1,202 Falmouth University reviews

We haven’t had any information about future job prospects. Because if covid there hasn’t been any job opportunities.

Online learning is difficult with such a practical course, but the in person studying makes up for the theory learning. In person teaching is effective and compliments the course with the access to high level facilities. Lecturers and technicians are available whenever we need them.

30

The facilities are high quality and well equipped, and easily bookable. There are technicians available to help whenever needed.

Personal support is available whenever needed, but you have to ask for it.

Yes

Guest speakers nobody knows... Work placements? career service activities? Never even heard of these things...

With everything online, the University refuses to respond to student's complaints. Most of the time is wasted setting up lectures and waiting for the totally unmotivated students to join and the lecturers themselves always seem as if they would rather be somewhere else. Asking for help towards work over seems to find a response one or two months down the line where it's too late to do anything about it and grades often contradict what is given in module briefs

4

They don't do anything

My housing situation is great as I've grown up in Falmouth and sorted everything away from Falmouth University's ridiculous Uni Hall's pricing

Rental equipment is amazing and the facilities are good, when we can use them...

Even after growing up here it still disappoints me every night, there's nothing here

Absolutely embarrassing, everyone will just point a finger of where you should go next until eventually you've gone full circle and your mental health issues have doubled

Not really, I couldn't find the page. They have too many sites. The local newspaper reached out to me, for me to work with them.

Don't pay for it, I paid for a scuba diving society they had lessons during the week days and I couldnt go because I had lectures at the same time. I didn't get a refund.

With private homes you meet new people but the rent is overpriced. Greedy landlords and damp homes. I was in war with legal problems because they ignored their terms and conditions. Every year they send me a message asking me to pay my rent.

Library is full of useful books. IoP studios are old and stiff. Rental equipment is wide range, some are broken and are falling apart.

Local life is great if you don't tell them you're a student. The local newspaper blames students for everything and there is a hate group for students (they have broken student cars before). Club bouncers are racist and violent.

Societies and clubs are a great way of meeting new people and collaborating.

They don't listen. They don't care about your well being. I'm dyslexic and I got 0 support. I tried counselling because I have PTSD. They acted like I was psycho.

Not on my course, they passive agressively try to get you to form this business, take a big cut and pretend you won't have no money in the 2nd year. We had to hear this from past students.

This course is not at all what is sold to you at the start - competitve, thriving, high impact. The staff really seem like they rather be anywhere else, they have extremely poor issue management skills and perpetuate issues, making the experience unpelasant. The program feels like a failing venture that they keep flogging.. unsurprising that so many past staff members aparently left. No communication and 0 value add from the majority of staff who have no startup experience and in some cases barely any digital experience. The best thing about the program is the monthly payments sadly... you will not get any other value so certainly don't leave anything worthwhile to do this. If you're fresh out of uni, it might be an ok proposition but you are very unlikely to come out of the program with anything worthwhile. Diversity is also extremely low.

No impact from them.

You have to get a bus to the penryn campus, it isn't walkable sadly.

A good range of societies.

Never heard about any of these services. I'm sure they're there but we also have barely been on campus due to Covid.

I haven’t had much experience if this so far only having done a term, but you get a silly email that said you can book a career tutorial and that’s about it.

Journalism and creative writing student here. I read a review on here that said Falmouth sells dreams- and that’s absolutely spot on. In my interview here at Falmouth I was concerned that being such a far-out uni in a small town, they wouldn’t have industry links like other city Uni’s and maybe wouldn’t actually have enough local news to write about. The person that interviewed me assured me they had enough local news going on, and that their links to the industry were great. Fast forward to a few weeks into my course, we are literally given a journal that states why journalism is so difficult to get in to, how it’s mainly run by the middle class white population and how it’s low payed and overworked- great way to inspire children, but maybe we need to learn the hard facts right? The next week, the same bloke who interviewed me came in to do a talk/ ‘press conference’ and told us outright that Cornwall is a ‘news dessert’ and that funding is difficult, and journalism is low paid. I will reiterate that wasn’t everything he said, and there were some positives about the passion that journalists have to have. But I felt deflated by then. Why was I even bothering? Aside from this issue, lecturers are unfriendly, unhelpful at times, hard to approach. I’ve seen someone cry because a lecturer told them ‘it’s easy, what don’t you understand’- it’s demoralising. You will feel like you’ve walked in to a lecture half way through because lecturers are spurting none sense that they expect you to know without explaining it first. A clear aim of sessions and outcomes is not given. Due to COVID and the fact that it was expected many students were leaving for Christmas early, teaching was stopped early on the journalism side of things and no help, support or feedback was given for assessments at this time- I ended up having other people from my course in my kitchen just so we could peer review and help each other- but let’s face it, we were all first years, how much could we actually help each other? Not as much as a paid lecturer. You get told to work 40 hours a week, which sounds bad enough but you end up working far more just to get the work done. Other issues with getting and borrowing equipment are ridiculous. You can only borrow something for done thing stupid like 50 hours and you get a hefty fine if you return it more than a FEW MINUTES late. My laptop was not up to date enough to run with software we were suddenly told we needed, and I was refused any help with the matter. I hear from other students that booking art equipment is near impossible and I have a friend that had to change her entire assessment plan half way through because she had to work from home with little time in the studio. Overall I feel that when you have a problem you get passed from pillar to post through a crazy system of people who are supposed to serve a specific purpose, but which can never really help you. Most helpful place so far was The Compass. Another strange thing is that lots of staff don’t seem to know their way around uni and can’t point you in the right direction if your lost- which is bound to happen as a first year. My best part of the year is the people I met in my accommodation, but as lovely as they are I realised one night that I was broke, lonely, working on my own in my room anywhere between 8 and 12 hours a day, and my mental health had gone down the drain. I can’t take it anymore, it’s probably going to cause me issues to withdraw but I’ve decided to leave Falmouth. I’m so upset I chose here- worst mistake if my life.

2

Tuke house is great. Some maintenance issues but you’ll meet some lovely people. WiFi is terrible across the board

They were advertised as being amazing and industry level. I hardly got to see any of them. Booking facilities is a nightmare. And I used better equipment during my a-levels at an ofstead level ‘good’ school- I’m sorry but what does that tell you?

Can’t really say much as most of my time here was spent in lockdown. Societies are PRICEY, and the SU website is hard to navigate but societies are fun once your there. Not the best place for nightlife, the pubs are decent but if your a club and not a pub person this isn’t really for you. Public transport is really good.

I felt passed from pillar to post. I was sure I’d fail this term (not that it counts for anything) and needed support but they make you feel like your just a body in a class- you’re not an individual anymore and no one really cares about you. I doubt they’ll notice when I don’t come back after Christmas.

Ocassional lectures with professional artists. Tbh I'm not any wiser in regards to employability from whatever Falmouth University has to offer. I have chosen to go into design and illustration because a BA in fine art does nothing for one's employability.

Looking back I wish there was an option to not have the mandatory 20 (was it 10?) minute chat with a tutor each week. I found it to be uninspiring.

1

They sound very nice and look good on paper but I'm not sure how much power they actually have

During my 3 years in Falmouth (apart from 1 term abroad) I lived in 5 different locations. It was my only option to lodge for the first 2 years, as there wasn't room in halls. I lodged with various uneducated individuals who seemed to hate education and especially people who want to educate themselves. They were agressive, greedy, rude, disrespectful and dishonest. I felt unsafe and stressed. I lived in student accommodation during the last year. It was allright.

Fine

It's in central Falmouth, near to the sea and to town.

I joined just one.

Could be better

Work placement, however I felt the university sapped my creativity.

Surprised at how little time was spent on study. I’d hoped for more lectures. Even as a full time student I could work a full time job.

4

No interaction with them

Average

Yes

Not much

Generic. I felt it rushed rather than personalised to the student.

Hahaha none. They do one or two lectures advertising their career support team but basically do the same as a job centre would. You find more jobs and information yourself via google.

First year tutors got the sack as tbh they did teach us like we were in primary school and the work that was given to us felt really amateur. Second year tutor was better, I felt like he took the time to get to know different students as individuals not as a whole. which is really important in an arts degree. Third year tutors where a disappointment. One of which was the course leader and I just feel half the time he was away with the fairy’s. The other had very perverted taste in photography and basically made a class full of twisted Pervy individuals. I came here to do fashion photography not take pictures of people’s private parts all day. I just ignored this and did what I wanted and of course they didn’t like it.

3

Waste of time very Americanised tbh

First year I stayed in halls on site in glasney view. There were the nicer halls. I had a double en-suite which was the only perk. Had to live with some horrible & very strange people though.

Library was pretty good however people go there to socialise and take up room. I didn’t like going into the uni much, felt like secondary school again.

50-50 I think if you know of Cornwall and the area you know how to get around via public transport. it’s very far away from London, where all the internships and jobs actually are. there are none in Cornwall so be forewarned.

I never joined any

Bad

You get a lot of guest lecturers come in and talk, meaning you might catch the interest of those representatives, opening potential career choices. Honestly? I'm not really too sure. In my course especially, they talk about what to expect in the industry and try to simulate that environment. Not sure if it's really doing anything than give us more stress than usual.

The reality of this course is much different to how I expected it to be. If you're mainly a 2D artist, you will regret joining this, as there is such a little focus on 2D and the majority of it being 3D. I'm talking first year, only 2/6 of the modules are 2D based, and they still have 3D work involved. First Year is going to leave a really big impact on you and whether you want to continue this course, and personally, this is completely swayed my mind in the other direction and made me move courses. Though if you are a very 3D based person, then I think this course would be suitable for you. I understand that joining this course would involve 3D, but the fact that most of it is highly focused on that was incredibly overwhelming to me and many others I have talked to. You are thrown right into the deep end on many programmes you don't even know existed and expected to create complex pieces of work right off the bat and understand tons of jargon with a small amount of guidance in comparison. This course is very independently focused. The programmes you do need to use often kill your computer unless it is a very powerful one, so there is an issue on how much money you are going to dedicate into this course e.g. spending money to go on the bus every time you want to work if you live in Falmouth. Of course, you do get guidance, but it is only a little push most of the time, which I understand can be a good way for people to learn but in this case where most of us are clueless on how these programmes work, I don't think it's ideal. You are going to get very frustrated, I can guarantee.

18

When first joining your course, you'll likely have a representative of the Students' Union come in and talk about support, what to expect, questions you might have etc. I'm not one to delve into these particular topics so I don't really have an opinion of them.

The whole accommodation is pretty old, though what can you expect when this is the cheapest they offer? The outside conditions are fine, though the inside can be questionable at some parts. Inside the rooms, rain constantly leaks through the windows and onto the large window area. This causes a lot of mould to grow which is pretty bad for asthmatics and you can't clean it yourself; you'll have to wait/ask for the cleaners to do something about it. The room itself is fine and is of a good size. The bathroom is really something else - in a bad way. So it is a wetroom, meaning that there is no designated and sectioned off area for you to shower in. It is constantly wet and such a hassle when you need to go the bathroom. The ventalition is awful as it takes absolutely forever to dry and again, builds up mould on the floor and the shower curtain. You will be spending a lot of time cleaning the bathroom if you want to stay safe and clean. Because the accommodation is old, there will be areas of rust such as underneath the toilet. Not really a big deal IMO, but it just looks ugly. The location is probably the best(?) part of this. It's in the heart of the town, making it easy to go to Falmouth campus and Penryn via the bus. Shopping is super easy and convenient. However, at night, it will get loud at times (there is usually a guy riding a very loud motorcycle at 2AM) due to traffic and drunkards. Glass recycling is usually done very early in the morning, usually around 6AM, so expect to be woken up by that abruptly. The seagulls are also incredibly loud and them rummaging through the rubbish will usually land some glass bottles smacking into the ground and scaring you. For £130+ a week, it is definitely not worth it. You're better off getting private accommodation than going to any of the uni provided ones. The washing machines suck as well and you're going to end up with a mushroom farm in your room.

Looking around both campuses, Penryn definitely has the better facilities as a lot of them are constantly getting upgraded e.g. better computers being installed. The library is huge and offers a ton of books in different subjects. Lots of areas in there too that allow for independent study. There is a huge area dedicated to DVD rentals of films, not just educational ones, but your classics and what you see on Netflix. Music CDs and records are also in quite the large quantity, as are classical music scores from a bunch of different composers. Falmouth's library is much much smaller but still has many books on a variety of topics. Less computers and less space, though. The classrooms are spacious as there aren't usually a lot of students anyway. Equipment is also there and available in designated areas.

If you live in any of the Falmouth accommodations, it is easy to get your groceries and go to whichever campus you need. According to my friends who live in Penryn instead, it is very difficult to get your groceries etc as they're pretty far away. Expect to catch buses to and from just to survive, unless you get them delivered.

I never joined up to any societies, but there are quite some variety for a smaller uni. You have sports ones including your classics like football, cheerleading, martial arts like kung fu, karate etc - in terms of sports, I'd say there's a satisfactory variety. Regular societies include a range of topics such as religion, animals and animals. I recommend looking at the official societies list.

Academic feedback is linear, as in you will get a document with your grade levels on each criterion, written feedback and your grade percentage. This is only for when you submit an actual assignment, though. Verbal feedback is pretty lacklustre unless you specifically want something to be critiqued on. Some accounts of this and the linear feedback are rather vague, such as feedback like 'poor quality of work' - what is poor exactly? Maybe it's the design as it makes no sense, the texturing, too simple - we will never know unless you ask. Maybe asking won't even get you your answer. In my experience, the student services here have been wonderful and supportive. The counselling I've received have been consistent and the person I was with was compassionate, understanding and patient. Other members of this have been wonderful too, being supportive of my situation and talking with my tutor and course leader if needed. I have, however, heard that some people haven't received such good support, though the opposite can also be said as many I know have also had great support with this service.

A lot of the time you will have to search jobs for yourself. The uni don't really help you with that. But I strongly recommend you collaborate with others and you'll end up getting a job when you graduate.

I liked the individuality of the course. However, the lecturers are biased towards students and they aren't too great at educating you when you're in need. Beware, some modules aren't relevant to the course at all.

Awful. Even during the Coronavirus pandemic, they seemed to have completely shut off from supporting students.

Expensive accommodation costs. Supportive safety conditions. Living in Falmouth is convenient for food shopping, nights out etc. Cheaper to live in Penryn though. Bus is now £5 - return.

You can tell the equipment is old. 50% of the time, it works. 50% you're waiting for someone to come and fix the equipment.

It was until the bus price rose. Overall, the Penryn uni location is good.

Confusing. Most societies here are an excuse to go out and drink.

Counselling is a joke. I never trusted my lecturers, although, I did trust my personal tutor.