I would suggest for better facilities for student support.

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No

The university of Kent is a really beautiful campus and it’s not too big so it’s easy to appreciate the beauty of it without finding yourself getting lost or swallowed up by the grounds. Student support is something that the uni prides itself on giving out and I feel that they do a fairly good job of that. Professors have office hours and there is a student advisory service on campus to help with academics as well as the job shop and employment services to help with life after university as well. The school tends to be fairly understanding about circumstances that could lead to you requiring an extension or mitigating circumstance but I feel that it has become harder to acquire one and people now have so prove so much more which I don’t always think is fair. Another thing that isn’t so great though is the fact that there seems to be a lot of strikes that happen throughout the year which inevitably end up affecting the students whether indirectly or directly. I suppose it’s thought that’s the best way to get results but it can be a little aggravating especially as an international student paying a lot of money for school already. Campus life is not bad for the most part, there are societies which organize things to do and the university tried to do so as well for students who may find themselves here for the holidays as well. Although it can feel very geared towards specific interests and can sometimes feel like if you don’t like to drink or smoke or party then there’s not much to do. In terms of the weather, for most of the year Kent is pretty chilly, things get very windy here and cold particularly at the beginning and end of the year and don’t warm up until late spring but it is still sunny for a good part of the year so that’s always nice too. Overall, I’m happy that I came to Kent and I love the fact that I am studying at a reputable institution.

Law as a degree is a very content heavy course which does require a lot of reading in order to keep up and fall behind. I would say that at least some sort of interest in the course is required to do well or you might just find yourself really struggling to engage in the course. This is especially true as the years go by. In my uni, things started out completely online at the start of the pandemic and I spent my entire second year doing uni from my house. Options to come back then opened up more at the start of the new academic year and for the most part everything is back in person now for the law school. While in theory it may sound great to do uni from home, I am definitely happy things opened back up because i personally struggled with remote learning and didn’t feel I really engaged. And unfortunately my grades were a reflection of that at the end of the year. Our tutors give us the option of contacting them to meet up for office hours at specific times but many are flexible if the times clash with your timetable. There is also the option of emailing and most, if not all, trackers will get back to you. They definitely do their best to support you in the best way they can and in the event that they can’t give you the answers you are looking for, they would usually try and point you in the right direction. We also have academic advisors who are on hand to help you track your academic progress. My issue with that is that I had a different one every year and so it made it very hard to form a bond with any of them. I wish I had just been assigned one for my entire time here as I feel that would have benefited me and allowed to better make use of them. It can be quite frustrating and exhausting to have to start the relationship from scratch every single year. In terms of the facilities, classrooms are usually very well equipped and there is also the law school building where students can get involved in the law clinic and watch moot trials to help them get used to that kind of life and presenting their cases in the correct manner. That is very helpful and even helps you to decide on whether you’d like to be a solicitor or a barrister. In terms of the law school helping with life after your degree, I feel more could be done to open up more options to students because a lot of the time it feels like the only two options are either the LPC or BTC route, and not everyone is set on of them. It would be nice to have more talks about what else you could do with your law degree so you don’t feel so trapped if neither of those two options is what you’re looking for.

Canterbury as a city is a beautiful and relatively safe place to be. However, I wouldn’t call it my favorite city either. There is not too much to do in the city if you don’t enjoy night out at the club or going to restaurants. You’re pretty much out of options then. It almost feels like a sleepy little historic town out in the middle of the countryside sometimes with not a lot going for it. Also there isn’t all that much work here. You would have to travel to a different city in Kent to find more part time work. Especially with the agencies. Most do not operate in Canterbury which makes it a lot harder to secure employment when you’re in school, leaving many with the alternative of travelling back to London for weekends to work. I wish more could be done to open things up for students. International ones especially struggle to find work and often times find themselves unable to get any because they cannot travel to London every weekend. It is also not a very diverse town and most of the diversity comes from within the university itself. It’s a majority Caucasian town and that’s really all I can say about that

I really didn’t like the room I stayed in when I did my foundation year. The room was very small and run down and the carpets were stained. It was just very dark and not the most welcoming place to be. Location wise, Eliot was a good place to be coz it was right in the middle of campus and made everywhere easily accessible but I really think the uni needs to think about updating the rooms. The heating was also not the best and sometimes I would have to sit right up against the heater to get the heat. For most people your room is a place you can’t wait to get back to at the end of the day, but that room, I was more than happy to stay out of for as long as possible. Fortunately the rooms I had the other years were MUCH better and I was able to actually enjoy being on my room. My rooms in Tyler and Turing were much better and more modernized. The facilities were updated, the walls were brighter and it didn’t feel like I was stepping into a gloomy environment every time I came back from class - much better for one’s mental health. My only issue with Turing was the lack of elevators. It made moving in and out very very difficult especially because I was on the very top floor and so I had to drag all my suitcases up six flights of stairs - extremely exhausting.