University of the West of England

I'm a first year pschology BSc student. I realise I'm going to sound biased when I say I LOVE my university. Now I don't get out much, so coming to university has just been overwhelming! I study on the frenchay campus, and I absolutely love it. The only downside is that some bits are a bit boring aesthetically with brick buildings, and some blocks could use a touch up.

There are 2 halfs to the campus with the student accomadation on one side and the teaching blocks on the other. The student accomadation is made up of four huge courts (basically blocks of flats) and a student village which has about 50 houses. The teaching block is divided into blocks A - M, and because the campus is built on a hill some blocks start on level 2. There are about 5 bars/resturants dotted around and a few cafe's. There is also a bookshop, a natwest and a student's union shop.

There are many societies and sports clubs to join. I am a member of paintball and OUT UWE, but there are loads more. The joining fees vary, and I would say join only one in the beginning because you may not have time to actually do a lot of things. I volunteer down at a science museum type place so I don't have a lot of time for the societies.

Talking about voluteering, many of the social sciences like students to volunteer and the university has their own volunteering program. They also have a Jobshop, which can send you weekly emails listing the jobs alerts that they recieve.

I live about 3 miles away from the university so i either walk, cycle or get a bus. The problem with the bus however is that the nearest I can get to the uni is a 5-10 minute walk which I honestly don't mind except when I am there until late and have to walk to the bus stop and can be waiting up to half an hour for a bus, because of the terrible bristol traffic! From the campus however there are many buses going to different parts of the town, but there have been many complaints lately as these buses get very full, very quickly. However they are trying to amend that. Also there isn't much parking.

The staff are lovely. That is all I can say! Lecturer's will always get back to you within 24 hours if you email them with an enquiry.
I haven't been to Bower Ashton Campus, and have only had fleeting glimpses of Glenside and St Matt's campus (very good glimpses though!) so I can't really comment on them.

UWE has just purchased the neighbouring Hewlett Packard lot, which is another 70 acres, to add to the existing 80 acres! It still hasn't been decided what is happening with this land, however the glenside and St Matt's capuses (or is it campi) are going to be moved up next to frenchay. Also the sports facilities are going to be largened because they really are quite small in proportion to the population of frenchay.

In summary UWE is a loverly place to study.