1,832 Loughborough University reviews

Good course content, not much contact with lecturers or tutors.

-

Lectures are great, content is varies and interesting

Great community feel and value for money

Everyone is trying to help

Great community

Loughborough Design School has a long established reputation as a school which produces some of the most sought after graduate designers in the world - though since the course has been restructured, the satisfaction of design students has noticibly plummeted. Students are unhappy with the progress they make compared with students at rival universities, they feel unprepared and let down by the theory heavy modules - in my experience, many students have confronted staff about their dissatisfaction with course content. The unrivalled facilities at the Design School don't seem to be used, by second year students have only explored manipulation of foam, card, and basic plastics. Some of the modules being taught are arguably of little importance, or stray far from the premise of industrial design - even supporting staff look unconvinced when in sessions. Although some modules explore key principles behind design thinking, they seem to be unnecessarily repeated in further modules. The modules link relatively well, although many students say that modules are taught in the wrong order (eg. learning advanced CAD after building a portfolio). The support of tutors is good, replies are quick and the allocation of a personal tutor is exceptionally helpful. Support of administrative staff is fantastic, and the support side of the school, and the university as a whole, is very good. The university is lucky to attract notable employers who want to take on Loughborough students for their year in industry. The support from the placements team is good, although I know of some instances where they have somewhat forced a placement when it might not necessarily be a good fit for a student. Overall, the reputation of the school will continue to carry it, although satisfaction with the course will continue to deteriorate until changes are made to the course content and structure.

William Morris offers a great hall experience, fantastic situation and great hall spirit. The rooms are of an acceptably modern standard, especially the new blocks. The common room facilities are good, as is outdoor recreational space. It is a good distance from town, and is situated close to the students union.

This course is not as good at this department’s English BA programme. I appreciate that it is the first year this module has run but as far as I know there was little to no involvement of students in the planning and creation of this course. A simple focus group would’ve helped lecturers structure the course and find out what students would be interested in studying. The structure of this course makes little to no sense. In semester one I had very little reading, 5-8 set texts in total across the entire semester. Whilst this semester I have 2 texts, plus theory, plus other seminar preparation a week. There has been a confused attempt at balancing workload and I believe having one of the literary based modules in semester one would’ve been better. Support given by the majority of lectures is amazing, but at times they struggle with criticism and adapting fast enough to criticism. This year is the first time my course has run so there was a certain level of expectation for flexibility for assessments. This was not granted in the first semester and lecturers offer varying levels of flexibility depending upon the module. A specific example of this is for Resources for Advanced Research. We had an assessment to show how we naturally and authentically research. The task was to annotate a few pages of a research article and write a reflection. When we approached our lecturer to find out if we could do this digitally, she said no and to print out the pages, annotate them physically and scan them in. Whilst we appreciate that this is a good skill to have, many of us have explored it at an undergraduate level and found ways we like to research and study. Digital annotation provides more space for notes, ideas and can look a lot tidier and therefore easier to come back to at a later date. Our lecturer was not receptive to this and although she asked for "self-awareness of how you like to work", when I reflected that this process is not how I usually work and that I find my method more helpful for me, she was dismissive and stated that my method "separates quotations from the source" to which I would ask, what are quotations if not snippets of the most crucial information from a text? In future, this could be improved upon by allowing students flexibility in these kinds of tasks to truly show the authenticity of their research methods. This could extend to other modules by allowing a flexible approach to what to write about. I found that in the assignments where I formulated my own topic and essay question I got a better grade than when I was given a list of questions to work from. The majority of the lectures in semester one lacked focus and consequently purpose. Semester two is a vast improvement upon this as the reading guides the conversion. Students have voiced that focusing upon a text/topic per module over the course of two weeks may be more insightful than cramming all information into a single seminar. For example, our one hour class on queer theory was not long enough and many would’ve been able to discuss the theory for a full two hours. This could be improved by either increasing contact hours, or if only three hours per 30 credit module is available, focusing on theory for the full three hours one week and a text the next week. This would balance workload and give us the depth of discussion we crave. Many texts aren't in the library, this could be improved by expanding the literature available as International students on the module have checked the library catalogues of their other home-country universities and the literature as almost always available there.

I personally have a lot of contact time due to the fact my course is a practical subject, the lecturers will spend time with and help you in the way you want to go

I personally think Claudia parson is very expensive the design of the kitchen isn’t great due to the fact you can’t get a plate in straight and we have to put them next to the bin bags not the best place. However our rooms get cleaned and the cleaner is really friendly always up to talk and it is a great location with a spacious kitchen for spending time with flatmates

Not only lectures, but opportunities to take part in labs for most modules, allowing a better understanding.

Close to the engineering buildings, if that’s what you’re studying.

:/

The course is well structured and learning material is very detailed and easily available. Course leaders should listen to student feedback on lectures in more detail as some lecturers aren’t very clear and make lectures quite long and boring.

You’re part of a community. The events and opportunities you can get involved with as part of the hall are great! The inter-hall competitions at Loughborough are particularly good and allow you to play sport competitively whilst also having a more fun side.

A lot of opportunities to pick modules we are personally interested in so we can specialise in our own subject area. However, some lecturers go on strike quite often

Student life is strengthened in university halls, feels like a big family as everyone knows everyone. Can be loud for quieter people