University rating
Tell us about your overall university experience so far.
It's a closed campus meaning you have *everything* you need. I hardly ventured out until my second year. So far, I've loved my experience. It may not have been the one I was looking for, but it definitely has been interesting.
To sum up everything:
job: People get jobs
Lecturers: They're good. They take time out to help you. Generally care about your success
Student union: Could be better.
Accomodation: Go for the expensive ones. It's a better experience
Uni Facilities: Don't need to leave university until they kicked me out.
City life: Yes. We have shops. Generally cheap ( not as cheap up north, but waaay cheaper than London)
Clubs and Societies: Depends on who runs it. Some can be useless, whilst others can be active.
Student support: They're extremely helpful.
People: generally friendly, but also very distant.
Facilities
How good are your university's facilities?
* Perfect. Library is efficient and effective at getting what you want.
* Sometimes a shortage of computers but not the end of the world.
* Expect Campus food to be designed from primary school. It's not delicious but it's sustenance and decently priced considering you're full afterwards. The asian food is far better and cheaper but only available during the day.
* Open grounds is beautiful to look at, we have a park, a lake and it just looks very ecologically friendly which eases the horrible 1960s brick blocks.
* Sports hall is amazingly big - it comes with its swimming pool but families also use it too so I have no doubt that half of it is filled with kids pee. Still! It's excellent to take your mind off of essays. Also a well equipped gym with loads of people commenting on UEAs fit finder.
* Loads of cafes scattered around the campus. My favourite one is in the arts gallery.
* Speaking of which, there's an art gallery. Best bathrooms to poop in imo.
* There's a bookstore. Overpriced, but good if you *really* need a book or you want to browse what's currently trending.
* Laundrettes - costs £4 per load. Washing machines are massive.
* On campus clubbing room. Dressing up in costume on a Tuesday has never been so competitive.
* Pub is really cool to. I quite like it. Has table football and snooker/pool tables scattered around. Plays the top 40 charts *all* the time though, so that's a negative.
* Shop: We have a co-op that sells overpriced food but perfect for all your lethargic needs. Plus, we have tampons cheaper than asda now.
* Doctors: We have a medical centre that's always busy but they have a pharmacy right next door or if you need to go to ER, we have a hospital. I've never been inside, but it looks pretty big from the outside.
Overall: Lots of stuff, suitable for everyones interests.
Student support
How good is the support offered by the uni? Think both academic (tutors/feedback) and personal (counselling, etc).
Received a resounding amount of support here from my lecturers, personal advisor, the dean of students and I'm sure the mental health area is of equal calibre. My lecturers seem to take time out of their schedule so long as I arrange it with them, and their hours are flexible enough to just walk in with any problem. They're very attentive and they also pay a lot of attention to student feedback.
Students' union
What do you think of your Students' Union in terms of student representation and facilities?
Our union could be better, but they're slowly improving. When interacting with societies, they're a little helpless at times and sometimes their campaigns and policies don't really benefit the students but more to say that we hold interest in it. There's not much that I can criticise them on because I know they are busy, but i feel very apathetic in really believing they can change the university. There's so many leaps and hurdles they have to jump through in order to make it effective so I can sympathise in those regards.
Local life
Is your university in a good location in terms of distance to accommodation and local amenities?
Again, like a normal city.
Has everything: clubs, gyms, strip clubs ( or as they like to be fancy: Gentlemen's bar), charities, thrift shops, overly expensive shops, normal shops, student shops, cinemas. There are some cute little niche shops like the bicycle club which every student visits in his/her uni life here. The city's highstreet is very cosmopolitan, affordable but that's pretty much Norwich: one high street. If you want to do more different activities ( I do horseriding) like riding/ skiing/snowboarding/iceskating/diving/ lazer quest/ paintball, you have to head out the city but it's still pretty affordable and there are good teachers.
They're slowly introducing contactless payment everywhere so that's good.
Taxi's are cheap with 5-10 to travel around norwich. Bargain. Go for ABC everytime.
Food is food price. Public transport is cheap but there are 3 different bus services. I made the amateur mistake in buying a bus pass that was overly expensive and not being able to interchange between the bus services. There's an airport and train service though it's cheaper to get a train to standard ( with the ticket) than fly out of Norwich.
Societies and Sports
How would you rate the variety of societies/sports?
The clubs and societies, like at any university, are run by the students. It really depends on the individual who runs the society as a whole to determine whether it's successful or not. My opinion here is slightly skewed and biased due to my own commitment to my society. There is are a lot of societies, and so I can hardly complain at the variety.
I do feel however that societies are very hands offish when getting to know the individual. Whilst you can make friends here, it's more a superficial relationship than you do at halls but then, again, it's all up to the individual.
Lecturers and teaching quality
What do you like most and least about the way your course(s) are taught?
My course is absolutely fabulous. Lecturers are good and coherent. When we have issues, we talk to our student reps who are extremely efficient at reporting feedback to them when they have their meetings. You can see a general improvement in some lecturers.
Career prospects
How does your uni make efforts to increase your employability (careers department, work placements, transferable skills)?
Can't comment. All I know is it's up to the individual, and UEA has a brilliant reputation internationally, so I think I don't have to worry about it. Our career center, although invested in, hardly appeases the students to enter. It always seems so baron. Nonetheless, they advertise jobs and internships so I can assume they're always finding people.
They're there, it's just people feel reluctant to use it, or at least those i've spoken to.
University halls
What do you think about the safety, condition, location and cost of your accommodation?
Lived in the worst accomodation there (Orwell) and can say to anyone, always go for the best alternative. You'll meet better people (not saying the people I met weren't interesting, I just feel I didn't really connect with them like I wanted to), and probably have much better friendships. Whilst money may be a factor, I really think you go to halls with the intention of the experience. Seriously, go for the midrange - expensive halls. I speak from experience.
Pros of the room:
That window was amazing!
My radiator was amazing!
My Desk space was amazing!
We got someone to clean our kitchen/bathroom. Our toilet roll supply never ran dry.
Flatmates were easy to contact/ talk to regardless of how introverted they were.
cons of the room: Storage space is limited. Very limited. You either have to be efficient in what you pack, or efficient in how you store or as my friends did: clothing mountain pile.
About 2 plug points. Bring extension cords.
Room space is modest but tight. After a skilled game of tetris, you could fit about 8 people in there.
Can hear through walls ( great for showing your neighbours whose got the rampant sex life. Not great when the person above you is having a rave party and you have a 9am). However, I think this is everywhere.
Lighting sucked
I have seen the other halls, and I recommend them. It's a good layout, easily walkable though I have to admit, the horrible architecture grows on you. Their newest building looks awesome though.