The university’s undergraduate rooms for 2026/27 cost from £107 a week for a room with a shared bathroom at Maple Bank to £321 for a studio apartment at Shackleton, both in The Vale. Most undergraduate en-suite rooms are £189 to £223 a week. Undergraduate contracts run for 42 weeks.
Private starting prices are £115 to £278 a week depending on the building, with bills included. Each building sets its own contract lengths, which for 2026/27 mostly run from 44 to 51 weeks.
The university’s rooms are within walking distance of lectures. University station is a 15 to 20 minute walk from Cadnam Hall in Harborne. From Canvas The Heights, near Aston University in the city centre, it is 25 to 30 minutes on foot and by train.
The University of Birmingham guarantees new undergraduates and full-year exchange students the chance to book one of its rooms, provided they meet the terms of their offer, make Birmingham their firm choice and apply by the guarantee deadline. Applications open each December and close in the summer. The last deadlines were the end of June for UK applicants and the end of July for international applicants. Insurance-choice applicants are not covered, but students who come through Clearing are found a room, in university accommodation or with one of its partners.
The university’s 7,500 or so rooms are in The Vale, Pritchatts Park and Selly Oak, its 3 villages beside the campus. Its partner accommodation is in privately run buildings in Selly Oak and Edgbaston, where undergraduate en-suites are £214 to £233 a week for 2026/27.
Private buildings are open to first years, returning students and postgraduates, subject to each provider’s eligibility rules. You choose the building and the room yourself, and your contract is with the building’s provider. Private contracts are mostly a few weeks longer than the university’s undergraduate contract.
For postgraduates, university and private contracts are about the same length. The university’s 2026/27 postgraduate rooms are on 50 week contracts, from £107 a week at Maple Bank through en-suites at £189 to £222 to studios at £280 to £360. Private buildings offer en-suites and studios on contracts of up to 51 weeks. For 2027 entry the university’s guarantee does not cover UK postgraduates, who can still apply for a room from December.
Times are to University station, on the west side of the campus, and to the Eastern Road bus stop on the Bristol Road, on the south side. They count the walk at each end and not the wait.
For a wider search, see all student accommodation in Birmingham.
Trains from Birmingham New Street take 7 to 10 minutes to University station and run 4 times an hour. The middle of the campus is a 5 minute walk from the station. The nNetwork student ticket covers buses and trains in zones 1 and 2, which include New Street and University. It costs £103 for 4 weeks or £300 a term.
The 61 and 63 buses run from the city centre down the Bristol Road to the campus. The 63 runs every 10 minutes in the daytime and takes about 12 minutes from New Street to the Eastern Road stop. A single costs £3 under the government’s fare scheme, which Transport for West Midlands says runs until March 2027. A student bus ticket from National Express West Midlands is £56 for 4 weeks or £220 a term. You will be asked for proof that you are in full-time study.
The Worcester and Birmingham Canal towpath runs from the city centre to the campus, and the A38 has a segregated cycle route to the university’s South Gate on the Bristol Road. Lime e-bikes and e-scooters can be hired across the West Midlands. The West Midlands Metro tram does not serve the campus.
With bills included, the weekly rent at a private building covers gas, electricity, water and internet. The university’s rent covers Wi-Fi, utilities and contents insurance. Neither rent covers a TV Licence, which costs £180 a year if you need one to watch or record live television or use BBC iPlayer.
Private rooms come as en-suite rooms in shared flats, studios and, at Hamstead Campus, rooms that share a bathroom. The university has rooms with shared bathrooms, en-suites, duplexes and studios. Its undergraduate studios are at Shackleton in The Vale, at £272 and £321 a week.
A standard en-suite at Jarratt Hall in the Selly Oak village is £189 a week for 2026/27. The university gives the total for the 42 week undergraduate contract as £7,934, and describes its weekly prices as indicative. A Gold Ensuite at Canvas The Heights is £166 a week on a 45 week contract for 2026/27, a total of £7,470. Both figures include bills. A year of termly nNetwork student tickets is £900, which takes the Canvas The Heights total to £8,370. Our guide to budgeting as a student covers the other costs of the year.
A room in purpose-built student accommodation can still be let for a fixed term. From 1 May 2026, most assured tenancies in England’s private rented sector became periodic rather than fixed term. A contract for purpose-built student accommodation signed on or after that date can keep a fixed term where the provider belongs to an approved code of practice, such as the ANUK/Unipol National Code. Rooms let by a university itself were not affected by the May 2026 changes, according to Unipol.
The Tenant Fees Act 2019 covers student lettings in England. It caps a holding deposit at one week’s rent and a tenancy deposit at 5 weeks’ rent where the annual rent is under £50,000. Some providers take no deposit, but each one’s payment terms set out what you pay to secure a room. Our guide to getting your deposit back covers moving out.
The university takes a £550 Advance Payment when you book. It counts towards your accommodation fees and is not a deposit. You can pay the rest in full, in 3 instalments (November, February and May) or monthly by direct debit.
Private providers may ask for a UK guarantor, and some accept a guarantor service instead.
The Guild of Students, on Edgbaston Park Road, is the students’ union. It has more than 350 student groups, Joe’s Bar and the Fab club night. Sport & Fitness has a 50m swimming pool, a 200 station gym and a climbing wall. Winterbourne House and Garden is on Edgbaston Park Road too.
Selly Oak has the supermarkets at Selly Oak Shopping Park, a Nando’s and the area’s pubs and takeaways. Students living around Aston University have the Bullring and Digbeth within walking distance. From Cadnam Close, Harborne High Street is a 20 to 25 minute walk.
Cadnam Hall in Harborne is a 15 to 20 minute walk from University station. The Bristol Street building is 10 to 15 minutes from the campus by bus. Canvas The Heights is 25 to 30 minutes from University station on foot and by train, and Hamstead Campus is 40 to 50 minutes by bus and train.
The university’s undergraduate rooms are £107 to £321 a week for 2026/27, with most en-suites between £189 and £223, and its postgraduate studios go up to £360. A private en-suite such as the Gold Ensuite at Canvas The Heights is £166 a week with bills included. Typical rents across the UK are in our guide to how much student accommodation costs.
Yes, with conditions. New first years are guaranteed the chance to book if Birmingham is their firm choice, they meet their offer and they apply by the summer deadline. Anyone holding Birmingham as an insurance choice or applying late is outside the guarantee.
Yes. Private buildings take first years, and you book with the building’s provider at any point in the year. From the city centre that means a train or bus to lectures instead of the walk from a university village.
The university lets postgraduate rooms on 50 week contracts, from £107 a week at Maple Bank to studios at up to £360 a week. You book through its accommodation portal. For 2027 entry UK postgraduates are not covered by the guarantee. Private buildings offer en-suites and studios on contracts of up to 51 weeks, booked at any time of year.
Most move to Selly Oak, beside the campus. The university takes returning students only if it has rooms left, and you register interest through its portal from December. Purpose-built rooms with bills included can be found in Harborne, on Bristol Street, around Aston University and at Hamstead.
Create an account on the university’s Accommodation Portal once you have an offer, then apply by the guarantee deadline. Guaranteed undergraduates are emailed a booking slot in the week after A-level results day. The £550 Advance Payment secures the room. Private rooms are not on the portal. You book those with the building’s provider, and our booking guide goes through the steps.
From Cadnam Hall you can walk. From the Bristol Street building the £56 student bus ticket covers the 61 and 63 for 4 weeks, and a single is £3. From Canvas The Heights or Hamstead Campus, the nNetwork student ticket at £103 for 4 weeks covers both the bus and the train to University station.
In the last round the guarantee deadline was the end of July for international students, a month later than for UK students, and it covered international postgraduates as well as undergraduates. The terms published so far for 2027 entry name undergraduates and exchange students and do not mention international postgraduates. Private providers may ask international students for a UK guarantor or may accept a guarantor service. A 51 week private contract covers the summer if you are not going home.
Full-time students can be exempt from council tax, so a flat where everyone is a full-time student has no bill. A household that mixes students and non-students may still get a bill, but a discount is available. Birmingham City Council deals with exemptions and discounts.
University prices are for the 2026/27 academic year. Private prices are each provider’s own and can change.
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