Our collection of real, honest student reviews of unis and courses is the largest in the UK, and helps you make well-informed decisions about your future. Student reviews also form the basis of our annual Whatuni Student Choice Awards (WUSCAs), which highlight great work carried out by institutions for their students.
Having a student union to give us a louder voice would be great but as a student body, we are generally heard by staff who accommodate for us.
Our course has a heavily focussed amount of contact time and the level of teaching is amazing, however being told more about our career opportunities or how to achieve them would be helpful
It doesn’t feel too diverse
Staff are extremely friendly
It’s an incredible place to study - with amazing connections and history. Feel very lucky to study here. The course is well led to identifying your career goals and ambitions and trying to work within that field. Some of the teaching staff are a bit up themselves at time and can give a little bitter feeling towards music,
The blended learning did actually work very well with the course and it made it very easy to still take part in lessons and lectures. However always having an online option means people can often just not show up and i feel this has negatively impacted the social aspects of my course.
I do not understand why LIPA doesn't ever come up on the list of best places to study Sound Engineering/Music Tech/Sound Tech. It is honestly the best place in the country (bar Tonnmeister in Surrey, though that is an entirely different thing: more science) to study it. At LIPA, certainly on the Sound Tech course, you get the impression that the lecturers really care about you as students. I have emailed most lecturers at ridiculous times of the day and night and I have always received replies, even at weekends/in the evenings. They frequently focus on how to get you into employment: it's definitely the most vocational sound tech style course. I looked everywhere to do a course like this, and LIPA's problem is that they trade on word of mouth. Something needs to be done to get more students to look here because it should be ranking as the best place to do this sort of course in the country. It is truly excellent. The teaching, the facilities and the subjects are all brilliant. Unfortunately it suffers from the reputation of other courses at the uni but don't read rankings about the music courses etc. Sound tech is a totally different thing. You want to feel part of a community of creatives, working with the best people in your field? Choose LIPA for Sound Tech. It is brilliant and you won't find this quality of teaching on this course anywhere else.
During COVID, it was tough. But I still got the best uni experience out of everyone I know. We were worked hard and lecturers worked to have facilities available to us as quickly as was feasible and legal. We were online for most of my second year for lectures, but were still able to access the studios and facilities and even have some seminars and workshops. They worked tirelessly to make it better for us. In normal circumstances, we get about 15 hours a week in terms of contact hours, but that reduces each year as you study more. However, you have access to lecturers whenever you need them. If you ask a lecturer for help, they will endeavour to help you.
Great city for students, much safer than I originally thought it was going to be. Loads of bars, pubs, clubs and music venues. Something for everyone. Easy to walk across, very small city centre but loads to do. You will not be disappointed!
The facilities are absolutely incredible. They have amazing recording studios and a really great live venue. The student support team are always available to talk. The events at the LIPA bar are always slot of fun The one negative i have however is the lack of a student union.
Amazing workplace opportunities and chances to meet past students to talk about their journey into the music industry. Lecturers are always available to answer questions and talk and are all very experienced in the field The course facilities are all amazing with recording studios and live gig venues
Liverpool is a relatively cost effective place to study as a student and a really vibrant city to live in The nightlife is lively and it’s a friendly city to be in
In an amazing area to get the centre of Liverpool and really close to all of the universities (especially LIPA). Staff are really welcoming and willing to help out in anyway they can
For my course, for first year we are supposed to have a wide range of learning experiences with everything our course involves, second year we only study two subjects we have learnt, third year we should have picked one out of the two from second year to finish overall. I am currently in second year and picked my two subjects at the end of last year. I love what I’m currently doing but I can’t help but feel like it was very easy for me to pick these two since I was barely taught anything for all the other subjects. When practising Stage Management on shows, LIPA sometimes brings in External Directors whom are lovely to the cast members and the tutors at LIPA, but tend to be nasty to me and mean also to all the other crew members on shows. It is very ridiculous when I remember that I am paying to be here and they are being PAYED to be here. I mentioned earlier that I think there should be more tutors on more course than there currently is, this is because these teachers are being payed by me and the other students to teach us, but most of the time it is difficult to find them, they rarely reply to urgent emails, only check on us if they think they need to, and hardly ever teach us anything. On the positive, I do get along with my tutors, it is nice to talk to them when I actually get the chance to, and I really love what I’m doing so I wouldn’t go to any other University.
I’ll admit, my course is a very messy one. I mainly like to work in the Workshop of my uni which is where the Sets for theatrical productions are created. It involves a lot of dangerous tools and hand tools (Jigsaw, sand machine, grinders etc) which I love to use. Since Covid, everything gets sanitised before and after work. Sometimes painting is involved inside the workshop too as part as the set builds, however there is a tiny room at the end of the workshop which has a small sink and all the paint, brushes, and products for texture. The room is disgusting with all the dead brushes and products which haven’t been replaced since going off and are not reusable. The sink is usually blocked so you can’t wash anything, I try to avoid painting so I don’t have to use that room. Our tutors in the workshop do a very good job at keeping the students safe from the machines and tools so no one hurts themselves or goes deaf with given out PPE which is also sanitised for/by us. One student forgot to put their goggles on and ended up with a splinter in their eye and had to go to A&E, but it wasn’t the tutors fault. Our usual lectures which involve just sitting at a desk or a computer are always very clean however they tend to be messy since there are cables everywhere on the floor. This is because the rooms we use for lectures are the same rooms we use to practise rigging lights which, obviously, involve a lot of cabling, so we don’t particularly mind it and it doesn’t get in our way since we’re just sat down. The rest of the building (corridors, canteen, bar, reception) always appears very clean to me. I often walk past the cleaning staff doing a thorough job and now that I think about it, I have never once come into uni and thought it was messy or dirty.
I have learnt that it is very easy to contact the student support services at Uni if there is help needed and they are very lovely people. My only problem, however, is that on my enrolment day in my first year, so my very first day at LIPA, I was handing in documents then was moved to another room where I then had my ID card picture taken, but in the same room was a table with three people who immediately asked if I needed mental illness support. In this situation, there were at least four other people watching me so I felt very uncomfortable and anxious about discussing my mental health to strangers so suddenly and on my first day at LIPA. Even though I did need support, I quickly said “no” so I could leave already. I’m not sure if people are aware of this, but young (any age) people don’t exactly want to discuss their mental health so openly out of nowhere and in front of strangers. I was very disappointed by LIPA that that’s how they decided to tell us there is counselling if we need it and hope they change it. Even though that wasn’t a great start, counselling since then has proven to be really good and continuous with their help.
Some of my Tutors are supportive, others aren’t and are difficult to communicate with. There have been many lectures that draw me in and make me excited to learn, but then there are some that aren’t exciting and don’t necessarily teach me anything, even watching back recorded online classes I can’t seem to remember what the class was about. I personally don’t think there are enough tutors on my course, even if they are trying their best they have too many multiple roles for the course, so they tend to be running around everywhere trying to get everything done. There have been many occasions where I have reported bullying or harassment and a tutor will say one thing but then another will say completely another so nothing gets sorted which is very upsetting. All Tutors will treat me nicely and obviously care for me, but when it comes to my mental health and anxiety, they always se to brush it off as though it doesn’t matter. There have also been times when I haven’t been treated like an actual Uni student, like I’m someone working on an actual performance which can cause extra anxiety for me because it puts me in a lot of pressure. Of course, I love what I do at Uni and working on shows, so it’s easy for me to stay positive and carry on with my work, even if I’m not fully supported. Since my course is so hands on, I do require a lot of face to face teaching and meetings otherwise I don’t get the proper learning experience, however, because of covid we have had to make do with many Zoom and Teams meetings instead. They’re not all bad, they’re better than sending 50 emails and receiving no replies, but of course it can be incredibly nerve wrecking trying to host a meeting online, especially if you already have bad anxiety. My course involves a lot of different subjects (lighting, management, sound, construction etc) therefore many of our lectures are performed differently. It can be entertaining to have a lecture involving building a set for a stage, rather than sat at a desk and listening to a dull voice go on for 6 hours, yet we do have lectures like that sometimes too. All students have an LGT, which is one of our tutors who are supposed to check on us weekly if we are feeling overworked or too under pressure. I think this was a really good idea from LIPA, when I first started in my first year I was very nervous and shy, with a side of bullying from other students, so I felt like dropping out many times, but when my own LGT checked up on me twice I started to feel more comfortable. Yet “twice” was how many time she checked up on me. I occasionally forget LGTs exist since it’s been two years and I’ve only been checked on two times throughout.
My course always encourage us to go and volunteer to work somewhere outside of Uni as part of assessments. However, when Covid started barely any of us have gotten the opportunity to do so, we end up being given alternative assessments instead. This isn’t LIPA’s fault tho, this was just all very unfortunate timing.
Yes
As a past music student here I feel LIPA has failed to provide sufficient education for my money's worth, and continues to not do so from what I hear from current students. If you're seeking to do music at university, I strongly suggest you reconsider coming to LIPA.
I'm a BA music graduate at LIPA, and I feel it's been an enormous let-down. You will spend extremely little of your time being educated in music (in stark contrast to the other courses here where you will spend your time honing your craft literally by doing it as much as possible) and what lectures you do have will be extremely non-specific lessons regarding the business (where you talk about nebulous ways to instill "value" in projects that always disclude making any money?!) or context lessons, which is essentially the course's way of passing itself of as academic. If you're thinking of applying for a music course, please seek somewhere else.
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Everyone is Friendly including Faculty. Overall best but instalment duration for international student is bit challenging. Shoulfd b 6 month instalments plan