OVERALL UNIVERSITY RATING
Tell us about your overall university experience so far.
The moment I first saw the campus at York was the moment I knew that I wanted to study there: it’s beautiful! It’s full of green space,...
University rating
Tell us about your overall university experience so far.
The moment I first saw the campus at York was the moment I knew that I wanted to study there: it’s beautiful! It’s full of green space, with a picturesque lake acting as a gorgeous centrepiece making for pleasant walks to and from lectures. This was especially important given that I lived on campus during peak Covid restrictions - meaning that walking around campus was one of the only available outdoor activities! The people and lecturers at York are great, and I would say that my favourite things about the university are the people and the scenery. It definitely attracts a certain kind of person, and because of that I now feel more than ever like I’ve “found my crowd”.
As a Music and Sound Recording student, the facilities available are decidedly impressive, and leagues above anything else I’ve had access to thus far. My only gripe would be that, because we are on a BA course, our funding is limited compared to BSc courses. This means that the Audio Engineering course - a BSc - has better sound recording facilities than ours. The film department also has a much more extensive set of audio facilities, although the film and music departments are going to merge (and therefore share facilities) in the year following my graduation. Still, this was disappointing to discover.
I feel as though student support is somewhat lacking, especially as it pertains to placement years. There is a dedicated placement website; however, the opportunities available pertain almost exclusively to STEM and business students. I was given next to no support in second year searching for a placement - and in fact was somewhat discouraged from trying, as some of the only advice I was given regarding placement hunting was how difficult the process was. Because of this, I essentially gave up trying to find a placement. I feel as though, with more support and encouragement, I would have been able to secure one and help my career along greatly.
The university could also improve their student support as it pertains to wellbeing and crisis management: in second year, my friends and I had to deal with an ongoing emergency situation, and it took far too much pushing to get the university to take meaningful action to help us. They eventually did help to resolve the situation, but not until we went over the head of our “dedicated” member of support staff to reach someone more effective.
My course, while I’ve enjoyed it greatly, also has a number of severe flaws. Despite purportedly being a sound recording course, a minority of our modules have been dedicated to sound recording, and even fewer to music production. Although our studio facilities are excellent, we have received frankly inadequate teaching on how to use them, and so it feels as though we are unable to make the most of the equipment available to us - let alone operate professional equipment that we will be required to use in prospective future employment. Many of these flaws are being addressed and improved for future years, however my year has not benefited from the improvements and so it feels like we have been slightly hung out to dry.
Reflecting on my university experience in third year, I feel slightly conflicted. While the points above are some serious flaws, I nonetheless feel like my time at university has been fantastic, and absolutely valuable. I have learned a great deal, and developed into a much more mature, independent and well-rounded person. I have met fantastic people, had access to fantastic opportunities, and ultimately have achieved things that I would not have been able to do without coming to York. Despite everything, I do not at all regret coming to York or doing this course, and I would do it all again.
Facilities
How good are your university's facilities?
Location
Institution Location
Student support
How good is the support offered by the uni? Think both academic (tutors/feedback) and personal (counselling, etc).
Campus look and feel
Institution Campus look and feel
Student life
Institution Student life
Students' union
What do you think of your Students' Union in terms of student representation and facilities?
Course rating
Course rating
Music and Sound Recording is a deeply flawed but overall stimulating, valuable and engaging course.
The reason that I chose this course - and York in general - was for the blending of a practical course with an academic approach. Music is a notoriously unreliable career path, and so I felt that diving into an entirely practical course would be something of a career gamble. I felt that York’s academic reputation could serve as a backup in case music did not prove viable as a career.
This conflict between the practical and academic has ended up being at the heart of this course’s flaws. It wishes to be a practical course, teaching its students the real-world skills necessary for a career in the recording industry. However it also wishes to be a traditional, disciplined Russel Group course complete with essay writing and academic rigour. The result of this attempted blend is that the course feels somewhat uneven and scattered - and doesn’t 100% succeed at either of these two goals.
The practical education is frankly insufficient, and - besides one or two utterly fantastic modules - could be almost entirely substituted by widely available online resources. This is particularly true of the music production aspect, which is almost non-existent. Guidance for production is given vaguely and almost under the assumption that students are already production experts. There is very little in the way of actionable, meaningful guidance in this area. I am lucky in that I entered the course with some pre-existing production experience; however, I would have struggled significantly without this.
There is slightly more in the way of sound recording education: we have been taught well about microphones, mic technique, best practices for recording etc. This is great, but has been restricted to only a couple of modules in an entire three-year course. The remainder of modules either serve to prop up the academic side (essay-based or more philosophical topics) or are frankly somewhat baffling (two mandatory JavaScript programming modules). This time and funding could have been redirected into further practical education, as it feels as though there is still so much to learn about sound recording that will not be covered on the course. It is especially frustrating that we are provided with excellent facilities, but have been given completely insufficient tuition on how to make the most of these facilities and of our time at this university.
And yet, I have loved this course. I am thinking more deeply about music, I am making more (and better) music than I ever have, and I have been able to seize excellent (and hopefully career-advancing) opportunities around the community and through peers I’ve met on this course. This would not have been possible without Music and Sound Recording. The programming modules, while unrelated on the surface, have added a valuable extra item to my skillset that I may be able to leverage and develop further in future. And ultimately, it is a degree from York, with some academic backbone, that will hopefully be an asset for me in future.
The course is getting an enormous restructure the year following my graduation, which looks like an enormous step in the right direction. It is frustrating that I won’t be benefiting from these improvements, however I nonetheless I do not regret choosing this course.
Course content
Course content
Work placements and internships
Work placements and internships
Lecturers and teaching quality
What do you like most and least about the way your course(s) are taught?
Career prospects
How does your uni make efforts to increase your employability (careers department, work placements, transferable skills)?
Tutor contact time
Tutor contact time
Subject facilities
Subject facilities
University halls
What do you think about the safety, condition, location and cost of your accommodation?
My halls were in an excellent location on campus: scenic, central and within 5 minutes of my lectures. I had no issues with my room allocation, and never encountered meaningful issues with the Internet.
The facilities were kept clean by staff who would visit weekly. They would only clean our kitchens and common room if we had first tidied them - this was great, as it encouraged us to maintain a tidy and reasonably pleasant living space.
For our rent price, we received a year in the accommodation as well as breakfast and dinner every weekday during term time. This helped to save a lot of grocery money, and also provided a valuable routine and the opportunity to socialise daily with other members of our household. The food was of fairly good quality as canteen meals go.
The quality of the building itself was certainly not perfect. The building was clearly very old, and showed flaws such as the tap water in our rooms being undrinkable, heavy sliding windows being loose (which led to fairly serious injuries on two occasions) and lights being prone to failure. Our kitchen was very small considering that it was shared between quite a few people, and seemingly had a heating fault that made it deeply unpleasant to occupy for too long at a time. Fridge and cupboard space was acceptable but tight. In the years following my first year (when I was in halls), the building is no longer offered as accommodation , so it seems as though these issues were noted by the university.
Room allocation
Room allocation
Internet/wifi
Internet/wifi
Value for money
Value for money
Property management
Property management
Have you stayed in your Universty's hall?
Yes