An incredibly welcoming environment, where the local community, staff, and fellow students at Queen's University Belfast are exceptionally friendly. I am deeply grateful for the approachability of the staff and lecturers. Engaging activities promote student interaction and a strong sense of connection, which is vital here.

As I am doing PhD here, which requires very much independent studying, I contact my supervisor as much as I need (at least once a month in person), this keeps me on the progress.

No

There's a large range of places to get work done outside of lectures, and they range from silent to quiet to collaborative spaces. A lot of the university buildings, such as the Student Union, have been renovated recently so they have a really nice feel to them. They also regularly have events with free food & drink. The accommodation is no more than a 30 minute walk away from all of the lecture buildings and everywhere is very easy to get to. Some of the modules are more teaching-based rather than lecture based and these are done very well. You get more of a one-to-one learning experience for some of the more difficult content. The best way to describe the university is a campus within a city, so you get the busy aspects of the city life but you can also be slightly out of the centre.

A personal preference which could be improved is to get rid of lectures which are online. I find in-person teaching to be much more beneficial. It would be quite helpful to have lectures recorded though so that they can be listened back if necessary. I do know that this is course-dependent though, as some people have all their lectures recorded. The majority of lecturers are very easy to contact and definitely have your best interests in mind. They're also more than happy to give you additional help if you need it. Tutors are more there for you to reach out to if you have issues rather than there for regular meetings. Personally I don't have an issue with that system but some people prefer regular contact and 1:1s with their tutors. the facilities are really good, there's lots of spaces to work and individual work rooms can be booked to use. The department also have events very regularly which range from escape room type events to networking with businesses.

The location of the accommodation is really good. It is slightly out of the way but all university buildings are no more than a 20 minute walk away and the city centre is about a 30 minute walk away. Navigating your way around Belfast is also very easy and getting your bearings in a new place is easy to do. There's security at the accommodation and after 11pm you have to show student cards to get into your building. Everything is also locked by key fobs so it is very safe. Room allocations are random but most of the buildings are really similar with relation to facilities and design. Overall the internet is very good but in some places in the flat the signal can be a bit flaky. The maintenance team are very quick to respond to issues within the flat and the process for reporting issue sis very good. Overall these halls are good value for money taking into account the actual flat itself, the shared common spaces of the whole accommodation and the extra benefits you get like free off-peak gym access.