CourseCompass Has Published Accommodation Guides for Every College in Ireland, 2027

I'll be honest, this isn't the kind of thing I usually get a notification about, but CourseCompass quietly put out something this week that I think is actually a bigger deal than it sounds: a full set of student accommodation guides for 2027, covering 67 campuses across all 32 colleges in the country. Not just the big universities either — every ATU campus, every TUS site, every SETU campus, the smaller specialist colleges, the lot.

If you've been through this with a student before, you'll know why that matters. Accommodation is the part of starting college that genuinely blindsides families, because it runs on a completely different clock to everything else. CAO points dominate the conversation all year, and then suddenly it's August, the offer's landed, and nobody applied to the accommodation lottery back in March because nobody told them it existed.

What's actually in each guide

Every one of the 67 guides is built the same way, which I like, because it means you're not hunting for different information in a different format for every college. Each one covers:

• Where to find a room — on-campus villages, university-owned accommodation, and the private purpose-built developments colleges point students toward
• How to apply — because most colleges run this as a lottery with a specific application window, not first-come-first-served, and that window is often February to July, well before CAO offers exist
• Who to contact — the actual accommodation office, email and phone number for that specific college, not a generic student services line
• Latest published costs — the real 2026/27 rates, broken down by village and room type, for a September 2027 start

I checked the University of Limerick one in detail, and the level of specificity genuinely surprised me — it's not a vague "accommodation is available" page. It names the actual villages (Plassey, Kilmurry, Dromroe, Thomond/Cappavilla, plus the off-campus Troy and Groody), gives the per-village fee for 2026/27 (anywhere from €5,489 for an 8-bed in Plassey up to just over €8,000 for a 2-bed en-suite in Thomond), states the exact deposit (€500), and spells out that CAO applicants living more than 60km from UL are prioritised in the lottery — while those living closer are warned outright that they're unlikely to get a room in the initial allocation. That's the kind of detail a guidance counsellor would otherwise have to dig out of a college's own PDF, assuming it's even been updated since last year.

The honest caveat, which I appreciate them including

CourseCompass has been upfront that the figures are a snapshot as of 1 October 2026, taken deliberately just before Budget 2027 on 6 October — and they've said plainly that costs and supports will be reviewed once the Budget lands. They've also flagged that the CAO's 2027 dates sheet is out, but the Leaving Cert results date and Round One date aren't confirmed yet. I'd rather see that kind of caveat than a page pretending to have certainty it doesn't have.

Why I'm mentioning this now, not in August

Because by August it's too late for the thing that actually matters here: the application window. If a 5th or 6th year student on your books has even a rough idea of where they're likely to end up, this is the moment to get them — or their parents — looking at the relevant college's accommodation guide and noting when that college's lottery opens. Waiting for the CAO offer to arrive before thinking about this is exactly how families end up scrambling in late August for whatever's left, which is usually the most expensive, least secure option on the list.

The full set is organised by college at coursecompass.ie/accommodation — tap a college to see its campuses, or search by town or county if you're not sure which colleges to check yet. There's also a standalone guide to digs and rent-a-room arrangements and an accommodation checklist alongside the college-specific pages, which are worth a look regardless of where a student ends up applying.

I'm building out my own page properly at the moment — find me on Instagram @irishguidance.ie, or email me directly at shellyogorm@gmail.com. I answer everything myself.