The best aspect would defo be the campus, its beautiful to walk around and makes me proud of the university I go to. There are plenty of places to study too which is great from silent to group work, and working on campus helps organise my time and life a bit better, with a designated place to work. The city is a train away which is super helpful and there are also towns that are not far off to which you can go to like Harborne, great for a chill charity shop thrift. However, while some student services are useful, others are really not, I have found that programmes like AWAS designed to help with work have been extremely useless, and I have come to the call with nothing prepared by the other person at all in order to help me. Teaching is great, for me, the history department I feel ( as bias as may be ) is great. Staff care about you and your studies and take the time of day to organise calls or chats if you cannot make student hours. They help understand work and navigate it on the online library which can sometimes be daunting. Timetables and modules need to not take so long before a semester starts. When they take so long, I am unable to have time to organise my work and plans around it for the forthcoming future. If the uni could not take so long on stuff like that, It would make less stressed students for sure.

Birmingham, i have been told has been one of the few unis to attempt and succeed in being an all in-person teaching uni. Which has made seminars a breeze and less awkward over zoom, and time to also meet classmates which is great. I massively appreciate all the help staff give, even if sometimes I send what feels like petty emails that I could have found out myself if I looked hard enough. The content is a great mix of all histories across the globe, not just eurocentric which Is massively important, especially when most students come from A-level history which is predominantly focusing on European white history. Sometimes, there is clearly not enough communication between the module lead and seminar lead. I have had seminars for a really hard module called history theory and practice, with a seminar lead who quite literally does not focus at all on what the lecture was given a brief overview of. One week, for example, the lecture may be on marxism, and then the seminar which should link would be on animal histories. This led to me feeling pretty confused and anxious around exams, I think the problem would be better resolved If there was better communication between the module convenor and teaching staff.

Birmingham as a city is as unsafe as any city can be, and the uni has put in measures to try to make us feel safer, for example, a bus that goes through the student town for free from the uni campus in the evenings so you don't have to travel alone. The cost of living is cheap, house prices for the second year are cheap and reasonable and much better than anything you would pay in halls at all. Cheap supermarkets are nearby and attractions whether that be bowling alleys, clubs, or even cinemas are relatively cheap and student-friendly. Public transport is quick and easy, whether that's bus or train. If i travel back to my home town in Essex it doesn't cost as much as you would think. There's often assumptions about Birmingham people will tell you before you go, and you see online. When I told people I was going here, I was almost embarrassed but soon as I came, and settled in, I can't imagine going anywhere else. There is so much to offer that is way more than just the bullring.

The cheapest halls you could stay in, when you visit you will probably turn your nose up. But when you live there you pay a mere £89 a week and save so much money, more then you can imagine while most other people pay near £150 mark. The cheapness is what drew me in, and then the location is beautiful. On the vale, you have freedom to go and walk round the beautiful lake which is stunning, in summer time sit outside and have BBQs which is gorgeous. Of course with such a cheap room price, you do compromise, Kitchens are small, there's no way around that, but its doable, you make it work, what is actually great is while you may have a small kitchen, and share two bathrooms ( which is completely fine between 5 people, try think do you have ensuite at home?) your room is very large and spacious. Which is a blessing. Saved lots of money, met some of my best friends in maple bank as its quite a sociable hall and had a large room. You cannot go wrong. Before you think there's no way you could live there, think of all the benefits to it. I had no trouble in maple bank at all, had enough money to go out and even go on holiday in the summer!

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