College: Single room

En-suite: 1. £________ per year (meals are not included)

Room with a family

or a 5.________

Additional costs (for this year)

• gas and electricity: 6 £________
• per month approx 7.________£9
• 8.________

• 9.________
• two 10.________

Transcript

Instructor 00:01

Section 1. You will hear a student from overseas phoning the Student Accommodation Office of a college in the UK for some information.

Man 00:13

College Accommodation Bureau, Darren speaking, how may I help you?

Woman 00:17

Oh, good morning. I’m starting at the college in September and I need to find some accommodation.

Man 00:23

Right. Well, there are various options. The first one is to stay in college accommodation. That’d be a single room.

Woman 00:33

How much would that cost?

Man 00:35

Well, it depends. For a standard room, you’re looking at £3,276 for the year. That’s just for a room with wash basin. Or £3,834 if you want a non-sweet. That’s with your own small bathroom. Thank you.

Woman 00:56

I see. That’s more than I expected.

Man 00:59

It does include heating. That’s quite a saving because energy costs can be high, especially in winter.

Woman 01:09

Does it include meals as well?

Man 01:11

No. All our rooms are self-catering now. There’s a shared kitchen on each corridor where you can cook if you want to, or there are plenty of places to eat out on campus.

Woman 01:23

Okay, and you said that’s the price for the whole year?

Man 01:27

Well, you pay annually, but actually it’s for 36 weeks. It doesn’t include holidays. You have to vacate the room then.

Woman 01:37

Oh, um… I’d need somewhere to stay in the holidays. I can’t afford to go home. The flights are too expensive.

Man 01:44

Well, there is another option. Several families who either work at the college or have children studying here offer visiting students a room in their homes. Oh? We call this arrangement Home Welcome and we’ve still got a few places left at the moment.

Man 02:03

You pay £150 per week and that includes breakfast, a packed lunch and dinner, as well as heating.

Woman 02:13

Is there a contract? Do you have to stay for the whole year?

Man 02:17

No, it’s flexible.

Woman 02:19

It sounds really good, but I’m not sure. I really want to be a little more independent. What about finding somewhere to live off-campus?

Man 02:34

Yes, you can rent a property in town privately. You might want to rent a room in a shared house. You’d have a room of your own and share the kitchen and bathroom with other students.

Woman 02:48

What about if I don’t want to share?

Man 02:50

you can get what we call a studio. They’re often quite small but they’ll have everything you need.

Woman 02:56

Right. How much would those two options cost?

Man 03:00

Well, prices vary depending on which part of town the property is in. Generally speaking, the cheapest is around £275 a month for each student.

Woman 03:12

Oh, uh, that’s not too bad.

Man 03:15

Yes, but it can also be as high as £490 and then you’ll have to pay all your other bills.

Woman 03:23

what sort of amount would I be looking at for those?

Man 03:26

Well, last year students were paying on average about £43 per month each for gas and electricity. This year it’ll probably be somewhere in the region of £48.

Woman 03:42

That’s a lot.

Man 03:43

Yes they’ve gone up quite a bit and on top of that you have to pay for water and that’ll probably be around nine pounds.

Woman 03:52

That didn’t occur to me, and I guess I’d have to pay for transportation, too.

Man 03:58

That’s right. Most of these properties are quite a long way from the College.

Woman 04:03

Oh, it just gets worse and worse. What’s the minimum contract on this type of accommodation?

Man 04:11

six months and you have to pay a deposit but of course you can stay there over the holidays that’s true and you’d have to provide references they want two from someone in this country

Woman 04:25

I see. That’s not a problem.

Man 04:28

If you do choose this option, we can’t find the property for you. You’d have to go through the estate agent which manages the property for the owner.

Woman 04:37

Right. Thanks. Well, I think I’d like to see what’s available privately. Could you give me the estate agent details?