Aside the blended learning aspect, this year has still been an amazing experience and has taught me so much. Not just education wise but I’ve also learnt how to live by myself, cook, clean, wash my clothes for myself, I’ve made new friends. This year definitely will be one to remember. The only downside was the cost. I was hoping after seeing how much time is spent learning online that the tuition fees were reduced to at least half as I haven’t been back to campus since early December. Most of my day is spent in front of my laptop studying, sending out emails or talking to my mates on discord, Skype and zoom.

Other than some rooms that we’ve had tutorials in, generally the only public spaces I have used are the library and the sports park for the astroturf. The library is very hygienic especially in shared spaces which is very good given the pandemic. Inside the sports park is also always clean.

There is easy accessibility to all the different supports listed above even counselling is also offered. Our personal tutors often get in contact with us regarding this checking in whether we’re okay, how we’re doing and just making sure we’re coping with work this year. The university offers a great amount of support.

Our course is currently taught online however blended learning has been the main method for educating students at Reading this year. Generally for some of our higher credited modules we have a greater number of teaching hours compared to the lower credited modules. After the December lockdown there hasn’t been any contact time making learning, for me personally, very difficult, as I prefer to learn in an environment in person where I can question the professor. Online learning is also a challenge for me is my computer is quite slow and therefore takes longer to process information for example sometimes when tests are released I can’t see them for around 4-5 minutes because of the time my laptop takes. We haven’t had any in person lectures, those have all been online from the start however, we have had tutorials with professors to aid us with the modules. In these tutorials we complete questions related to the current weeks work prior to the tutorial and then go through the questions again in person which I have found extremely helpful as it allows me to understand the professors more and question them when I don’t understand. Overall, this year has definitely been a challenge especially as a first year, however, I’ve enjoyed some aspects of online learning for instance watching a lecture and taking notes from my bed.

As a placement year student, I receive emails every fortnight or sometimes even weekly about internships, volunteering and future job prospects. The university has a set team for careers advice where you can go and talk to someone if you’re unsure on the next steps you should take in your life. We have ex students from Reading come into our lectures quite often to inspire us and let us know how they applied what they did and how they made their CV stand out compared to others.

No

It’s a clean and nice campus to be in which has a safe and homely feel to it. However, I wish when studying, they would teach some things in Layman's terms rather than expecting us to already know the basic level, and then dive into it head first

My class is taught mostly in person but sometimes I feel that if it was at home and online, the lesson may be more helpful to us. I also feel that they over-teach certain topics, specifically in maths where a lot of the maths isn’t needed in many fields at all

I love the kitchen in my halls although I’d love to have a bit more seating room. Furthermore, my room is plenty big enough to have a 3-4 bed or double bed so I wish they had put those in