Parker House

Abertay University is just a five-minute walk away, and so is the city. Great place for students to stay.

The rooms have ensuite bathrooms and open onto a shared corridor. Each has a wardrobe, bookcase, desk with three drawers, and three wall shelves. Bronze and Silver rooms also have space under the bed for storing extra food. In the communal kitchen, there’s a shelf in the fridge and freezer, a wall cupboard, plus a drawer and cupboard beneath the worktop. Plenty of food storage. Flats have five or seven residents, and each shares a kitchen and TV lounge. The secure gates and electronic tag system are handy. The tag opens the outside and inside doors to your block and block A, where you’ll find the gym and laundry. Laundry takes a card or app that you need to add money to. Wi-Fi is available throughout, and it’s fast. It’s free for up to two devices, with extra charges for more devices and cloud storage, though you probably won’t need that. Abertay University is only a couple of minutes away, diagonally across the road. There are several accommodation grades. Tesco Express, Lidl and Poundstretcher are nearby. For a town view, you can ask for a side room facing the roundabout. A front room will have more traffic noise. When booking the following year, make sure your child tells you as soon as bookings open. My son could have got a discount and a cheaper room if he’d told us. Maybe he was angling for a Silver instead of Bronze room. During move-in, you only get 20 minutes to park, but trolleys are provided. Once the luggage is unloaded, Bell Street multi-storey car park is across the road. It costs £3 all day on weekends and is open until 8 pm.

My daughter chose iQ while studying for her master’s at a nearby university, which recommends the accommodation. We thought the high price reflected the secure site, communal facilities and room standards. That expectation didn’t last. Her window let a draught in around the frame, as if it hadn’t been fitted properly. Her room was cold through autumn, and the window did little to block outside noise. It was eventually replaced. The radiator was under her desk, so little heat made it into the room, and it ran on a timer that had to be switched back on every two hours. She often complained about the cold and spent most nights in a chilly room. Near the end of the year, black mould appeared. Management advised leaving the window vents open, despite the cold, and running the extractor fan constantly. The noisy fan disturbed her sleep and didn’t work very well. It was in the bathroom, so it couldn’t dehumidify her room with that door closed. Caretakers cleaned the mould, but it returned, suggesting it’s in the building itself. During discussions, management had suggested it might be due to my daughter’s humidity management. She developed ongoing symptoms like coronavirus and later saw a doctor for respiratory problems. The doctor diagnosed a lung infection and pneumonia, and directly attributed them to the mould in her room. She had to leave the accommodation, throw out some mouldy belongings and move into her boyfriend’s room at another address. She missed two weeks of her course due to the illness and is still paying £850 a month for a room she, and nobody else, can use. We tried to get her released from the iQ contract, but the terms put the burden on the resident to find a replacement tenant. Who would move into a mouldy room? iQ are acting atrociously, and I’d strongly advise people considering their accommodation to stay away. I’ve also heard anecdotal accounts of other students having mould and other problems. Do your homework before choosing iQ in Dundee while at university.

It’s a safe place and has been a great part of my first year at university. The staff are warm, welcoming and willing to go out of their way for residents. Any small issues I had during my stay were handled quickly and efficiently.