University rating
Tell us about your overall university experience so far.
The University of Nottingham is one of the most attractive universities you could study. Every detail in buildings, libraries, design print, even the freshly cut grass, is so pleasing and forces you to go into the study. The campus looks and feels like home; in their own words, "Welcome to your new home away from home". The student life is 10/10. When I was in my first year, I remember going through some explicit difficulties, and my tutor put me through the school's counselling during COVID, which saved my life. I came from a small town almost 4 hours away from Nottingham, and the jump from sixth form to university is quite daunting, especially for someone who did not know anyone attending the university. It's a whole new life, and especially for my cohort, COVID did not permit us to have the normal university lifestyle. From online lectures to online exams, it got challenging not having too many human interactions, and we only experienced a few things the university would offer to a first-year student. However, the support, constant emails, and check-ins from lecturers and tutors kept us up. I love that the university has many societies and things for people to join and do best suited to them. One of the societies I am involved in is Kharis on Campus, a Christian student fellowship. I wanted to join sports societies; however, I could never afford to have a membership every year. The university should have a scholarship or bursary fund for students who cannot afford sports memberships. There should be a bundle where sports membership comes with the uniform. It is ridiculous to pay for a membership of £260 annually, pay for a uniform, and then pay to join a sports society. I understand that it comes with many outstanding facilities and technology people can use; however, it can be difficult, as I have explained. There are many societies students can join and enjoy life in university. I will also say a lot the societies do tend to do socials together at a place where there is alcohol involved, e.g. going to the pub and having a beer. Some course subject societies are no longer helping newer students integrate into university life, helping with their course other than meeting new people and making friends, just having fun drinking at a nightclub. This blocks many students from joining in the social part as not every student drinks. It could be improved if there were some legislation from the student union that societies must participate in half and half-alcoholic gatherings. There are many available facilities for students, hopper buses which take you from campus to campus (although they have started to decrease the size of the buses). The universities have various libraries for people to book group studies and special sections dedicated to postgraduates. The university has recently made all libraries 24 hours again since COVID, which has helped many students. More study buildings are required; the number of students to study space ratio does not correlate; the majority of students prefer studying on a university campus, so the university should tailor to more buildings which aren't in use to be study spaces, Some buildings which have not been in use since COVID.
The university needs more streetlights at night; even though it is pretty safe, it sometimes puts me off in the evening. The university park campus has a central food court. The university needs to increase the types of food they sell at an affordable price. It should be reasonable with a good amount of portion. Otherwise, people spend £10 a day on food, and we should increase the cafes and restaurants such as mooch. Loving my university has made me fall in love with the town itself, and I am desperately trying to find an excuse for a job to stay in Nottingham. Everything has flaws, but honestly, the university of Nottingham has been there for me in various ways, with exceptional professionals and professors.
Course rating
Course rating
I completed a new niche degree which provided us with a £600 voucher to buy a laptop to be efficient in the course. I appreciate that the university gave us that and introduced us to bursaries and scholarships. They constantly help us apply for fantastic opportunities; I had the privilege of completing two internships through the university in my second year, one at the University of Oxford for six weeks, an eye-opener. The support and help from professors have helped my cohort over the last three years. Any questions we ask the lecturers, they are always available to help us. The course content is very intriguing; whenever I tell someone that I am studying Cancer Sciences (BSc), they want to know more about why I chose this course. The course allows an integration into a masters option at the end of the second year for it to be completed after the third year. My cohort had a different start as the content was online in the first and second years. It was a mixture of online, in-person, and in the third year, entirely in-person. This is where my cohort struggled a bit, and we wished we had a bit more support and understanding from the university that we had not completed an in-person exam since the first year of sixth form, so we weren't ready. As much as the professors tried to help us with revision sessions and essay practices, the material had nothing to do with what we were currently taught because they had limited revision questions and material they could give us. If we could have been given actual revision related to the current module taught, that would have helped. I understood that we were the second cohort to be taught it, but the whole cohort expressed the absolute need for more specified revision and avoiding an in-person exam. The university should have done something about it. In my final year, I get to do a research project and write my dissertation on it, which I think is very important for students to have that research experience for jobs in the future. I am hopeful that my course will open more doors for various opportunities.
University location
University location
Loving my university has made me fall in love with the town itself, and I am desperately trying to find an excuse for a job to stay in Nottingham. Buses and tram bundles are cheap for students here; the NCTX do a deal of £250 bus pass for a year, saving you up to £700 from just using contactless. There are many shops in the town, restaurants, fast food places, bars, cinemas, cafés and various activities and leisure such as bowling that students can enjoy. Everything can be a walking distance, and there are scooters and cheap Uber’s to get around when it rains. I like that Nottingham has various retail parks close to student accommodations where you can do all your grocery shopping. Nottingham is the perfect town for the student, not too big or too small. We need cheaper affordable studio accommodation.