The best part about studying Animation & Illustration is by FAR the tutors on the course. All of the staff are so nice and incredibly helpful and are 100% the life of the uni. The facilities at the university are pretty good, if there's something I need they can usually help and are happy to help out with any crazy ideas I've had, I can't remember any time I was told 'no'. The site is located close to the city, which is good but the route there is a lot of roads to cross so if you're walking from accommodation, be prepared for the freeway that is Bolton (but that's more of a council problem than the university). If you're looking for night life in Bolton, the place to go is Bradshawgate and the surrounding area, close to the bus station. And if you want food, go to Food Factory on the same road. It doesn't look like much but trust me, the pizza is incredible!

You get a lot of personal time with the tutors who are knowledgable on a range of subjects so your responses are very diverse. The one-on-one time with the tutors is one of the highlights of the course, so you'll never feel left out. As for my time on the course, work placements and class trips were litttle-to-none. I started in 2020, however, so we had 2 years of COVID restrictments, which was a huge factor.

The Pack Horse is cheap and private, and that's about all the good thing I have to say about it. If you want quality, look somewhere else. Your room will have black mould and broken furniture that never gets fixed, and it's sandwiched inbetween two of the noisiest pubs in the whole town, so your only chance of getting to sleep before 3am involves noise cancelling headphones. I got lucky enough to have a corner room at the back of the building, so the noise was just about bearable, so I would aim for the corners. Buy the cheapest room possible, the upgrades don't mean anything. Highlights are definitely the privacy, besides the cleaner waking me up at 9AM every morning by vaccuuming the hall, I had very few disturbances in my 2 years there. The laundry facilities are fine and it has a pretty good gym. As far as I know, nobody uses the common room, it's a ghost town. There is security at night, and they can sometimes be quite annoying when you're bringing people over when it's late, but I never had any serious issues regarding that. Overall, it's cheap and private, but nothing will ever be fixed and the noise from the pubs will drive you insane, but that's the honest Pack Horse experience.

The facilities and courses themselves are lovely. Tutors are great and co-operative. Location isn’t “lovely” but is very walkable and ideal for students in a lot of ways.

It’s good

Building is lovely, worth the money. Some rooms are right by the main road and the noise is annoying but it’s great besides that