As a mature student with children, studying at UCP has been both rewarding and practical. The course delivery, with lectures scheduled together over just two days, allowed me to also take a part-time job in the sector I am studying, gaining valuable experience meaning I could be ready to go in my new career upon graduation. I have met like minded students with children who offer incredible peer support and the extensive online resources that are available made it easy to study from home at any time, around my family commitments. The flexibility of support from my lecturers both in person and virtually meant I could receive feedback and assistance with assignments without always having to be on site. These approaches enabled me to balance my studies, work, and family life effectively, enabling me to gain a degree as a working parent, which initially I thought would not be possible

The course was engaging and relevant to the sector I wanted to work within.

No

My overall first year experience has been better than I expected, considering we are in the middle of the pandemic. The university lecturers made it much easier for us to adapt to the sudden changes. All staff are very kind, supportive and respectful towards all students. The location of the university is very convenient as it is close to the town centre which consists of bus stops, taxis and even a train station. Not to mention, the price is also very good- it is £8,000 per academic year which is less than most universities which ask for £9,250 per year. By applying for a low household income bursary it is possible to receive £500 back at the end of the year which helps even further. As the learning hours are merged into two days per week, this enables us students to continue with our part time jobs and therefore gaining more experience, look after family or maybe just simply revising more. Unfortunately due to the pandemic, we were not able to attend any trips or participate in club activities after our learning hours which made the experience different to how it should have actually been. Even though that's the case, I'm still satisfied with the experience I have had. Despite the university being small and therefore not having as many students as other universities do, I would still greatly recommend UCP as I'm very happy with my first year of attending there.

The accessibility of books and other similar resources is fantastic- there is a great range of resources to choose from. A college library situated right next to the University allows us university students to have passcodes which enable access to blocked/expensive journals which are excellent to use in essays and reports. If a certain book is not available, the staff in the library suggest many other resources that are closely similar to the desired book. In terms or cleanliness, the entire building is cleaned and disinfected on a regular basis. I personally am impressed and satisfied with the cleaning standards. On top of constant cleaning by the cleaners, students are also expected to clean their own working/learning stations before and after each use to help prevent the spread of any type of virus during this pandemic. There is also enough space for all students to sit within a good distance away from eachother. Because of the pandemic, the University made sure every corridor and classroom has wet wipes, tissues, antibacterial gels and sprays. In general, the small size of the university makes it easier to keep it so clean and spotless. Our student leadership team and student ambassadors take under consideration all of our requests in terms of new equipment that is needed to help with our learning or projects or anything that needs replacing. We are encouraged to make suggestions on these types of matters so that our university experience meets our needs and our project work reaches the best standards. The reason I have this section only 3 stars, a lower raring than the rest of the sections is because our university does not have laboratories for us biology students. Thankfully the college situated next to our university has a few. Nevertheless, this does not mean us university students are happy. We have to share the labs with younger people who sometimes create a mess or misplace equipment. I am sure the lab teachers will look after my experiments in the best possible way (in case the experiment will take more than one day and will need to be left in the lab for a few days) but this does not clear all my worries. A staff member mentioned there will be a building dedicated to a laboratory made only for the HE students but I'm not sure if this is confirmed as the university has a set budget for facilities.

The UCP student support team values all students around the University. Nit long ago I have encountered an upsetting situation, a death of a relative. I messaged the student support team about moving my end of semester 2 exam dates. Even though themis was very last minute, the situation had been taken care of smoothly without any issues. I know that my colleagues which have different learning difficulties are supported by having special programmes installed into their laptops that makes reading/writing/understanding things/completing online exams with much more ease. Students with depression, poor mental health, and those living with families of low household income are also supported. The students with lower household incomes can apply for bursaries of £500 per academic year. All issues are sorted as fast as possible.

Due to the covid-19 pandemic the lessons are mostly remote, however, the lectures try their best to get us students in the laboratory so that we still receive the experience and get familiar with lab techniques. Despite the tough current situation with the virus, the lectures maintain their teaching at a high standard. There are a total of 16 teaching hours per week (2 days a week, 8hrs a day) which gives us students flexibility to attend our part time jobs or take care of family matters. Our classes consist of small numbers of students and personally, I feel like this is an advantage as we have fast email responses from tutors and lectures as well as a better connection; lectures know us better on an individual level and can spot our strengths and weaknesses within particular modules. Student support is also very helpful. Their response is fast and straight to the point. The staff will always try to help find a solution, no matter what the situation is. The only way the course could be improved is taking students on trips, inviting employers from industries related to our course and providing us extra days that will enable us to spend time doing experiments and dissections in the lab. Unfortunately, I know this is currently not possible due to this pandemic.

As a first year student, I am not obligated to join any internships. Even when looking at different internship programmes in the biological field, the organisations state they do not accept first year students. To improve on our employability skills, the student union created a section of various folders on our online canvas page which we can access during our own time. The folders consist of PowerPoints, templates and checklist of information which is required to be included within a cover letter/CV/application letter for internships etc. This made me realise how messy and unorganised my CV is which included a lot of unnecessary details, and allowed me to think more about myself as an individual and what exactly I have achieved and learned to include more valuable points that will make me presentable in the best possible way to an employer. I have looked ahead at the modules in my second and third year and it looks like I will receive even more help with this. I will also be working on a project dedicated to an industry within the biological/biomedical field which I'm extremely excited about! The only thing I am unsatisfied about is the fact we didn't have many guest speakers. I would have loved to hear more information from various speakers who work in different industries related to the biological course.