I studied both my Bachelors, Masters and PhD at the University, and really enjoyed my time living in Portsmouth. The city has a good mix of inner city-living vibes, and quieter aspects that really help make a place that gives you control over how you experience it. The University's teaching and opportunities can be a bit all over the place at times, especially with it's ongoing financial issues, but there has always been a strong sense of support from staff members across many different departments. There is a lot of investment in new buildings to shape the character of the University and to consistently provide cutting-edge, tailored, course facilities (and many shared ones like the Ravelin Sports Centre). One of the issues I have been grappling with since leaving has been it's location, as I didn't realise how poor the connections to other cities (at least via rail) were until I moved, but this won't be an issue for many as it depends on the industries they are trying to break into. I guess there is potential for this to be improved with the use of the University's London Campus as that develops. The major issue right now all really comes from the budgetary constrictions and staff hiring freezes that are having a noticable negative effect on some of the observable teaching practices (at least within areas I have been engaged with). Many staff are very notcably overworked, making it difficult for them to find time beyond their assigned activities to help with more minor student issues, and many other students I have interacted with over the past couple of years have often been very frustrated with their experiences because of this. Hopefully these issues will resolve over time, but this is obviously very dependent on the political climate.

Specifically for my PhD course, being based in the arts faculty, I have had a relatively different expereince to other PhDs. The graduate school (which has just been renamed to the doctoral college) delivers a lot of interesting lectures and workshops on various research related activities. I have found them to be quite useful, but a lot of the time, it did feel as though the teaching was aimed much more directly at science-based research methods and students. The arts faculty did respond to this, based on students' feedback, so now they are able to attend sessions that take this disciplines specific needs into more consideration, which is really great. Again, staff support is good, but their availability isn't great due to them being severely stretched too thin in many departments, and it creates difficulties throughout different research phases. I was lucky that throughout most of my writing phase, I was one of a few PhD students with the same advisor so they were able to dedicate more time to me, but I really felt bad for other students who were receiving less engagement as they weren't deemed a priority.