Given the circumstances, I would say I have had a great experience in my first year. I lived in halls which meant I was able to meet some people and be involved in the Edinburgh community. I think the university’s ability to teach online also increased throughout the year. In semester 1 it was quite disappointing and there were a lot of problems across all 3 of my courses, but by semester 2 this has massively improved and I felt I was benefiting from good quality teaching

I didn’t have much access to them, but the library spaces were all great. They adapted well to COVID and turned a lot of classroom buildings into extra library space which could all be booked through an app

I was very lucky to have a great personal tutor/academic advisor who was super helpful. I worked with the student counselling service in semester one and they were not great, the counsellor made me feel uncomfortable and the wait times were bad. I also caught covid in this time so had to reschedule some appts which was hard to do

I have only had the experience of online learning so cant speak for in person. First semester it was honestly very bad, “tutorials” were non-compulsory discussion boards which no one did, and there was no contact with tutors. Lectures were prerecorded but good quality. In semester two, tutorials were on a call, and part of your grade (1% for every one you attend) and the lectures were live. Tutorials were far far better and I really enjoyed them. I preferred live lectures because it forced me to go to them rather than procrastinating, but that’s just personal preference, as the previous prerecorded lectures were also great quality

3

I made lots of new friends here. Also. I learned a lot about society and the political world which I have found interesting. Most importantly,I have matured as a person for city/ further living.

40 for food