4 University Centre Weston reviews

As a third year student who transferred to Weston College to study for my BSc (Hons) top up, Weston College seemed to be the perfect choice for me. I can say with the benefit of hindsight that I made a good choice, academically speaking. However, I can not say the same for my accommodation. In fact I'd go as far as saying that it has left me feeling very disappointed, and I know with absolute certainty that my fellow house mates feel the same way. I was a resident of Madeira Cove, that is a part of Skylight letting. Before joining Weston College, all students are advised to undertake a tenancy with Skylight. Maderia appeared to be a good place to stay for my final year. Everything was okay, until about a month in when the entire house suffered from a lack of warm water, this was an issue that wasn't resolved until mid April 2015. WiFi was very poor from the start and again this wasn't resolved until March 2015. Part of the first floor ceiling collapsed around new year 2015, this wasn't fixed for the duration of the tenancy. Mold was a common problem throughout the dwelling, and was an issue for some house mates who suffered from asthma. Power cuts where a common problem from January 2015 onward. Workmen would always be walking around the house, we did not receive 24 hours notice of their arrival. Lack of bins, especially recycling bins was an issue that we collectively took the blame for, as angry residents would get upset when sea gulls attacked the bins, but we couldn't do anything about it due to lack of resources that should have been provided. There was an instance where conditions where so bad that a student felt compelled to drop out of her first year... I undoubtedly was the luckiest of all the residents living within Maderia, as I had the "luxury" room, however there was a catch; fellow housemates needed to go through my room in order to use the washing machines. There was an alternative route to get there, but this involved going outside across a PRIVATE garden to get there, and I for one am not the kind of person to make life difficult for people, therefore I let them through my room on a near daily basis...so my room was in essence a public room! As a third year undergraduate student, I've had experience with two student houses before I came to Maderia, thus I can honestly say that the way Madeira was "managed" was diabolical! I am not one to complain, but the straw that broke the camels back was the failure of meeting the deposit return deadline, twice! This has now caused me some financial issues, that easily could have been avoided if Skylight had done as they said they'd do. They are more than happy to hound, and prompt for their rent money (quite rightly) and that is the only aspect of their "efficiency" that I can commend them for. So with that said and done my final words of advice to any students thinking about join Weston College is, quite simply don't. Weston as an academic institution I can't fault, but they are majorly let down by their letting partner Skylight.

The College's focus on work-based education and the dedication of its teachers is second to none.

The facilities here are top of the range and we are given access to state of the art technology. The classrooms are specially tailored for the subjects being taught in them.

I feel my business degree set me up for the working world. The skills I learnt have been very transferrable and I am now in a full time job where I get to use what I learnt every day.

The lecturers were fab, they were really supportive and explained things really well. The class sizes were small so we were a really close group which was really nice. A couple of my friends are studying business at other universities and we have discussed course content and it seems like we are all covering the same topics which is nice to know.

I haven't really been involved with the SU but I'm sure it is great! They are always advertising different things going on, so if you are interested in getting involved with social activities it is available.

The student accommodation is pretty good! I stayed at Maderia Cove on the seafront, there was 15 of us here and we had lots of fun. I had a seaview so was really lucky, it was lovely to look out at the sea when I was spending time in my room studying. The kitchen was spacious so we didn't get in each others way.

I can't fault the facilities at all, they really are state-of-the-art.

I enjoyed my time in Weston, I got used to it very quickly and it did feel like home. There is some nice pubs and restaurants in the town so there was always somewhere for us to go. I liked the fact that the seaside was on my doorstep, not many universities can offer this!

There was lots of clubs/societies to join, I didn't have much spare time so I decided the best use of my time would be to be a student ambassador. It was actually really fun and looks good on the CV.

Fantastic!