Loved it so far. Second year is crazy bit c'est la vie.

Love the course but a lot depends on the lecturer.

way better than other unis.

Yep, great.

Love the city.

Love them, great.

Overall, it's been excellent. I've studied a fascinating degree taught by professional staff who provide a lot of guidance. I've not had any negative experiences at the University of Leicester, and I highly recommend it for any prospective criminology student.

Mainly through the Career Development Service. They send out regular emails and offer many different types of appointments such as CV workshops, mock assessment centres and practice interviews. They also provide details of work placements and internships. If you're prepared to put the effort in, the Career Development Service will give you a lot of help. The University of Leicester also ensures that all degrees are focused on improving transferable skills in addition to academic skills. For example, on my degree, that included a significant amount of group work both in seminars and on certain assessments. This was a really good way of improving our teamwork and communication skills.

What I like most is the flexibility to tailor your degree to reflect your interests. This is particular true in 3rd year, where more than half of the modules are option modules and there is usually a good variety of modules to pick from. You also have your dissertation which can either be library based or empirical (collecting data) and can be on any criminological topic. Furthermore, for coursework, you either get a choice of three essay titles or a broader assignment question in which you choose the areas you wish to focus on. With exams, you normally choose 2 questions from a selection of 6. These methods ensure that you get the chance to spend the majority of your degree working on projects and studying modules that suit your specific interests. One of the things that makes criminology so fascinating is the inter-disciplinary nature of the subject. At Leicester, you can choose modules which are heavily influenced by law, psychology and sociology. This allows you to play to your strengths and study the modules you will enjoy the most, especially in 3rd year. For the above reasons, I would highly recommend the University of Leicester for anyone interested in studying an undergraduate degree in criminology. Concerning teaching, there is nothing that I like least. If you have any problems, the staff will do the best to help and they are always willing to listen to feedback, both good and bad. That way, they can make almost instant improvements.

9

I don't get involved because of time commitments. I study hard and have a busy life outside of university. However, I have no complaints about the SU, and there is a good selection of sports clubs and societies available.

For my third year at the University of Leicester, I’ve lived at Opal Court, which is a hall of residence managed by the university. It’s been excellent. There are five reasons why I would recommend Opal Court. The first reason is location. It’s only a 10 minute walk from the library. And depending on the building which your lectures are in, you might have only a 3-5 minute walk in the morning. The second reason is the choice of room size. You can choose from standard, large or a studio. I’m very happy in a standard room, which, if you fit smaller suitcases under the bed and on top of the wardrobe, offer more than enough space. Alternatively, larger rooms offer a lot more extra space and a double bed. The third reason is the number of flatmates. Flats at Opal Court have either 5 or 6 bedrooms. That’s a nice balance between having some flatmates you can talk to without having too many that there is constant noise and you are unable to form meaningful connections or friendships with. The fourth reason and easily the best thing about Opal Court is that all rooms are ensuite. It is been worth the extra money for the shower alone – a fantastic power shower that makes me want to spend too long in there. The final reason is the service and facilities. Reception is open 24 hours a day. And on the two occasions I’ve needed something fixed, that has also been taken care of within the same time period. There’s also a common room with pool, table tennis and Sky Sports on a large television screen. Do I need to say more? I can’t recommend Opal Court highly enough. It’s not the cheapest hall of residence at Leicester. But for the reasons I’ve discussed, it has represented good value for money and has helped me enjoy my 3rd year.

They are good. Even during busy periods, you can usually find a computer on campus or study space in the library. Great sports facilities at Oadby too.

It's good. I'm not interested in city life but Leicester is a good location for students. It's good value and there's something for everyone, whether you are into shopping, sports, food or something else. A very good city for sport in particular.

It's good. The few that I have joined have been positive experiences and there seems to be a huge choice of clubs and societies to join.

Academic: excellent. It's been one of the highlights of my course. Leicester is one of the few universities in the UK to have its own department dedicated to criminology as opposed to criminology being part of a sociology or law department. The advantage of this is that they have more staff dedicated to criminology, which allows for a higher range of research interests and therefore optional modules. The department has its own building approximately ten minutes from the centre of campus in Upper New Walk. It has a very homely feel to it. In addition, I’ve found most of the lectures to be extremely friendly and approachable. They genuinely want to help students who want to push themselves and achieve the highest possible grades. They’re also very good at explaining things and breaking topics down to make things easier to understand. That is particularly important when studying a subject that is not widely taught in schools and most students have never studied it before starting university. Although a lot of people have very strong opinions about crime and punishment, the subject of criminology is, at times, extremely complex. There are few easy answers and a lot of complicated theoretical perspectives from a range of different disciplines. Reading helps. But I’ve found that I learn more in a lecture than I do by spending the same amount of time reading, because the lecturers are so good at simplifying things and giving you the material in a logical order. In addition, library, IT and staff at learning development have all been superb and are very approachable. Not used any counselling or any type of welfare support, so I cannot comment on that.