Easy to get to uni, kept clean
University of Kent Hall Rankings
| Canterbury Student Manor | #9 |
| Keynes College | #10 |
| Tyler Court | #11 |
| Parham Student Village | #12 |
| Woolf College | #13 |
| Park Wood | #14 |
| Becket Court | #15 |
| Darwin College | #16 |
| Rutherford College | #17 |
| Eliot College | #18 |
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Easy to get to uni, kept clean
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I live in parkwood (purchas court) currently and I can say it’s horrible. The rooms and accom in general weren’t as depicted on the websites and it looks like it haven’t been changed since the 80s. Kitchen is small and the layout is awkward. The carpet are disgusting and of low quality and even a hoover couldn’t improve it. The curtains are dirty and I had to clean a lot when I arrived It wasn’t thoroughly cleaned. Mouldy. Parkwood also has mice. Housekeeping are nice and do attend if needed but there’s only so much they can do. In general parkwood needs a lot of work. It’s definitely overpriced and I think most students deserve a partial refund. One good thing is that the bus stop is close but that’s about it.
I currently live in Thornden Court, which is one of many courts that has not been refurbished although it is in desperate need of it. My room, though very decent in size, has cracks and holes in the walls, a broken and dirty desk chair, a closet door that won't close, and a stained carpet, not to mention the disgusting curtains. Also horrible interior design of all the Park Wood houses I've been in are equally unpleasant to behold. As for the common spaces, there is black mould in the bathroom ceiling and for a long time the water didn't drain properly in the basin. The kitchen is super small, definitely not suitable for a household of 5 people. There are not even enough shelves in the fridge for all of us. Expensive laundrettes and rude receptionists. What I actually like about Park Wood is the location. It's close to campus but feels like its own little village with lots of trees and greenery, hardly any traffic noise. Not worth half the money I'm paying, though.
*Based on my experience in a 6-bed house* Nice place! Great value for money, in an ideal location to walk to sessions for my course in Sibson. Being on the ground floor I only share a toilet and shower with 1 other person , which is calm. The kitchen is very well-fitted, better than most: 2 cookers so 2 people can cook at the same time and 2 fridge-freezers so lots of food storage space (1 between 3). Shame there's 2 missing stools so there's no option for everyone to sit at the tabletop, even if we're never all in the kitchen at once. I had to order fitted sheets off Amazon as the bed's 3' x 7' so shop-bought single/double sheets don't fit properly :( There's lots of storage under the bed and at the room's large desk. There's plenty of space and some really nice touches are the motion-sensor activated lights above the desk and ethernet ports for fast internet on my laptop. Housekeeping are very thorough when cleaning, shame they've only come once each term.
Park Wood is many different courts and not all are as modern as each other even if the same price. They were intended to be refurbished on a rolling ten year schedule. If you have had experience cleaning up after students, you might be worried about that. Worse than that, the university pleaded poverty this year and did no refurbishments. This is perhaps most obvious in a place called Purchas Court. The carpets are rank, the kitchens pokey, a shared social space non existent, the chrome is stripped from the taps... The university has a trick of showing prospective students the court opposite which has been refurbished the other year, called Lypeatt, who then could end up in the Purchas ghetto across the road... some students were literally revolting over this, because they got no discount for the unsalubrious surroundings. The saddest thing to me was perhaps no living room and a tiny kitchen. The houses will only be cleaned once a month 2019-20, which almost makes my hair stand on end
Park Wood is many different courts and not all are as modern as each other even if the same price. They were intended to be refurbished on a rolling ten year schedule. If you have had experience cleaning up after students, you might be worried about that. Worse than that, the university pleaded poverty this year and did no refurbishments. This is perhaps most obvious in a place called Purchas Court. The carpets are rank, the kitchens pokey, a shared social space non existent, the chrome is stripped from the taps... The university has a trick of showing prospective students the court opposite which has been refurbished the other year, called Lypeatt, who then could end up in the Purchas ghetto across the road... some students were literally revolting over this, because they got no discount for the unsalubrious surroundings. The saddest thing to me was perhaps no living room and a tiny kitchen. The houses will only be cleaned once a month 2019-20, which almost makes my hair stand on end
We hated park wood. Cut off from the rest of the campus it as horrible. I had friends in other accomodation that had integrated with so many other students and felt per of the university. Being in park wood felt as though we were cut off and no one really spoke to anyone outside of their houses. Such a shame as first year is supposed to be the year you socialise the most finding friends, sports and clubs to join.
There are fewer and fewer green spaces, quality of room is absurd and bad, more buildings are built to bring people together but doesn’t work
Wardrobe wouldn't even open properly room was so small.
Liked the flat, it had a big kitchen and my en suite was nice
Liked the flat, it had a big kitchen and my en suite was nice
Party central!Most of my friends lived in the surrounding area it was great.
Amazing refurbished house in a social area with a lot of other houses around
Easy to get to uni, kept clean
we pay the same for our dirty outdated house as those with newly refurbished houses do, cleaners rarely come in and when they do its unannounced so you could be asleep in bed and wake up to one in your room. pretty boring, everyone just does a lot of drugs
I lived in Lypeatt Court for my first year and was very lucky as it's the only court in Parkwood which is refurbished. I also got along with my housemates and found Parkwood especially to be very social with Woody's 2 mins away and quite a few house parties at the beginning of the year. There isn't much room for socialising within your house though as there's no living space just the kitchen. The other courts are still okay, but are not as modern and in an ideal location in Parkwood as Lypeatt. Parkwood is about a 10 mins walk from main campus and feels almost off campus which Iiked. Overall I had a great first year and would recommend Parkwood, but there is a slim chance that you will get a refurbished house, but if you don't mind that then its great for socialising and meeting others!
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Not enough common rooms or seats in kitchen very inconvenient
Can’t complain it’s was worth the money paid
Really good halls for socialising and living. Very accessible, but lacks common rooms.
Decrepit house charged at same rate as updated houses so completely unfair. Accommodation office unhelpful when there are issues ET no heating in December for 3 days taking parental intervention to solve! Lovely housemates and neighbours made up for dreadful accommodation!
I've lived in Park Wood 5 Bed Houses for my first year at UKC. They are the cheapest accommodation on campus, along with Darwin College. Rooms come in different states of modernity. Some courts are newly refurbished, whereas my court has not seen any changes since the 90s I reckon and we didn't even get a full body mirror. Room sizes in the houses also very, even though we all pay the same price. Room A (downstairs) and C (upstairs) are the biggest, followed by D and then E (both upstairs). Room B is downstairs and literally the size of a closet compared to the other rooms and right next to the kitchen. Rooms have no fire alarm or smoke detector, which I highly appreciated. House: Sharing 2 toilets and 1 shower between 5 was no problem at all. The kitchen is really small, not ideal to socialize. Parkwood: Has its own essentials shop and is a nice walk from campus, which becomes a bit of a pain in winter. Wouldn't live here again, Housemates + neighbours were dead unfortunately.
I've lived in Park Wood 5 Bed Houses for my first year at UKC. They are the cheapest accommodation on campus, along with Darwin College. Rooms come in different states of modernity. Some courts are newly refurbished, whereas my court has not seen any changes since the 90s I reckon and we didn't even get a full body mirror. Room sizes in the houses also very, even though we all pay the same price. Room A (downstairs) and C (upstairs) are the biggest, followed by D and then E (both upstairs). Room B is downstairs and literally the size of a closet compared to the other rooms and right next to the kitchen. Rooms have no fire alarm or smoke detector, which I highly appreciated. House: Sharing 2 toilets and 1 shower between 5 was no problem at all. The kitchen is really small, not ideal to socialize. Parkwood: Has its own essentials shop and is a nice walk from campus, which becomes a bit of a pain in winter. Wouldn't live here again, Housemates + neighbours were dead unfortunately.
I've lived in Park Wood 5 Bed Houses for my first year at UKC. They are the cheapest accommodation on campus, along with Darwin College. Rooms come in different states of modernity. Some courts are newly refurbished, whereas my court has not seen any changes since the 90s I reckon and we didn't even get a full body mirror. Room sizes in the houses also very, even though we all pay the same price. Room A (downstairs) and C (upstairs) are the biggest, followed by D and then E (both upstairs). Room B is downstairs and literally the size of a closet compared to the other rooms and right next to the kitchen. Rooms have no fire alarm or smoke detector, which I highly appreciated. House: Sharing 2 toilets and 1 shower between 5 was no problem at all. The kitchen is really small, not ideal to socialize. Parkwood: Has its own essentials shop and is a nice walk from campus, which becomes a bit of a pain in winter. Wouldn't live here again, Housemates + neighbours were dead unfortunately.
I live in a 5 bed house in Parkwood and it is one of the cheaper accommodations. The kitchen is rather small and not much space to socialise, but it does have enough storage space for your food. There is a cleaner who comes once a week. The room sizes can vary, I was left with one of the smaller rooms but there's still enough space for all of my stuff, though the wardrobe is quite small. The heating in the rooms sometimes acts up and doesn't work. Bed is super comfy :) Parkwood is a nice walking distance to campus (there's rabbits and squirrels). I live in one of the further courts and it takes me 11 minutes to get to my lecture! Shop (too pricey) and study hub nearby which is handy and the bus stop is 2/3 minutes away once you learn the short cut! My 5 bed house wasn't the most sociable but it all really does depend on who you live with. If i had known I would have definitely gone for the 6 bed in Parkwood!
I've enjoyed my stay in parkwood so far. Aside myself all my housemates are international students, which I have mostly enjoyed as you get to see how other people from different cultures live. I would prefer my house hold to be long term as the turn over each term of a household can be daunting when you've just found your groove as a house. The 6 bed houses have lovely rooms , decently sized with plenty of space for all your essentials. Beware that bedroom radiators are not reliable but maintenance will fix them within a day or so. Th kitchen can get cramped but it's manageable- the modern look of it perhaps wins it over. My only real criticism has nothing really to do with the house itself but more of people having parties at unreasonable hours and campus security taking over an hour to stop them! The walls are very thin so everything can be heard regardless of how loud or quiet. Oh, and being back Woody's , it was the best bar on campus
Park Wood is great with a nice community feel. The kitchens are relatively small but being modernised yet there's plenty of kitchen storage space for everyone. Sharing a bathroom is nowhere near as bad as it seems. The rooms are comfortable and have everything you need and it's a really nice location with plenty of bunnies, ducks and woodland. However, it's further away from campus than the other colleges but still only a 10 min walk. The best thing about Park Wood is probably Woody's which is the best bar on campus in my opinion.
I hated living in parkwood. It was extremely unsocial and I was very unlucky to be living with people I really did not get along with in a five bed room house. Would not recommend.
Parkwood is kind-of the 'left behind' UKC accommodation. I'm currently staying at the 5-bed house which is lacking in a lot of provisions. There's no social space to hang out with, only a cramped uncomfortable kitchen that can only hold a few people. The dryers and washers in the laundrette are regularly not working - either swallowing your money or failing to wash your clothes. My radiator can be described as schizophrenic at best - even after having it "fixed" it regularly doesn't work. Furthermore there's no consistently in whose staying in the house. There's short term students constantly moving in and out, some of them social and some of them not. It leads to an uncomfortable social environment where it feels more like a hotel than student accomodation. I'd really recommend people think twice before choosing to stay at parkwood. If you can pay a bit extra to go somewhere else it's worth doing.
It is worth noting that the sizes of the rooms vary. The speed of wi fi is okay but it occsaionaly switches from the fast 'eduroam' to the much slower 'wi-fi guest' for no apparant reason. Standard of cleaning is fine in the kitchen but the cleaner often sits in the house for several hours doing stuff on their phone which is rather distracting and uncomfortable. The house definelty lacks a social space, the kitchen is fine but other accomdations on campus have far larger kitchens and social spaces. The location is fine, 10 mins from main campus and there is a shop and pub a two minute walk away from the house. Park Wood is definelty the most social place on campus with a friendly atmosphere and the occasional massive house party. I reccomend Park Wood if you want to save some money and a good social scene, but if you want nicer and more spacious facilities you should look at somewhere like Keynes instead.
Parkwood is the perfect place for first year students- combining fantastic social opportunities with optimum location.
The only thing missing is an en suite but apart from that these halls are amazing, the social life is great and they're the cheapest on campus
Flats are overpriced, out of the way of everything on campus, small kitchen and no social space, sometimes patchy internet.
Good value for money, convenient having woodys and essentials a 2 min walk away and it's great for socialising
Everyone hates Park Wood for no reason and it is ridiculous. It is easily the most sociable place to start off as a fresher.
crazy people, loads of internationals and exchange students. easy to meet new people by just attending and saying hi
Lovely accomodation but flat mates are dead
Brilliant value for money, the best accommodation in the University of Kent due to the amazing social life and community feel. Park Wood is a student village so it feels like a home away from home. I can't recommend it enough. I originally applied for en suite rooms but the lack of shower in my room is really not an issue because of the high standard of bathroom and value for money. I saved £1500 by not having a bathroom and actually prefer my house to my friends flats.
Great for socialising as you have your own student village with shop and pub
There's always someone around to talk to - and a great place to make friends. Or find a party!
I was in the flats and loved it as a place to live
Wouldn't want to live anywhere! So much fun to be had in parkwood, especially 6 bed houses. You make a little family! Good sized bedrooms/desks too!
Park wood flats are great with good sized rooms and en suite. But they are expensive for what they are and there is not much social space
Despite boasting to be a student village, it lacks enough facilities to cater to the 1,700 students living in Park Wood. The five and six bed houses are one of the cheaper accommodations on campus so it's more value for money in comparasion to the other accommodation types, but the flats seems way too expensive compared with the other flats on campus that have a much better location. Whilst it's furthest away from main campus, it's still a great location as it only take about 20 minutes to get to the other end of campus by foot. Cleaner comes once a week and does the communal areas, but wish they could come more often and restock bin bags and toilet paper more often. If anything broke the office would normally send someone to fix it right away. However, Park Wood on a whole lack social spaces that the other colleges/accommodations enjoy, especially the houes.
The house I lived in was great for socialising, even with a large group of people. It was located less than a minute away from the convenience store and pub and only a 10 minute walk to main campus, ideal location for first year!
Park wood is much too far away from main campus, and doesn't have enough social spaces
Value for money is 5 stars because although the house is very basic, the green area, Essentials, Woodys and the social aspect of Park Wood in general definitely make up for it. Location is 4 stars because it is about 10 minutes away from campus. Everything else is perfect. Hall management is 4 stars as the maintenance checks are thorough, if someone doesn't work it is immediately replaced and any problems with lights, toilet etc. are dealt with swiftly. Cleaning is 3 stars as we have had problems with staff and cleaning standards, however towards the end of the year we had a lovely cleaner. Common room and social spaces is 3 stars only because there isn't a dedicated area like a couple of other halls which have sofas. Here you have to make your own social space in the kitchen, rooms or outside (in the summer) Social experience is 5 stars because it was simply a five star social experience! Park Wood is rightfully known as the most social place to live on campus.
I loved park wood however I was living in the flats (bossenden court) and not the houses. It may be the furthest from campus but it's still only a 10 minute walk and the location was actually really nice and quiet rather than being on campus. My room was great, and every one I am closest to now I met in halls.
Parkwood is the best! The whole atmosphere of the student village is great and made my freshers year! And it's cheap too. Bonus.
Pure awesomeness, perfect for first year, don't remember much of the first few weeks... Centerparks for students!
I really enjoyed living there...
Filled with more drug dealers than students.
Being slightly of the Uni's main campus can be annoying when you have 5 minutes to get to lecture but it gives Parkwood a student village feel none of the others have. I meet some great people at Parkwood. Wether its in houses or flats i'd say its the best accommodation at Kent for people looking to make friends and have fun at Uni.
In my house we often had problems with sharing spaces facilities (shower, microwaves and fridges) and sometimes it would take a while to get fixed and sometimes it wouldn't. Cleaners should have been coming in once a week but with the management cleaners become irregular. The social space is just the kitchen but from Sept- Dec it was always overrun with daddy long legs and currently the table is occupied with ants here and there despite it being clean. However all of this does tend to bring people together and the social experience is quite good.
I am in Willows Court and the house is not in good quality. One weekend we had no heating water or gas and our kitchen was in pieces. There are cracks in many walls and silverfish in the bathrooms. Completely overpriced. Plus, we all paid the same price yet the room sizes are completely different. I have a very small room and 3 others have a large room. Which I think is completely unfair. In addition. Some other houses have recently been redone and their houses are lovely. Our one is no where near as nice yet we all paid the same price! Furthermore, we were told we would be put with people whom we are likely to get on with via a questionnaire. But had no such thing and was placed in a house with all mature international students, and have had many problems in the house. However, the location and atomosphere of Park Wood is excellent and there is frequent maintenance staff around which is good.
Very sociable, good value for money. Close enough to uni (easy walk, about 10 mins) but also gives you space from studies/campus etc. Lots of surrounding green spaces/woodland.
Its a nice area overall and i have no issue with the actual accomodation. Everyone living in and around the court to us are friendly. I do have an issue with the cleaners not actually cleaning the kitchen when we've tidied up our stuff so that they can do their job or how they randomly do not come on the days they were suppose to. Overall Parkwood is the place to be my first year there has been amazing and i dont think i could ask for a better place
Best place to live for first year! Friendly environment, easy to meet people, easy to get to campus and town - brilliant!
Best year of my life was spent in Park Wood! Houses are well-heated, surprisingly powerful showers (even if they don't look like much), there are easy shortcuts to the medical centre and Keynes plus there is a bar and shop... Personally couldn't complain
Great value for money, wasn't refurbished when I was there but has been over the past summer - now looks brand new inside. Location a bit far from campus, takes about 10-15 mins to get to things but at weekends you don't feel like you're at the uni so it has upsides.
Cleaners could clean the kitchen tables as well as it is annoying when they move all the appliances onto it making it dirty. The courts are slowly being modernised and the modern ones are extremely good value for money and decent sized rooms
No space to socialise in the houses apart from the kitchen
Parking is redicolius you need a permit to park outside where live or get a ticket
I lived in Parkwood flats 3 years ago and had the best year! There's always a party nearby and I loved that I had an ensuite and big kitchen. Perhaps just needs a sofa in the kitchen like Keynes
No social area, far from main campus, too quiet, really bad.
Excellent place to live for first years to settle in and make friends, so social and so much fun.