I’ve received a wonderful amount of support during my time at University of Essex and it’s been one of the stand out features. Being diagnosed with ADHD and Dyslexia has caused a tremendous amount of struggle over my academic life. I never thought I would go back to education after I was pushed out of college due to mental health reasons six years ago. However, coming to Essex has proven that there are educational institutions that will help and support their students to get their degree. My foundation year taught me that I can still get a proper education and that wouldn’t have been possible without the support of my university. Now I am in my first year of a film degree and though I have found some difficulties with the course I am still enjoying myself more than I have ever before in education. I’m studying my passion at a place that helps me to thrive. It’s all I could’ve asked for and it’s meant the world that I was given this opportunity to prove that it’s not too late for me to get a degree in what I love.

This year has shown that though Essex has been a wonderful place for support, there are areas where their courses are lacking. Essex does not have a filmmaking degree however the film studies course is split between film studies and filmmaking. This in theory is great as being able to study both aspects of film is ideal. However as the year has gone on I’ve experienced a lacking in aspects of the filmmaking side of the course. Especially in the digital side of filmmaking. As someone who wants to go into video editing this upsets me. The physical side of the filmmaking has been perfect however only having two lessons on video editing is rather empty in comparison. Only being taught how to put video and audio into an editing software is nothing in comparison to how much there is to learn about video editing. Sound editing, colour grading, effects and much more have been completely ignored. Not to mention even the teachers say the editing software we use is the least user friendly they’ve used. It’s immensely disappointing to have to try and understand such a difficult to use software when we’ve had nearly any time to be taught how to use it. While apparently being unable to have the software put on our own personal computers. I understand this is the first year for film studies but, looking at what’s to offer in the next few years has shown that I shouldn’t expect much more. Aside from these negative aspects the teachers have been wonderful help on the courses. The way the lessons are structured and presented has been very engaging and enjoyable. Though there are aspects of filmmaking I will be teaching myself, what I have been taught is immensely valuable.

Colchester is a lovely city to live though certain parts of it are not the safest. It’s also a shame that the closest train station to the university is not most accessible for traveling. However with plenty of bus stops around the university this helps make up for the lack of train service.

The accommodation I stayed at in my foundation year looked beautiful however a number of aspects kept it from being an ideal living situation. The rooms were perfect to me but the walls were so thin you could here people up to 6 rooms away. The kitchen and living spaces were wonderful too with plenty of space and all the utilities you could need. But there were a number of incidents caused by a huge lack in care from the people in charge of the accommodation. In February 2022 there was a major storm that caused damage to the accommodations front doors leaving them open and unable to lock. The doors stayed this way until the end of May leaving the accommodation opens for anyone to walk into. There was an incident of a very intoxicated individual defecating in the staircase and throwing up in my flat. This man did not live in this accommodation and this incident could’ve been avoided if the doors locked properly. There was numerous times our flat was broken into by people kicking down the flat door, which lead to things getting stolen and our flat been trashed. But the worst incident was when the door to a flat 3 floors up from me had its glass smashed. An email was sent out that people needed to confess information about this or everyone in the building would be charged for the incident. However, after a week no one conversed and a second email went out saying that we would be charged. The huge problem with this is the University, then sent out another email with the full list of every student who lived in the accommodation. This included information such as full names, ages, race, mental health status, flat and room number, phone number, home address, course, year and much more information. This was completely unacceptable and the University did nothing, but try and cover up this incident. A number of students fought against the University, however, not much ever came from it. Though the accommodation was nice The lack of care that came to the student staying here was disgraceful.

-Meeting new people and making new friends -Learning new skills -Lack of guidance (e.g. when trying to find support in certain areas such as attendance) -Lack of casual, less time consuming recreational spaces for free time

-Fun, interesting and engaging content - Great Classmates -Can be very overwhelming at points

No