The community feel of the University is amazing! It really helps you integrate and be welcomed, especially when you come from a different institution as you moved from undergrad to postgraduate studies.

At my undergraduate uni (the University of Surrey) I really appreciated a 24 he library, it's annoying having come to St Andrews and no facilities are accessible 24/7. Sometimes I need to working at awkward times because of experiments and access to equipment, and during breaks I'd rather go a library to be near other people rather than in an empty office.

When I first contacted the mental health services they were quick to respond, which was amazing! I was then given a face to face meeting soon after (this was all pre-covid), but I was then signed up to online courses and left on my own to work through them. I really needed someone to push me to really interact with, reflect upon and get the most out of the online courses but I was really left out on my own.

The amount of effort being put in by the lecturers to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible is evident. However, the University keeps asking the lectures to do more and more, and it's obvious the lecturers are stressed and far too over worked and it can leach into the rest of the their work. The higher ups in the University should not place the full burden on organising the blended learning on the lecturers shoulders.

My PhD programme includes an industrial placement of three months that has to be outside academia and also in a completely different topic, and ideally field to your PhD project. This really helps you expand your skill set and explore your transferable skills!

Town/environment is nice but night life a bit quiet

Lecturers are all friendly and willing to help but only in second year so don’t get to choose

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