Bristol is a great place to study. I've always found all my teachers to be passionate and ready to help with any further learning or inquiries. The pastoral care is exemplary, and in addition to the easily accessible health and counselling service, there is also a student-run helpline, and many different tiers of department staff to talk to. The study facilities on campus are lovely, and having such a nice environment to work really helps you stay motivated. The city itself is also great; there's so much variety within Bristol, and it definitely feels like a young-person-scene (i.e. it is filled with students and student-directed places). There's tons of independent shops, interesting restaurants, and second-hand clothing stores. There's easy access to green spaces and reasonably good public transport links throughout the city. However the big negative is the expense. On top of the extortionate rent and unusual early housing market, the areas where UOB students tend to live have little access to affordable supermarkets such as Lidl or Aldi, and mostly have to shop in locals and expresses, which massively increases the grocery bill. Going out is also limited, which is unfortunate because Bristol has a brilliant nightlife, but the drinks in some places are just too much to be going out several times a week. Bristol is dominated by students from wealthier backgrounds because of how expensive it is to live in the city, which does have an impact on the diversity of people you meet at the uni. The uni do have a good bursary system, but I think they could reach out more to students from less privileged backgrounds. For example, the uni seems to have a majority of UK students from Southern England, and the harassment and 'jokes' towards students with thick accents or from traditionally poorer areas can be incredibly ostracizing. This could be helped as well if the societies at the students union were a little better organised and if the students union were a little more involved in student life. They try, but they feel constantly a bit out of touch, and often offer events at short notice which makes it hard to plan and attend. Overall, I would recommend coming to Bristol. I love it here. The city is such a vibrant, beautiful place to live, and the university is generally very supportive and has some great, interesting research.

Course hours are low, but I kinda expect that at any university studying English, because so much of it is independent reading. The staff are all amazing; they're so knowledgeable, and if they can't help they always know which direction to point you in. The learning is completely in person this year, which is so much better for my course as most of it is discussion based. The only criticism I have is how badly affected my teaching hours are by strikes. I normally end up missing every teaching hour during strike days, as pretty much all the arts and humanities staff strike. It's incredibly frustrating to be paying as much tuition as STEM students, who require so much more equipment and contact hours, but for their staff to be well-paid enough that they don't strike, so their classes run as normal. It demonstrates a big disparity in how the University prioritizes its departments.

The rent is ridiculous throughout the city. I stayed in one of the cheapest Halls and was still paying more than anyone I knew in other locations around the UK, aside from London. The value for money was terrible as we suffered with plumbing and drainage problems all year, which were never permanently resolved. The building was plain and modern inside, it felt very safe, it had a small common room, and it did run some social events. It wasn't an overall bad experience. It was just the maintenance was terrible considering how much we were paying. The facilities also were sub-par; old electric ovens, poor water pressure and temperature control on the showers, and poor temperature management on the fridge-freezers (our fridge was always a little bit too warm, so things tended to spoil quickly, and our freezer was so cold that we had to chip the ice away every couple of weeks).

Na

Not good career support

Na