After living at the Village since January this year, I have experienced most of what it has to offer. This has been my first experience living out of home, and if I had the chance to do it again I would refuse. Here's why.
I decided to move into a 2 bedroom Studio Apartment which was presented on the website as being quite spacious (due to clever camera angles). I was one of the fortunate ones though; my balcony was larger than most and I was placed into a room in a good location. Some were not so lucky. You don't get to inspect the individual room you will be moving into before you sign all the paperwork and give them your money, so if they place you into a room that has no balcony for instance there is nothing you can do about it. There have also been many problems within my room and the rooms of many others (eg, lights constantly breaking, door handles popping off, sometimes the keycards will just stop letting you access your room & other areas of the village). They have a system in place where they will fix any problems in the room free of charge (as long as you haven't gone and deliberately caused damage) but this system is hard to access as you have to go to their online portal (which is never used) and file a fixit request. Would be so much easier if this was doable with a piece of paper from reception or a simple phone call, but apparently not.
The kitchen is way too small. Without proper ventilation, it gets very hot & smoky very quickly. The two stovetops take a little while to get used to cooking with, but they are manageable if used one at a time. I have found it rather impossible to be able to develop my cooking skills in this small environment. There was word of the village opening up a communal kitchen with ovens, large benches etc mid this year but that didn't happen.
The bathroom is once again quite small but manageable. My exhaust fan hasn't worked since I got to the village, and it appears many other peoples don't work as well. My suggestion; do NOT go for a #2 and then shower. It makes your whole room smell like steamy excrement until it somehow airs out.
The balcony is good for having a chat to people in the courtyard, having a drink with a mate or doing whatever else you do on a balcony. If you're a smoker, be warned; lighting up on the balcony will be met with a breach notice. 3 breach notices means that they can kick you out of the village. The head security guard, Adrian, has different responses when asked about why we cannot smoke on the balconies ("if there is a gas leak the whole place will go up", "It'll make the rooms smell", "Could start a fire" etc etc). You can smoke in the courtyard though.
One of the most important things about the Village in my opinion is to make friends with security. These guys like to have their power trips at night. Mushy is usually a really nice dude. Mushy's brother (don't have a clue what his name is) is a real jerk and takes his job way too seriously. The same can be said for Adrian, but he's cool if you are in his good books, but I've seen him screw over so many people this year when they don't show him the respect he thinks he deserves. Just recently he went around the whole Village, going into peoples rooms unannounced because he "wanted to see who was still living at the Village". I don't feel comfortable in my room now knowing that he could walk in at any moment because he thinks he has the right.
The residential life at the Village was absolutely fantastic when I first moved in. I think that the attitudes of residents at this time helped a lot; with people moving away from home for the first time, a whole new batch of international students and essentially a fresh start for the Village, the beginning of the year was really great in the sense that it was incredibly easy to make friends and socialise. The O-Week activities organised by Joel and the Residential Assistants was awesome and some of my fondest memories of the Village occurred during this time. It seemed that after the first semester, though, the Village died down a little. Second semester didn't seem to yield nearly as many courtyard drinking sessions, random beer pong games and carefree trips into the city as the first semester.
The price was and still is a huge concern for me. On my contract, the room was costing roughly $250 a week. Terrible sized room, security guards who think they're cops, and too many rules to poke a stick at. The social atmosphere, study facilities and events at the beginning of the year made it worthwhile though.
All in all, I wouldn't recommend staying at the Village. For the price you pay, you could get a magnificent apartment with a couple of friends in the city. And if you're socially inclined, join a couple of student clubs at your place of study and adventure into Melbournes nightlife (Rats, Asian Beer Cafe, European Beer Cafe, Croft Institute, The Workshop are all great places to go out). read more