Undergraduate accommodation
We guarantee College accommodation for all years of your course – from Victorian rooms in the original College building to modern en-suite rooms in Ash Court and Swirles Court.
All first year students live on the main college site – either in the original Victorian buildings or in the more modern Ash Court. This helps create the friendly, community atmosphere that Girton is famous for! In later years you will have the choice of rooms in the main College or Swirles Court. Students are expected to live in College accommodation for three years and need permission from the Senior Tutor to live out.
Room Facilities
All of our undergraduate rooms are single study-bedrooms – so no student has to share a room. They are all well-furnished with a bed, desk and chair, wardrobe space, drawers, shelving and a comfy chair or sofa. The rooms are along corridors or in flats with shared kitchen facilities.
Most rooms in the main College building have shared bathrooms, with bath / shower rooms and toilets on every corridor. Ash Court and Swirles Court have en-suite rooms.
There is a small women/non-binary corridor in the main College building.
The accommodation available for undergraduates is:
Residence Charge and Tenancies
At Girton, students pay a Residence Charge which includes rent, internet access, utilities, cleaning in communal areas, contents insurance and access to college facilities such as the swimming pool and cafeteria. We offer a fixed cohort residence charge which means you will know how much your accommodation is going to cost you for all the years of your course. The standard tenancy is for 38 weeks from September / October until June, so you do not have the expense of clearing your room and taking all of your belongings home in the Christmas and Easter vacations.
Application process for new students
First year undergraduate students live in the main College building and Ash Court and are allocated to a room before they arrive in College. Once they have a confirmed place at the College they will be contacted to complete an accommodation form. They do not need to apply for accommodation before this.
Most of the accommodation for Freshers will be in rooms with shared bathroom facilities. There is some en-suite accommodation available. Students with supported disabilities / medical conditions that require en-suite are prioritised for the en-suite rooms.
Each household (corridor / flat) will include students from a mixture of courses and nationalities. Accommodation is usually mixed genders but there a small corridor for female and non-binary students. Some households will only have Freshers on them, while others will be a mixture of Freshers and continuing undergraduate students.
Allocation process for current / continuing students
Rooms for undergraduates from the second year onwards are allocated through an annual ballot. All College rooms for undergraduates are graded by the JCR. The grade of the room that students live in in previous years decides their place in the ballot for room choosing for the following year. Students entering their third year choose first followed by students entering their second year. Fourth years can also choose to live in College accommodation. Students can apply as groups or individuals.
Priority for room choosing is given to students with disabilities / medical conditions that require certain types of accommodation.
Students with disabilities / medical conditions
Students with disabilities or medical conditions that have an impact on their accommodation requirements need to make the College aware of these when they are applying for accommodation. The College has Nurses who can be contacted at nurses@girton.cam.ac.uk and a Disability Liaison Officer. We have 6 rooms in Ash Court and 11 rooms in Swirles Court that have level access bathrooms. Rooms can be adapted as required for hearing impaired students with vibrating pillows and visual alarms and bells. We can provide fridges for the storage of medicines and food and can make other reasonable adjustments to our accommodation to meet the needs of our students. If students require a room an en-suite bathroom as part of their supported adjustments they will be charged for the en-suite room at the standard room rate. AccessAble have produced Access Guides for the College including its accommodation.
Further information
Further details about the College’s accommodation as well as links to the accommodation handbook and tenancy agreement can be found on the main Accommodation webpage.