I knew I wanted to come to UCFB when I first came for an open day in year 11. I loved that I’d be having some lectures in a stadium, a practical part in another amazing facility and that the contacts I’d get would be amazing, especially to get me started in a coaching career. At the very start of first year, I was receiving tens of emails about opportunities out there for me to apply for and loads of ways to start building my coaching CV. These opportunities have continued to grow throughout my experience here at UCFB. I knew I would choose to stay in London to study at the Wembley campus, as I couldn’t imagine choosing any other stadium than the world-famous Wembley Stadium. It’s incredible having lectures overlooking the pitch, and living in the UCFB student accommodation which involves walking past the stadium any time I go out. The most amazing experience is when it’s a match day in Wembley, and it finally hits me that I actually live next to the stadium! The only downside to being in Wembley, is the travel to get to any facilities for the practical element of the course. Having to leave student accommodation nearly an hour before lectures and having to pay for travel to and from locations can be a bit inconvenient, but the opportunity to study at The Hive, with their incredible facilities, makes the travel and cost pretty worth it! I keep sharing my experience with family and friends, and to say that I study a football degree, in Wembley Stadium, sounds awesome to most of them, and creates such a conversation with new people I meet!

When there is a match at Wembley, the stadium has to be closed the day before. We always get told as far in advance as possible it there will be a stadium closure, and we are informed whether our lecture will be online or at Arch View House, just round the corner. We have 12 hours of contact time a week(4 hours, 3 days a week) with extra opportunities on Wednesday on everyone’s day off, and opportunities to be part of the sports teams who have matches on Wednesdays. The lecturers are all experts in their fields and can answer almost any question you throw at them. You really couldn’t ask for much more on the Coaching and Management degree!

Honestly, the accommodation is one of the most pricey in the area, but it’s so convenient being next door to the lecture building and a 5 minute walk from the stadium. I also love being in the same accommodation as loads of other UCFB students, as you can make friends simply by saying hello in the lift, or joining with a meet-up in one of the communal areas. The communication with the accommodation is quite poor in my opinion, but when there is an emergency, they are on top of it. The staff are lovely on the whole, and the facilities in the building are excellent!

Since starting at UCFB I have become a more self-aware and motivated person. The people I have met and the support from the tutors has challenged me and helped me improve academically and as a person. When people ask me what UCFB is like, I always say that it isn’t like other universities where there are 200+ students on your course that turn up, listen to somebody for an hour and go home. Everything here is more relaxed, a natural environment instead of big lecture halls and a lack of support. But also that we were told from the beginning that we will be made to make friends, work in groups and “not be that kid who sits at the back and doesn’t contribute”. This has improved a lot of our life skills, which has been noticed and appreciated by me and other students.

The facilities themselves can’t be beaten. Everything I feel I need is available to me, having lectures at Wembley is a luxury and Hendon for seminars and practicals is all we need. As I drive from home to university, I think it would be appreciated by many students if we could get free parking around the stadium, especially as I’m only there for 4 hours a week, yet it still costs £25-30 a month.

Academically, I believe the tutors do the best they can with so many students enrolled into this course this year into year 1. They’re always happy to spend time answering questions and generally available to have chats and talk football. In terms of the uni as a whole, there are plenty of complementary curriculum opportunities available which is great. On a personal level and with regards to dealing with personal issues, I’m not too sure how much support is available.

A40 on a every Monday and Tuesday morning isn’t ideal. However, I can’t complain as everything is nearby and it means there are more opportunities and people to meet.

What I respect the most about being a student at UCFB is that the tutors recognise the effort levels we put in. They reward us with opportunities and support if we are showing them that we are genuinely trying to develop ourselves and help other students. This has provided me with the motivation to keep trying my best and I always feel I want to achieve high standards to pay them back. In terms of what could improve, I mentioned about the delivery of the course in the previous question. Something else that myself, and other students have mentioned is that when we are in the week or two before a deadline, we believe it would be beneficial to be given extra time to do the coursework. Whereas, we are still having lectures that include information we may need for our assignments and on a number of occasions I have learned something in a lecture that makes me feel that I need to change my approach to the piece of work. Therefore, the content and information in each module could be taught in a smaller amount of time to enable us more time to focus on our assignments.

10

The tutors have been great with getting guests from coaching and management backgrounds in and offering trips to professional clubs. This has given great opportunities to network directly with people in the industry that I wish to be employed in after my studies. In terms of work placements, I understand being in the football industry requires flexibility. However, I’ve been cautious of applying for placements and jobs in professional clubs as I believe it will be difficult to manage the time required for the role with studies. Therefore, I believe we could receive more support with time management skills and support individually for this. The approach to learning that the tutors take is mostly beneficial, they try to give us experience of learning in different ways such as lots of group work, solving problems, different methods (presentations, debates etc) and this has been great for testing us in different ways and important transferable skills to take into employment. However, this has been quite mixed up in lectures and seminars where sometimes lectures are delivered more like seminars and vice-versa. Personally, it’s not a massive issue, but I do get the feedback from quite a few students that they expect either a lecture or seminar and don’t like it when they’re not delivered how they expect.