Social Studies degrees in North West England

Student life building has a wide range of facilities and services, good standard of accommodation centrally located. Art building funding needs increasing to repair equipment such as printers, guillotine, and print credit for art students.

Bolton university has amazing support for students, whether it be student services or the student unions. Our feedback feels heard and has affected how our course is taught to our benefit. There are a broad range of facilities at Bolton university, where we never find ourselves without the right equipment or space for us to be! Being located in the center of Bolton we almost never run out of places to explore or new experiences to enjoy. The look and feel of the university of Bolton is appealing and modern, but also feels scattered, as parts of the university are incredibly distant from one another. Overall, Bolton university is an amazing place to study where your feedback will be heard and you will never find yourself without the right facilities.

Best - Good location close to the city centre. Plenty of buses pass through Oxford Rd however during busy times they do fill up quickly. Worst - DASS (Disabled Student Support) have been really disappointing, they made me a support plan before I arrived but a lot of this did not get followed until I chased it up myself. Trying to get in contact with them feels near impossible and getting extra support for university presentations has taken months and one of the presentations has already passed despite contacting DASS weeks prior.

I started the BA Photography course in 2018 and finished in 2022. I found the modules interesting, and we had a good mix of arts and more commercially orientated guest speakers. The tutors were incredibly helpful and supportive and did their best to provide engaging sessions despite the disruption of covid19 during my studies there. Resources are good with plenty of studio space, a big Mac-based editing room, and a massive dark room (B@W plus colour possible). Technical support is excellent too. Certainly worth considering for an undergraduate-level photography degree.

I have read complaints stating students have not had guidance. There is plenty of guidance but it takes the student in question to pursue this, after all, it is to some extent unguided learning. There are plenty of classes you can join morning, noon and night. I was joining classes whilst away on holiday from my phone (ms teams) which was great. Throughout the various modules of my MBA there were good and bad lecturers, but the bad was 1 out the entire course, and unfortunately I think she happened to inexperienced, the rest where fantastic. The wider support around those providing the training and admin support for element such as general queries is where the university does fall down for two reasons: 1) When contacting an email address that appears on the face of it to be correct, you get told to message another, which is usually incorrect as well 🤷🏻‍♂️. They is really poor as the customer/student expects them to just provide the info rather than get sent round the houses. 2) Trying to get a response in the first place is quite difficult. Don’t let these points put you off as I had someone studying with the Open University who had a similar experience, so presumably it’s an issue with distance learning universities? Would I study with them again, yes! However, I would advise others to think about their learning style before pursuing with Arden , as it does take some getting used to studying with them if for instance you are an in person.