timed to the student loan or eight monthly instalments, and the first payment is the first rent charge, though some residences ask for a damage deposit or an advance on the rent when you book. Returning students book rooms in selected residences on a first come, first served basis, and postgraduates on one-year courses can take a 50-week contract from January.
Brookes accommodation wins on weekly price, on distance and on a contract that stops when the year does. An en-suite room in Clive Booth Student Village’s N to X blocks is £185.36 a week, and because the university charges by the night, its 265-night contract comes to £7,017.20. An en-suite in a six-bedroom flat at The Mews is £232 a week over 42 weeks, £9,744 in all, about £2,730 more for four more weeks. The private rent buys the choice of building and room type, a contract that can run to 51 weeks and cover the summer, and the same terms in any year of study. Brookes lists The Mews among its direct-let buildings; you book it with its provider, and it is not a university room.
Walking and cycling times are measured to the John Henry Brookes Building on Gipsy Lane. Bus times include the walk to the stop and leave out the wait.
To ask about a room, open a property and use Request Details to contact its provider.
The 400 runs from Seacourt Park and Ride on the Botley Road through Frideswide Square in the centre to the Brookes stops on Headington Road and on to Thornhill, Wheatley and Thame, up to every 10 minutes. The 100 links the Cowley Road with the campus and the John Radcliffe Hospital, and the 200 connects Harcourt Hill, Botley and Magdalen Street in the centre up to every 30 minutes, Monday to Saturday. Oxford Bus Company sells Brookes students a £2 single and a £270 annual pass for its CityZone, which covers Oxford Bus Company, Thames Travel and Pulhams buses but not Stagecoach. On other buses the national cap on single fares in England outside London is £3 to the end of 2026 and £2 through 2027.
Oxford City Council’s 2021 Census figures put 38.8% of the city’s commuters on foot or on a bike, compared with 14.2% across England. Thames Valley Police recorded 2,173 bicycle thefts in Oxford over 2024 and 2025 combined, which makes locking the frame and both wheels worth the bother. Great Western Railway runs Oxford to London Paddington in about an hour, 52 minutes at the fastest, and Chiltern Railways runs to London Marylebone from Oxford and from Oxford Parkway north of the city.
Private rents are quoted with bills included, which on each property page means gas, electricity, water and internet. Some rooms include contents insurance. A TV Licence, if you need one to watch or record live television or to use BBC iPlayer, is not in the rent and costs £180 a year from April 2026.
Our guide to how much student accommodation costs gives the national picture.
The Mews, Student Castle Oxford and West Way Square are on the ANUK/Unipol National Code register, and a building whose provider belongs to that code, approved under section 233 of the Housing Act 2004, lets its rooms on a fixed-term tenancy or licence for the academic year. From 1 May 2026, most assured tenancies in England’s private rented sector became periodic rather than fixed term under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025; GOV.UK’s implementation roadmap puts code-member purpose-built student accommodation outside that system. The Tenant Fees Act 2019 covers student tenancies and licences to occupy, and GOV.UK’s tenant guidance caps a tenancy deposit at five weeks’ rent where the annual rent is under £50,000 and a holding deposit at one week’s rent, with no other upfront fees. A provider may take rent in advance instead of a full deposit, and the payment terms on the property page say which.
Private contracts run from 15 to 51 weeks. West Way Square lets some studios for 15 weeks from September to January and for 31 weeks from January to August, which suits January starters and one-year master’s courses. Whether a provider wants a UK guarantor, a guarantor service or rent paid in advance is subject to each provider’s eligibility rules, and our guide to guarantors sets out the options, including for international students.
Brookes Union and the library share the John Henry Brookes Building, and the library is open to Brookes students 24 hours a day, staffed 9am to 7pm on weekdays in term. Brookes Sport is on the Headington campus and no longer runs facilities at Harcourt Hill. From East Oxford the Cowley Road is the night out, with the O2 Academy Oxford and The Bullingdon for gigs and the Ultimate Picture Palace on Jeune Street for films, and the Curzon at the Westgate is the cinema for the centre. For the rest of the city, including the University of Oxford side, see our Oxford student accommodation page.
Full-time first years starting in September who hold Brookes as a firm or insurance choice and apply by its deadline. The offer is of accommodation, not of a particular residence, and January starters are not covered.
A residence where Brookes allocates the room but the building’s provider holds the contract and takes the rent. Some partnership residences ask for an advance on the rent when you book.
Less by the week and over fewer weeks. For 2026/27 the university’s total for an en-suite in Clive Booth Student Village is £7,017.20 over 265 nights, and a 42-week en-suite at The Mews comes to £9,744.
Yes. Any student can book a private room in any year, and the agreement is with the building’s provider, subject to its eligibility rules.
No. Brookes lists it as a direct-let building. You book it with its provider and the university does not allocate it.
Headington itself, with the London Road shops 10 to 15 minutes from the John Henry Brookes Building on foot. From Glanville Road in East Oxford the walk takes 25 to 30 minutes and the cycle 10 to 15.
Yes, on the 400, which runs up to every 10 minutes from Frideswide Square in the centre and from the Seacourt Park and Ride stop on the Botley Road to the Brookes stops on Headington Road.
By bus, with one change. The 200 runs from the Harcourt Hill campus through Botley to the centre, Monday to Saturday, and the 400 takes you on to Headington, both at the £2 Brookes single. On Sundays, walk down to the Botley Road for the 400 at Seacourt Park and Ride, 15 to 20 minutes on foot.
Not always. For a private room each provider says whether it takes a UK guarantor, a guarantor service or rent in advance instead, and a university-managed room is paid by instalment through the accommodation portal.
Not if everyone in your flat is a full-time student, though in a private building you apply to Oxford City Council for the exemption yourself. A mixed household can still get a bill, with a 25% discount where one non-student adult lives with students; in a university residence there is nothing to pay or claim.
By train from Oxford station, about an hour to London Paddington with Great Western Railway and a little longer to London Marylebone with Chiltern Railways. Osney Lane is a 5 minute walk from the station, West Way a 10 to 15 minute cycle and Glanville Road 15 to 20 minutes by bike.
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