AUB is such a lovely close-knit community where you can really be yourself. We’re encouraged to pursue our passions and we’re led by experienced professionals who can help us get where we want to be. There are opportunities for paid commissions, market days, society events and loads more. Overall, I just get a strong sense of professionalism - whilst other unis might encourage you to take “safer” routes, AUB really shows you that you CAN make a living doing what you love. I have felt believed in and supported since day 1. One thing I would say is don’t go here if you’re not sure if you’re passionate about your field - it can be hard work and we’re expected to put in the effort for the career path we want to take. But if, like me, you love what you do, the homework will honestly be fun. I often look forward to working on my assignments, and that’s not something you’d get from a non-arts-focused university (trust me, I know).

I LOVE the animation course. It’s amazing to be surrounded by like-minded individuals, and from the very first year they teach us traditional animation techniques. It is a lot of drawing though, and it’s heavily focused on 2D drawn animation. If you don’t want to be drawing every day, maybe this course isn’t for you. There are opportunities and facilities for stop motion, as well as lecturers with plenty of experience, but I’d say CG/3D really is not a big focus or priority. We’re taught about actual animation, but later in the course we shift into other aspects of production such as character design, storyboarding and environments, and we get to experience an actual production pipeline in 3rd year. We also have the opportunity to help out on the grad films in 2nd year, which teaches you a lot about collaboration and soft skills as well as solid animation and drawing skills. Placements are variable per year group, but I found the opportunities to be a bit lacking. There were only 3 or so opportunities when I was in 2nd year.

Uni halls are always going to be expensive unfortunately. Home park was nice enough, it was a standard uni accommodation in my experience. The upper floors tend to get very hot during the summer, and there are some rats that like to visit the outside bin areas and sing you to sleep at night. But other than that, my experience was decent and I loved to be so close to the train station, Asda and Lidl :))

The facilities are good, you get applications for free while you study, which would be expensive otherwise. I think the organisation on my course is a bit lacking. It’s a good location if you like to go out in the evenings to pubs and the beach, but if you work every evening it is irrelevant. There is no parking, so if you do not live at the university you have to take a bus or two buses or pay for a parking space from the houses that live near it. I pay for a parking space on someone’s drive way because if i took the bus, I would need to take one into Poole then another to Bournemouth. Theres plenty of societies to join, I have no opinion on them as I have no time to join one. The university could be improved with check ins with students with disabilities, I think i’d find life at uni better if there was someone who checked in every week to make sure I was doing my work okay.

I think a lot of the explaining for tasks is on canvas, they lock the tasks before they explain them in person when there really is no point as what they are saying is on canvas. The course is full time, but sometimes they set lectures in the evenings or past 5pm which is not convenient for me. I rarely speak to lecturers but I’m not sure it is their fault.

It’s a great place for those who live on campus, or the accommodations near it as they can take the bus to pubs or the beach near by.

No