Positives: Roehampton has a beautiful campus, whilst still being a London university. The library is a great facility and has a dedicated area for primary ed resources which is amazing. The lecturers are reachable and the amount of contact time (often 2-3 days a week) means support is accessible if you need it. The union bar hosts activities like karaoke, quiz nights and bops- which is nice when you're too busy to want to go properly out and just want to see some friends for a few hours then go home. There are also lots of societies that allow you to meet new people, and they range further than just sport and theatre which makes a nice change! (E.g. Disney society, photography society) You can also start your own society if you have enough people which is a great way to host bigger get togethers for like-minded people. Negatives: if you live in on campus accommodation, you can be disrupted by the amount of fire alarms. Not in every accommodation, however especially if you do a course with high contact time / placement it can be annoying. Most of these were pulled as jokes, so the university could be a bit tighter on this. The wellbeing support, whilst available and free, has an incredibly long wait list if it is not deemed life threatening. I believe I waited 20 weeks to be seen last year (this was around exam season which always limits services anyway). It definitely feels like a service you'd almost need to apply for pre-emptively instead of at the time of need. In terms of social life, there are a few clubs nearby that are popular and there are bars in Putney which is just one bus away. The union also holds lots of drinking activities - however if you're not a big drinker (for whatever reason!) you may find social events do not cater to you as much. Roehampton could benefit from adding so more events, not tied to religion or specific reasoning, where drinking is not the centre point.

Positive: Primary ed has a lot of contact time! It definitely makes you feel like you are at university and learning not just paying to sit in your room and read books. There is a whole primary ed resources section in the library with children's books and physical resources which is great! You do placement every year and get to experience a range of different schools. Job prospects are great as teaching is very in demand, and the university holds careers fairs to help networking which is positive! You learn a lot of useful tools in professional studies and get to experience every subject again and see its value which can help get rid of stereotypes that our own childhoods may have caused. The lecturers are very engaging and have a lot of time for individuals. It feels they really get to know you over the 3 years which cannot always be said for degrees. The course has moved back to in person which is great as it helps that community feel. The days can be long but the timetabling is done to create cluster days instead of having to be in everyday making it more practical for commuting and mature students. Negatives: this is a 4 year course condensed into 3 years, so although lots of contact time is great, it does mean that you are always busy on your days off. This course is coursework based so you will always have an assignment to be writing whilst you are having lectures. It is manageable however can be disappointing to not get that 'uni life' because you are always so busy. Some subjects are more engaging than others and that will always happen when you have a range of lectures, this can create bias to subjects you feel comfortable teaching on placement. Placements are great opportunities, however the commute is intense, having to travel an hour every morning and leave the house before 7 is a real shift from 9am lectures. And the stress about refunding commutes puts immense pressure on having to 'suck up' the journey and not take a shorter one as you know you'll be paying out of your own pocket. There are spaces to do group work, but more dedicated spaces would be useful as it is a course where students often will support each other.

Location has good public transport links, however the university itself is quite isolated. It is only a bus ride to shops and bars and restaurants though. As an area it is known for being less safe, this can make finding non halls accommodation difficult. It is expensive - not as expensive as other universities but it is a lot. There are places to work if you are happy to get on the bus and travel for work, nothing locally that you could walk to easily though.

Positives: the rooms in elm grove were very nice, they had ensuites and felt practical with storage. The location was close to the library and in a pretty scenic area. Security were around the courtyards every night and we were shown the number to call if we needed. Negatives: to lock the doors at Roehampton from the inside (which especially when you live with strangers in first year is definitely a concern for people) you need to stick your hand outside your door, hold your key card to the door and then close it without touching the handle as this deactivates the lock. This is a very complex system to feel safe in your own room- there is also no way to check if it's locked so if youre anxious you find yourself relocking the door (I even had to ask friends to come and check for me that it was locked!). The internet is good, if you have an ethernet cable, if not it's so hard to use and constantly boots you off. Elm grove also experienced lots of fire alarms, I lived there for 2 years before I moved home as I couldn't take the constant alarms, especially when I was on placement. These were often done as pranks however the university never seemed to give out the fines they threatened or remove anyone from the accommodation. Elm grove is a lot of money, and the rooms are nice but the shared facilities do not reflect the price, a lot of universities would have sofas and TVs - areas for people to meet socially. We had 3 ' comfy' chairs (which were not that comfortable) the general kitchen facilities are fine. Cupboards are an issue as the university leaves it up to flatmates to decide and often people arrive earlier and claim multiple spaces and refuse to give these up. Even if split evenly there would not be enough space but when it is a free for all it is always unfair.

The university of Roehampton is located in a part of London surrounded by nature but also has easy access to the city via the train station.

My lecturers are generous and helpful in making sure students achieve highly. They are easy to access and speak to in person and through online calls.

No