York is such a beautiful city that it is a pleasure to study here! Independent shops and cafes, and historic environment make it a great city to explore on study breaks. The university has a large, green campus with lots of wildlife, and we even have our local celebrity duck, Longboi! Outside of studying, there are many societies, sports clubs, and volunteering projects to get involved with. On the downside, the city struggles with student accommodation so finding a good, affordable house is a challenge.

The course involves quite a lot of modules that are specifically based on case studies so it may be an advantage or disadvantage depending on what you prefer. There aren't many contact hours as most of the time in the week should be dedicated to independent study. However, there is quite a variety of the types of teaching, including lectures, seminars, practicals, and occasional workshops.

Halifax College offers one of the cheapest accommodations on campus but it means there is quite a lot of students living in the same house and sharing the same facilities - in my house there were about 20 students. The laundry machines are provided by Circuit Laundry. They are quite expensive (£4.90 for washing and drying) and they do not provide the best quality of service. Halifax is further from the departments on Campus West but I actually didn't mind as the walk to campus is next to green fields and I really enjoyed how close to nature the college was.

The student support is amazing at both an educational and pastoral level, lecturers and module conveners aim to strive for excellence. Student services and academic mentors also help students to live comfortably and in accordance with their studies. The worst aspects of the uni experience are probably the difficulties associated with independence, adjusting to a different life than at home with less instructions and co-ordination with caregivers. Additionally, adjusting from an A Level/Vocational level study to university study can be difficult. However, those can be managed with help from others at uni.

The best aspects of my course is the teaching method with lectures and lectures led discussions helping to facilitate understanding and knowledge, which compose around 8 hours a week. My course is highly connected with the interdisciplinary fields of social science and so seminars which are around 2 hours a week help to contextualise the taught content within a wider educational context.

Our halls are very unique in the aspect that they are not located on West or East campus but just off West. As a result, the halls allow for residents to develop a good relationship due to the separate location, additionally it is a true reflection of the pictured “student life “. The part which I dislike the most may be that to get to the hall you have to walk across a path which has little lighting and as a result at night it can feel unsafe.