The Office for Students approved the name University of Lancashire on 19 December 2024, and the university said it would be operating fully under it by September 2025. Students still say UCLan, and older guides and adverts still refer to University of Central Lancashire accommodation, so expect to meet all three names for the same university.
Mystudenthalls.com has 4 properties from 3 providers near the Preston campus, with rents from £95.00 to £152.00 a week and an average of £124.00. Trinity Student Village from £95.00 and Foundry Court from £104.00 have en-suite rooms with shared kitchens, and Sizer Court from £145.00 and Canterbury Hall from £152.00 are studio buildings. All four are purpose-built student accommodation run privately, independent of the university, and each listing states bills included.
The campus buildings most students use every week are the Student Centre, the Library, the Students’ Union and the Sir Tom Finney Sports Centre. The university opened the £60 million Student Centre in September 2021 for its advice and support services, and it looks out over Adelphi Square. The Library is open 24 hours a day during term, the Students’ Union is on Fylde Road and the sports centre is on the west side of the campus.
The university’s own UCLan student accommodation is in six residences on the Preston campus, Derwent, Douglas, Pendle, Ribble, Roeburn and Whitendale. Its accommodation pages show economy standard rooms at £87 a week, premium standard rooms in Ribble at £101, en-suite rooms in Roeburn at £129 and self-contained and twin flats in Pendle from £123. Tenancies are 42 weeks, with exceptions, and the rent covers council tax, water, gas, electricity and Wi-Fi. The university describes its on-campus accommodation as “almost half the national average”. It sets new prices each year, so check its site for the year you are applying for.
You apply online once you have firmly accepted your place, using your student registration number, and if the university is your insurance choice it says you will hear about applying in August. UK students pay £250 in advance rent on accepting a room, which is taken off the October instalment, and the balance is collected in three parts, usually in October, January and April. To live with friends, each of you names the others in the notes on your application.
Private accommodation near UCLan is booked differently. You pick the building and the room type, enquire with the provider and sign its contract. First years, returning students and postgraduates can all apply, subject to each provider’s eligibility rules.
The listed rents overlap with the university’s own prices, but several of the contracts are longer. Sizer Court lists 44 and 51-week tenancies and Canterbury Hall 51 weeks for 2026/27, while Foundry Court and Trinity Student Village list lengths from 41 or 42 weeks up to 52, against 42 weeks for a university room. Multiply the weekly rent by the number of weeks before you compare two rooms. Facilities vary by building in both cases, so read each listing instead of assuming one type offers more.
The lower starting rents in the listings are in the two en-suite buildings, one on the city-centre side of the campus and one beside the Students’ Union.
For a wider comparison, Unipol and HEPI’s survey of ten UK cities outside London and Edinburgh put the average annual rent at £7,566 in 2023/24. The Mystudenthalls.com guide to how much student accommodation costs compares current rents by city and room type.
Both studio buildings are north of the Library, one on Sizer Street and one a few minutes further out at the start of Garstang Road.
Both buildings price their studios by grade. Sizer Court’s listing runs from £145.00 to £184.00 a week and Canterbury Hall’s from £152.00 to £211.00, so look at the room options before you compare the two.
Preston is the university’s main campus, and all four listed buildings are within walking distance of it. These walk times are Mystudenthalls.com estimates, rounded to five minutes.
The university’s own residences are spread among the same buildings. It describes Whitendale as a couple of minutes’ walk from the Library and Roeburn, on the west side of the campus, as a short walk from the Sir Tom Finney Sports Centre.
The Burnley campus is based at Victoria Mill, with further teaching at Princess Way inside Burnley College, and the university teaches undergraduate, postgraduate and degree apprenticeship courses there. Its accommodation is Sandygate Hall, with 136 en-suite bedrooms in 29 flats about a minute’s walk from Victoria Mill over a footbridge, shown on the university’s site at £138 a week. The university’s room guarantee is worded for the Preston campus, so confirm availability with its accommodation team. Mystudenthalls.com has no listings in Burnley.
The Westlakes campus is on the Westlakes Science and Technology Park in West Cumbria, three miles from Whitehaven, where the university teaches Medicine and Nursing. Summergrove Hall has 131 rooms about 15 minutes’ walk from lectures, shown on the university’s site at £139 a week, with a catered option for an extra £77 a week. Mystudenthalls.com has no listings in Cumbria, so apply through the university.
You can walk between the listed buildings, the campus and the city centre. The university puts Preston station five to 10 minutes on foot from the campus. That is to its nearest edge, so allow about 15 minutes to the Student Centre or the Library, and 15 to 30 minutes to the listed buildings, with Trinity Student Village the closest to the station and Canterbury Hall the furthest.
For placements and trips further out, the university says the number 31 bus runs regularly from the bus station and stops outside the C&T Building, opposite the Students’ Union. Preston Bus sells a ULan Term 1 ticket at £135 and an annual ticket at £300 for 2026/27, and Stagecoach prices its Preston Citi UniRider at £144 for the autumn term or £329 for the year, so compare the zones before you buy.
The university does not give parking permits to students living in its own accommodation, apart from Blue Badge holders. Other students can apply semester by semester if they have a declared mobility issue, childcare commitments or a daily commute of over an hour. If you cycle, the campus has more than 60 enclosed cycle lockers, secure compounds at the Student Centre, Greenbank and Maudland buildings, and a bike hub at the Sir Tom Finney Sports Centre that hires out bikes. Trains and the rest of the city are covered on the Mystudenthalls.com Preston page.
All four listings state bills included, covering gas, electricity, water and internet. Canterbury Hall’s listing adds free contents insurance and says its rent covers everything except laundry and a TV Licence. A university room includes council tax, water, gas, electricity and Wi-Fi. The university’s launderettes charge from £2.80 a wash and £1.70 a dry, and it says students in its rooms need to arrange their own contents insurance.
A TV Licence, if you need one, has cost £180 a year since 1 April 2026, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport confirmed. You need one to watch or record live television or to use BBC iPlayer, and the university says students who bring their own TV must buy a separate licence.
En-suite rooms, at Trinity Student Village and Foundry Court, give you a bedroom with your own bathroom and a kitchen shared with flatmates. Studios, at Sizer Court and Canterbury Hall, have the kitchen and bathroom inside your own room. The university’s range adds standard rooms with shared bathrooms, en-suite rooms in Roeburn and self-contained and twin flats in Pendle. The Mystudenthalls.com guide to the types of student accommodation explains each layout.
The Students’ Union on Fylde Road has the Union Cafe, the Lampworks bar with pool and darts, and the 53 Degrees venue, where it holds its welcome events. A university sports membership covers a double sports hall, a squash court, a fitness suite with more than 100 Technogym stations and two dance studios, along with 3G and hockey pitches and an athletics track. The university says members also qualify for a free UNIversal Gym Membership, which gives access to more than 70 gyms around the country. To plan your money for term, check how much maintenance loan you could get.
Yes. The University of Central Lancashire became the University of Lancashire after the Office for Students approved the new name in December 2024. UCLan is still the name most students use.
Yes. The university guarantees new full-time Preston students a room, but it also says you are under no obligation to accept a room offer. The private buildings in the listings take first years, subject to each provider’s eligibility rules.
The university’s site shows its Preston rooms from £87 a week for an economy standard room to £129 for an en-suite room, on 42-week tenancies with bills and council tax in the rent. Private rooms in the listings start at between £95.00 and £152.00 a week with bills included, depending on the building.
That depends on your timetable and your budget. Foundry Court is by the Students’ Union, Sizer Court is north of the Library, Trinity Student Village is on the city-centre side and Canterbury Hall is a few minutes further north. Compare room type and price in the listings.
The listings show 0.2 to 0.4 miles, measured to a single point on the campus. On foot, the Library is 5 to 10 minutes from every building.
Yes, through the university, which runs Sandygate Hall beside Victoria Mill. Mystudenthalls.com has no listings in Burnley.
No. Lancaster University is a separate university in the city of Lancaster, around 20 miles north of Preston. If you are studying there, see student accommodation near Lancaster University.
Yes. All four listings state bills included, and university rents cover bills and council tax. Laundry and a TV Licence, if you need one, are the extras to budget for.
A home where everyone is a full-time student is exempt, and Preston City Council lists student residences as exempt too. If you share with someone who is not a full-time student, the household may still get a bill, although a discount may be available.
The legal limits are five weeks’ rent for a tenancy deposit and one week’s rent for a holding deposit. Some providers do not take a full deposit at all, so check the payment terms on the listing.
For a university room, UK students need one unless they pay the rent in full. Private providers set their own requirements, so check before you book.
University rooms are let for 42 weeks, with exceptions. The private listings range from 41 to 52 weeks depending on the building and room.
A guarantor is a person who signs a legal agreement to pay your rent if you don’t. Depending on the agreement, they can also be asked to pay for damage or other money you owe under your contract. If nobody you know meets the provider’s criteria, you still have options. Some universities don’t ask for…
On 7 September 2026 the University of Bristol opened a second campus beside Temple Meads station. Its original Clifton campus is the precinct around Tyndall Avenue and Woodland Road, on the hill north-west of the centre, and the new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus is on the east side of the centre, 35 to 40 minutes…
Student finance is paid differently across the UK, and for many students it does not cover their full living costs. The Higher Education Policy Institute, working with Loughborough University’s Centre for Research in Social Policy, estimates that a first-year student in purpose-built student accommodation needs about £418 a week including rent, and Save the Student’s…
