I am about a month now in the University of Aberdeen, the experience has been surreal. I have had the opportunity to network a lot with individuals especially during the Fairs. For me the diversity of students that my programme attracts stands out to me, I have mates from Rwanda, Pakistan, Asia, and parts of Europe and we get to learn from each other. One area that could be improved upon is the implementation of a fair school fees billing for all international students .

I enjoy the teaching from my lecturers as they are very sound on their respective subject matters. I will advocate for more synchronized lectures to enable students join the class live as they’re on going.

Best: I love the university campus. It's really close to everything you'd need (including the accommodation village, which is a 20 minute walk - a nice walk through a really pretty park, I might add - or 10 minute bus ride away). The standard of teaching is truly excellent, and the lecturers are all so lovely. There's a LOT of support for students, and coming from someone who suffers with mental health I've never experienced an academic institution that truly prioritises the mental wellbeing of its students. Lots of institutions claim to be concerned about the wellbeing of its students, but the University of Aberdeen is one of very few that are actually proactive and are genuinely interested in maintaining its students wellbeing. Worst: The city centre. Rather than one big shopping centre as is usually the norm, there are 3 smaller ones which makes it confusing to know where to go to do your shopping. Also it's not the safest city centre (although in Aberdeen's defence, I suppose most city centres in any town is going to have problems). To do with the university itself, my only complaint really is that some events (such as movie nights in the accommodation) are not well planned and can sometimes be later than advertised due to poor planning. Sometimes the buildings are hard to find, in the sense that sometimes to enter a building you have to go around the back of a carpark. It's not always clear how to get to your building and sometimes your key card doesn't always work to let you into a building.

The best part of my course is how engaging it is. Lectures are relevant and interesting, and there's a lot of fieldtrips (both mandatory and optional) that you can go on - all of which are really cool! Lecturers always email you back really quickly (unless they're excavating of course) and you always get your questions answered. You're not overloaded with lectures so you never really get tired of them. I truly love my course so the only negative thing I've found about it is how fast the lectures go, sometimes you have to watch the recording/go over the slides after the lecture just to be able to make sufficient notes.

The university campus is really close to everything. The 20 bus takes you from the Hillhead accommodation, through the university campus, all the way to town. It comes every 30 minutes and 9 times out of 10 it's on time. It's also really close to the sports village, meaning within 5 minutes you can go from a lecture straight to the gym!

Most: The rooms are actually really nice, I haven't encountered problems with mould or anything like that (which I've heard is a big problem in other types of private accommodation in the city). I stay in a flat (you can stay in corridor-type accommodation) and I honestly really love it because you have enough space to be on your own but not too much where you feel isolated and alone. The facilities are great and the maintenance team is incredibly helpful and really quick to respond to problems - for example, about 3 weeks into living in our flat the fridge broke, and less than an hour later two maintenance guys got us a brand new fridge! The other thing I absolutely love is the shop on site. It's incredibly handy if you only need a couple of things and don't want to have to walk to the Lidl nearby (which is about a 10 minute walk from the accommodation) and the prices are really quite affordable! Another great thing is the fact that there's always someone at the reception at all hours of the day, so if you were having a problem or needed help getting back into your room at 3am for example, you'll get immediate help. The BEST thing about it is the unofficial Hillhead cat, Mordor. He lives at a house near the accommodation but wanders into the accommodation grounds knowing that he gets lots of cuddles and treats from the students living there. He's super friendly and there's never been any reports of him scratching/hissing at anyone. Least: The seagulls. They're so loud (especially early in the morning) and they often kill pigeons and leave their dead carcasses around - often after eating them. This is not the fault of the accommodation itself, but it's something that can be quite annoying. Eating chips outside after a night out is like personally inviting the seagulls to steal your food.