AUB is such a lovely close-knit community where you can really be yourself. We’re encouraged to pursue our passions and we’re led by experienced professionals who can help us get where we want to be. There are opportunities for paid commissions, market days, society events and loads more. Overall, I just get a strong sense of professionalism - whilst other unis might encourage you to take “safer” routes, AUB really shows you that you CAN make a living doing what you love. I have felt believed in and supported since day 1. One thing I would say is don’t go here if you’re not sure if you’re passionate about your field - it can be hard work and we’re expected to put in the effort for the career path we want to take. But if, like me, you love what you do, the homework will honestly be fun. I often look forward to working on my assignments, and that’s not something you’d get from a non-arts-focused university (trust me, I know).

I LOVE the animation course. It’s amazing to be surrounded by like-minded individuals, and from the very first year they teach us traditional animation techniques. It is a lot of drawing though, and it’s heavily focused on 2D drawn animation. If you don’t want to be drawing every day, maybe this course isn’t for you. There are opportunities and facilities for stop motion, as well as lecturers with plenty of experience, but I’d say CG/3D really is not a big focus or priority. We’re taught about actual animation, but later in the course we shift into other aspects of production such as character design, storyboarding and environments, and we get to experience an actual production pipeline in 3rd year. We also have the opportunity to help out on the grad films in 2nd year, which teaches you a lot about collaboration and soft skills as well as solid animation and drawing skills. Placements are variable per year group, but I found the opportunities to be a bit lacking. There were only 3 or so opportunities when I was in 2nd year.

Uni halls are always going to be expensive unfortunately. Home park was nice enough, it was a standard uni accommodation in my experience. The upper floors tend to get very hot during the summer, and there are some rats that like to visit the outside bin areas and sing you to sleep at night. But other than that, my experience was decent and I loved to be so close to the train station, Asda and Lidl :))

AUB slay

Wish there were more internship opportunities but I've been loving the course so far

Stay at Oxford point lol home park sucks