The facilities at the university are great, in terms of the library and course facilities such as the printing, scanning and darkroom. The café is good when you need to get something, however the prices could be a lot cheaper, as most of the time its cheaper to go into town and grab something from Greggs or Tesco. Sometimes it costs £10 for quick sandwich and drink, so compared to Tesco where you can get a meal deal for £3.50 it is a bit steep considering it is a university café. The campus is well situated in the city centre, and I have found this very helpful when you need to pop into town for something. The university union in terms of support on course level is great and we regularly hold SSCLG meetings where we get together and raise issues that we may be having with the university/course level. However the actual student union in terms of events could be better. The Treforest campus has loads of events, whereas Cardiff don't have many if any. This may be because Cardiff campus is only the teaching building, meaning that students don't have their own little campus to live, shop ect like they do at the Treforest campus. I think it would be good if Cardiff did have a student shop, where we could purchase items such as postcards, binding services ect as otherwise we do have to travel to Treforest to do this. On my course we hold regular SSCLG meetings and I have been a student rep and student ambassador since my first year of university and I must say I enjoy both roles. The student rep allows me to be a bridge towards students and lecturers, whilst as a student ambassador I am able to speak to new potential students and show them the university and specifically the course.

I started the course in 2022 and I must say we are a small group, as I think the course is still recovering since COVID like many courses, and it is nice that the new year has a large group! I have had a range of different lessons in terms of teaching staff such as my course leader who has worked for newspapers and magazines and has been freelancing for a number of years, to my other lecturer who focuses on the writing and curation side of photography. Both these types of careers are very helpful in terms to teaching as I can get a variety of feedback. We have also had visiting lectures on the course, which is great as we can speak to photographers in person about their projects and ask questions. The teaching staff in terms of technical support are also very helpful as we learnt a lot about printing, developing black and white film, darkroom skills, and also fabrication work in the workshop for exhibitions. I will say that it would be better if the technical staff where around more around deadline, however I understand that they are there for the whole university and not just the photography department. But it would be nice if certain staff stay until 3 like we have been told multiple times. I know that things come up, however this has happened multiple times after we (students and staff) have been told that there is support. Throughout the 3 years I have been able to take part in course events such and Dominos & Dice, and Station to Station. These events are key to Doc Phot as they allow everyone on the course to come together and create work that isn't marked. The stress of making photographs are removed as it allows you to just go out and photograph whilst also being mentored by some fantastic people such as photographers who are working in the industry. I was also lucky to work with the National Portrait Gallery in my second year which allowed us to have our work exhibited in the NPG for 2 months! This involved us having workshops with members of staff from the NPG. On the course we also do a thing called Mess It Up Week, where a photographer comes in to look at our work to 'mess it up', meaning they come in to give you other advice, with you going to and completing work based off those suggestions. After the week it doesn't matter if you don't use these suggestions later, but it allows you to see your work in a different light. The course also runs a range of trips such as St David's which is ran in the October of 1st year. This trip really does bring the class together, I have been for all 3 years with me taking more of a mentor roll in 2nd & 3rd year, and I have seen people really come out of their shell. We complete a range of activities and go to a range of places such as Big Pit. This trip is mainly there for people to 1 find out about Wales, 2 for people to get to know each other, 3 to have fun! We also have an international trip that runs in the January for 2nd & 3rd Years. I have been to Berlin and Budapest and I really enjoyed them. These trips allow you to visit a range of exhibitions and events that you wouldn't be able to get in the UK. As well as exhibitions you do also get to go and explore the area in groups, and we often would meet with our lecturers in the evenings to go out for dinner. Obviously you don't have to do this. but on Doc Phot we are a very close group, and you are able to have a more professional relationship in terms of the teacher/student relationship. You are able to speak to them for not only photography, but also any personal things that may be going on in your life, with them offering support. That is one thing I want to highlight, yes the events and experiences are fantastic, but having that support system is something that I will never take for granted and I know that I will be able to stay in contact with my lecturers after university and they will be there to talk and discuss not only my work and career but also how I am.

Everything is good I don’t have any bad aspects

I don’t have any