Postgraduates

If you require accommodation for the forthcoming academic year, please contact the Accommodation Officer rooms@queens.cam.ac.uk. An e-mail with a link to an online application from will then be sent.

We aim to offer rooms to all commencing, single postgraduate students who apply for College accommodation by the 1st of May each year. This is, however, dependent upon demand.

Once the May deadline has passed, accommodation will start to be allocated. Students should receive confirmation during July. The allocation process will continue through the summer to include continuing students until the supply is exhausted.

In College houses and at Owlstone Croft, students share bathroom and kitchen facilities. There are a very limited number of en-suite rooms available for general allocation. Queens’ also has a small number of one-bedroom flats suitable for couples. Postgraduate accommodation on the central site is unlikely. Please therefore do not put ‘main site’ as one of your preferences. There is an opportunity to register your interest in a main site ballot should rooms become available during the allocation process. Rooms which become available during the term will be advertised via the MCR so that all students can apply.

There is no College-owned accommodation suitable for families with children.

4th year undergraduate students, and continuing fee paying graduate students are eligible to apply for College accommodation.

Those requiring accommodation are invited to apply via the Graduate ballot and details on how to do this are sent out during Easter Term. The ballot order is generated based on previous time spent as a student in Queens’ accommodation ie, the less time you have spent in accommodation, the more favourable your ballot position.

It should be noted that incoming students are given priority when allocating rooms, and offers can only be made to those on the ballot once all newly registered students have been housed.

Therefore accommodation for continuing students is not guaranteed.

Often this process is not complete until early July, and it may not be possible to notify current students of their success in the graduate ballot until later in the summer. However, the Accommodation Officer will try and give an indication of the likelihood of success as early as possible, and once numbers of new students are confirmed.

The ballot is weighted by placing students into one of the following categories:

1. commencing graduates from overseas universities;
2. commencing graduates from other UK universities;
3. continuing students, eligible next year, who have had no time in a College room previously as a graduate student;
4. continuing students, eligible next year, who have had one previous year in a College room;
5. continuing students, eligible next year, who have had two previous years in College rooms;
6. continuing students, eligible next year, who have had three or more previous years in College rooms;
7. students who will not be paying fees for the entire academic year or do not meet all the eligibility criteria.

With this in mind, students may wish to investigate alternative options elsewhere. The following links may be useful:

The Cam Foundry

Castle Hill accommodation