Best thing about the university is being able to seek support from tutors when it comes to essays very quickly. Smaller classes allow for more focused and more engagement.

It is all taught in person and has lots of access for contact. However it can be quite daunting and heavy at times for the course.

It is good as it is located on campus and is very handy for classes. However, the wifi does not work with devices and can be shocking connection at times. I had to use my own mobile data when completing assignments at times.

The university campus is beautiful. There is lots of places to eat, a shop and a bar however I was told that it was lower price for the students but I don't see that it is cheaper. The sports membership is very cheap however at £25 a year. Definitely worth it just as a gym membership. Classes are good and the tutors are very helpful and tend to respond to information requests quickly. My main problem with the teaching is probably the direction of discussion as, in my English literature course, there is a lot of discussion around gender stereotypes and not as much on the actual craft. Basically, I find discussing gender differences in a text that is 600 years old very pointless but from what I can tell this is quite common at universities in general. Sign of the times. The amount of societies and ways to get involved in academia is fantastic. It can be a bit difficult if you have multiple interests as they can commonly overlap but I find myself consistently going to at least 3 meetings a week. There is lots of lectures that you can attend every week from prominent academics and those in specific fields. These often have deep and interesting topics, unfortunately nothing that is in my interest but still interesting topics. There is also a strong focus on job opportunities however the recruiters at the job fair are not usually what I am looking for. The university has lots of events, especially for first year students and specifically for those in the halls on campus. I love the library and it is a shame I am such a home bird because I would defiantly use that to study if I couldn't at home. A life saver for me is the shuttle bus from the city centre to the campus as I wouldn't want to pay £4 a day just to get there. This leads me into the major disadvantage. If you live in Halls you won't experience Liverpool city and its' culture. I swapped courses last year and moved to the city centre and I am loving being right in the middle of the city as it is a great and vibrant city.

My main problem with the teaching is probably the focus on what I consider to be pointless lines of discussion. An example of this is discussing gender stereotypes for a text that is 600 years old, which was how the year started. This kind of rubbed me the wrong way but we have moved onto more relevant texts and ones where I feel I can be involved in the discussion. As a man, it can be difficult to discuss how women have been oppressed in history for multiple reasons. 1. I'm not a woman and thus I can't make the same connections women make when it comes to recognising this oppression (a love poem from the past just reads like a love poem to me, not objectification, but I can see how it can when I hear women explain it to me). 2. It seems entirely irrelevant to discuss oppression of women when everyone was a surf to the King. 3. I don't like the concept of putting modern views onto old texts, I think we should read it with the mindset of the time to get a true understanding of the text (basically it feels like a stretch if we are trying to discern the authors meaning as that most likely wouldn't be in their minds). I will say the teachers are great, they are quite open to intellectual discussion and, if you have a good class, this can be very fun. They will consistently have meetings with you and check on you. As a mature student, this can feel a little to much like being back at school but it is nice to know that they care about your education. My goal was for the English Literature study to inform my creative writing, as I haven't been a student of literature when writing before. I have found that reading the texts we have been asked to has really informed me on the continuing cultural conversation and has improved my writing immensely. Along with that, my creative writing classes, while sometimes being a bit basic, are a very creative and inspiring space. When we are discussing something simple, such as paragraph structure, I find myself writing and discussing writing with other people and my class and sometimes with the teachers. The teachers also keep the atmosphere very light and sometimes passionate. I adore this and it is exactly what I wanted. Its also nice to discuss art with real artists, as opposed to art studiers in English Literature.

No