Honest review. As a location, Bournemouth is second to none. Usually sunny and warm, the local community vibes are friendly and safe, even more so in the residential areas that most 2nd and 3rd year's chose to live such as Winton and Charminster. Public transport is standard for a town of its size, with enough affordable supermarkets about the place (Lidl, Asda etc.) for your weekly shop. With the 5th best beach in Europe, the area provides an exceptional place for you to chill with your mates, hang out with societies or try a new sport - perfect for a surf, skate or early morning run. There is almost definitely a club or society that you will be interested in joining! In the summer there are some good festivals such as our Summer Ball, or even the Bournemouth Air Festival. In the winter, there is an ice rink at the gardens near the beach. The nightlife scene is great too as this is a University town. The Old Fire Station (the SU's nightclub) hosts some decent events, but there's plenty of options of places to go with the local bars and clubs. The University facilities range between old blocks with pretty average computers and classrooms to much newer, well furbished buildings such as Poole Gateway Building, which is open 24/7. Canteen food can be pretty expensive. First year halls quality varies drastically, however most are located not far from the town centre. Cannot recommend choosing Lyme Regis House as the building quality and management was awful, however your flatmates you meet will likely be legends and make it worth it. If your course has a placement year, can definitely recommend doing one! Attaining one will be 100% down to you and your effort as the Uni does not hold your hand through this process. Career prospects seem good across the board. Overall, awesome uni location, decent education, and great Uni experience.

The teaching quality tends to vary depending on the lecturer, ranging from some who have just earnt their PhD and have little or no experience, through to some with 30+ years industry and teaching experience from whom you'll learn lots. Unfortunately, in my experience, often the best lecturers move to different universities. For its ranking, the BU education experience is what you'd expect it to be. Normal education practices of lectures, labs and seminars are combined with the usual assessments including exams, coursework and the odd team project (in the early years of your degree). On the whole, staff prepare you pretty well for sitting any exams throughout the semester. Coursework can be challenging but a good grade is achievable if you put in the work. The course content covers a little bit of everything, but not lots of detail in any one particular subject, which gives you a good understanding when working in your field of what's what, but it also means that to specialise, the onus is on you to do the extra reading. You'll learn an impressive amount over your time at BU, however, of note is that in your final year, on computing courses, the second semester is purely dedicated to you conducting an individual dissertation with no other Uni work, so be prepared for little formal structure in that period. Most lectures and labs are held in person on campus. If your course has a placement year, it is recommended to do one! Attaining one will be 100% down to you and your effort however, as the Uni does not hold your hand through this process. Contact hours are roughly four hours per unit per week (two hour lecture and two hour lab), with individual extra reading and coursework on top. The staff can be frustratingly slow responding to emails and requests for advice, and sometimes go over their stated turnaround time for marking assignments (although a handful of lecturers are very good, efficient and always on hand for help). Guidance on your Final Year Project from your supervisor is the bare minimum. For Computing courses, there is a common first year, meaning that regardless of your chosen course, everybody studies the same units. This has the advantage that you can change your mind and specialise in 2nd year instead being committed to a specific course from the outset. The drawback is that if you are already pretty advanced in some of the units, the content can become a bit dull, although some lecturers acknowledge they are trying to get everyone up to speed and can try and accommodate something more challenging if you wanted it. Overall, good facilities, normal contact times, average teaching, lots of content and a good friendly cohort to study with.

Can't drink the tap water at Lyme Regis House, would make you sick - so factor in having to pay for and transport water to your flat every week - of course with no refund. Had a pipe burst and the ceiling tiles collapse in, and no refund for damage to personal property in room from the water. The lifts rarely work and stink of vomit. Poor furniture - kitchen table was literally glued to the wall and came off pretty quickly. No affordable permanent parking nearby. Can only collect your post between certain hours, and due to their awful sorting system, will likely tell you they do not have it, sending you on a wild goose chase to find your orders, only for it to have been in the reception the whole time. The higher up the building you go, the hotter it gets - poor ventilation as all the windows have anti-suicide window locks on, so can only be opened a few millimetres. Due to the shape of the building, some rooms get hardly any sun light, and combined with other high-rise buildings next door, mean that it can be quite void of natural light in your room if you get one of these rooms. The fire alarm often goes off at between 3 and 5am. The hot water for showers and the tap to wash your hands cut out numerous times as the boilers were not capable of handling the number of tenants - so you could go for days at a time without a warm shower or suitable water to clean your hands - thankfully there was a little refund for this at the end of the year. Only perk is that if you like clubbing, it's across the road from The Old Fire Station nightclub (but so are most of the other halls!!!).

the staff are brilliant and if you ever need help with anything there is always someone or something there to assist you.

great access to all resources, i like how they focus on more specifics in final year

very good, good location and i was lucky to move in with someone who is now my best friend. good fun for meeting lots of new friends.