English Language and Linguistics with Literature with Foundation Year BA (Hons)

University of Portsmouth

I like Portsmouth as a city, it's not too big and it's right next to the sea, so for someone who loves the beach, it's a great option. However, the university isn't on a campus, and the buildings are just kind of strewn around the city. For some, that would be great, but I personally wish I could have had the campus experience, it would have felt more like I'm actually at university. This is in part due to the course I study, all of my classes are taught as if we're still at secondary school. I would have liked to have had more lecture style classes.

The best part is building friendships with your coursemates & people with similar interests and hobbies. I love how it is such a multicultural and diverse community of people. Some lecturers are very good at what they do and make the modules interesting. Also the campus is very close to the train station so it's easy to find most buildings. What could be improved is the way lecturers give feedback & communicate to students as it is often majority negative & there is not much praise, this is quite off putting. Also, quite a few lecturers do not have any empathy towards students with mental & physical disabilities, so i think that there should be some specific training for the lecturers to make them aware of the different types of conditions and how to interact with these specific students without offending them by being dismissive / not willing to be understanding and flexible.

I think the best aspects are the level and amount of support that the uni gives to the students with literally everything, from housing to just general well-being. They make such a genuine and strong effort to look after us as students and make sure we are on track and getting the most out of our degrees. And that’s not just once you become a student, but as soon as you show interest, the uni makes it known that they are here for the students. They also provide a lot of opportunity career wise or even part time jobs with things such as working as an ambassador for the uni or support with options for placement year/year abroad. They provide so many options and opportunities, we’re practically spoilt for choice. The only think I’d say is that they could do a better job of advertising these roles and opportunities slightly better. Being an ambassador is an amazing job but I didn’t even find out about it’s existence until my second year, and I didn’t find out about the other chances to work with the uni until I became an ambassador and I was in the loop, so I think it would be better if they advertised the opportunities they offer a lot more, rather than external opportunities. Just another quick point, the university is very understanding of extenuating circumstances, they are very flexible (obviously within reason) and provide many chances for you to stay on track with your degree. I think the only other thing i would say is that the university needs to be more reasonable and serious about which lecturers they hire. This is my second year and i have two lecturers which are only a couple of years older than me, and are obviously inexperienced at lecturing and teaching which makes me feel like i can't trust them as much with my education and learning. It takes away my motivation to come to class as i feel like I'm not getting value for my money. Other than that I think in general the lecturers are wonderful and genuinely nice people who do care about our education and delivering a good experience.

Great support, lovely teachers and staff. Could be improved by having more organization during assessment periods, avoiding to overload students with a lot of work to submit all in the same time.

I've loved the last 4 years of my course at Portsmouth. The staff have been so helpful and supportive and I've found the content of most of my modules really engaging and interesting. I also started learning one of my languages ab initio and although I didn't feel like it was clicking at first, I can tell I've really progressed with my knowledge. The campus is really nice, I love Park building. My only thing with the campuses is that they can feel slightly dated depending on where you're based. Park building is lovely, since it's over 100 years old. The buildings that have psychology and maths though feel very 1960s in the interior but that's nothing major as I know it's a big ask to upgrade an entire building interior whilst students are there. The library is great, I find it a really nice atmosphere but sometimes it's a little difficult to find a space especially during the end of term. The only thing I would say about the student union is I don't really know anything about it. I went to the building once during freshers week but since then I haven't been, both because there hasn't been any reason for me to, but also because I don't really know what they offer.

Studying at Portsmouth University it's very nice. The University's buildings are great and easy to find and to reach within the town. All the University of Portsmouth staff is very friendly and very helpful. They are ready to help for every issue. Also, the lecturers are lovely and very engaged in helping students in their pathway. Moreover, they help you to find your way into the job environment helping you out in all you need. Maybe the It's the perfect place to study and to build up knowledge to start a career afterwards. I cannot find many downsides to be honest. The only thing, they could plan a little better the assessments period to avoid having all the assessments in the same week being overloaded.