Clydesdale Rise (Halls Of Residence At The University Of Exeter)

Member Name: TigerTiger

Product:	Halls Of Residence At The University Of Exeter
Date:	13/04/01 (1232 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well furnished; on campus; well looked after; beautiful surroundings

Disadvantages: Noisy internally; cleaners like early morning rises; expensive

The University of Exeter is very lucky in that it has a great deal of accomodation to offer students, guarenteeing all first years a place in halls. In addition to this though, they also make provisions for postgraduate students. I mean how often are postgraduates the forgotten students? They presume that because they have already been in the university system for some years that they don't need the security of university accomocation. However, for many postgraduates they will be moving to a strange place and so the opportunity to live with other people in the same situation is a great chance for them to meet people and get used to life in a new place. That is the situation that I found myself in when I started my PhD at Exeter University. I didn't know anyone and I didn't know the good bits of the city from the red light districts. Luckily for me they do make provisions for postgraduate students, with both postgraduate halls and houses available for either the full year or from October through to the end of June, one of them being Clydesdale Rise.

~~~Location, Location, Location~~~~~

Clydesdale Rise is a newly built hall for postgraduate students only. It is situated at on the west side of the campus. To find the halls you take the main entrance into the Main University Campus onto Streatham Drive, then the next left, up along past the tennis courts and Reed Hall and then the first left which is quite a way along. This is Clydesdale Avenue and you follow the road round to the postgraduate centre Clydesdale House which is situated on the right hand side, turn left and you follow the road until you reach the end and Clydesdale Rise is comprised of 3 blocks, 2 on the left hand side, blocks B and C and A on the right.

~~~The building itself~~~~~

The blocks of Clydesdale Rise are all newly constructed in the last few years and are 3 storeys high. On each floor there are 2 flats each having 6 en-suite bedrooms as well as
a kitchen/diner/living room. The whole of Clydesdale Rise accomodates over 300 postgraduate students.

*Communal areas*
I was actually amazed at how large the living spaces of each flat were. The kitchen itself is large and has plenty of cupboards, more than enough for all of us anyway. There is also 2 fridge freezers, a microwave, built in oven, hob and extractor fan as well as a constant supply of hot water . Yes, this for me was one of the perks of Clydesdale Rise, there are no kettles, instead there is just boiling water through a special tap whenever you need it.....coffee and tea 24 hours a day (they know students only too well!). At the end of the kitchen there is a large dining area in which there is a dining table to seat all 6 flat mates. However, in our flat we were given a few extra chairs which were stacked up and were useful when people inevitably popped by. Then from the dining room there is an entrance to a lounge area. Although they are really only all in one space they have attempted to make good use of the space by placing a screen in between the dining room and kitchen. This is in a pine style material and is comprised of lots of squares, which form ideal shelving. Well we found it ideal for bottles of wine, glasses, candles and the odd ornament. In the actual lounge area though there are lots of confy seats. Ok, no sofas as such, just those slightly formal, but comfy seats with some coffee tables in the middle. Once again there is a lot of space for you and your friends to sit and when we used to have parties it was big enough to transform into a dancing area. Each living room also has a television with satellite tv. Before getting excited though it is only the freebie channels and hence I don't think I ever really watched it. Both the tv and satellite are operable from the box and set, but each flat can pay to rent the remote control. Strange, yes I know, but it stops them losing so many. All in all the living area got my hand
s up. I really liked the fact that there were lots of windows and so the space seemed light and airy, however, this does have it's downside in that you can see into everyones flats all the time as no-one ever bothers to close the blinds.

*Bedrooms*
As I said each flat has 6 en-suite bathrooms. The rooms are a decent size, I mean they are adequate, you may find it difficult swinging a particularly large cat though! Rooms are nicely furnished in a light pine style finish which makes them look modern. There is a single bed (usually squeaky and uncomfortable at that), a bed side table, a built in wardrobe with drawers and an "L" shaped built in desk which goes along one wall and then in front of the window. It always struck me how well planned it was as I could always sit working at my desk and look out. I forgot to mention some of the views from Clydesdale Rise. if you are lucky you get a view out across the hills and countryside, these views are lovely and definitely make studying a little nicer. However, the flip side being that the other side of the building get to look over the car park, it is a nicely landscaped carpark though! Above the desks there is 3 levels of shelving. For most people this was adequate shelving, however, I think I must have had an abnormal amount of books and cd's as I ended up keeping lots of things in boxes under my desk. The lighting in the room was also confusing at times as there are so many light switches everywhere, to the main lights, under shelving lights, desk lights and bed side table lights, so many infact that I only think I finally figured them out the week before I left....how typical. Further more, most of the walls of the bedroom area are in pinboards so you can put all your posters and pictures up. This was very useful and saves marking the walls. Finally each room has a telephone which is ran by a company called Campus link (read info on the reality of phones later), a date point whihc means
you can connect your computer to the whole university network for just £40 a year and a tv point.

The en-suite shower room was a definite bonus for me as having lived in a number of shared houses before in my undergraduate days I know how bad it can be trying to get into the bathroom. There is a wc, wash hand basin and shower cubical. It was all very clean and functional, although couldn't really be described as luxurious, better than most student hall bathrooms though. There are a couple of features that I really liked. Firstly, the heated towel rail, completely unecessary, however, it was always good to have warm towels first thing in the morning. The towel rail as with all the heating is on a central system and so is regulated depending on the time of year. You simply leave the button for the towel rail and heating on all the time and it just comes on and off as it likes. The other thing that I found useful was the clothes dryer that hung above the shower, although this was not huge it was useful to have for those odd bits of hand washing.

~~Any extra information??~~~~

*Cleaners*
Yes, at Clydesdale Rise you actually get a cleaner. Someone will come and clean the communal areas daily. They have certain days in which they do extra things like hoover the whole place, but daily the kitchen worktops and oven will be washed down. They will also change the bins and make sure everything is generally in a reasonable condition. Once a week they will come and clean your room. In my experience they will come and arrange with you a day in which they can come and roughly a time. Don't get all excited thinking that they are basically a replacement mother and that they will put everything away for you as they won't. What they do is hoover, clean your bathroom, replenish toilet rolls and wipe down work surfaces like your desk. My only complaint is their liking for early mornings and I used to wince when they knocked on my door at 8.3
0am. The worst thing being that if you don't answer they just walked in anyway, so you had to get out of bed t answer the door and then make an excuse. However, because they were obliged to clean your room they needed you to sign a form to say you didn't want it cleaned, so they had proof, and to be honest most of the time it was easier to just get out of bed and take your duvet with you and sit in the lounge having a cup of tea while they got on with it!!

*Maintenance*
if you have any problems with your flat then you can either ring the domestic services department or you can go to Clydesdale House, the postgraduate centre and report it there. I had a problem with my shower once and they got to it pretty prompty. however, once the cupboard door to my desk started to hang off and 2 weeks on they still hadn't sorted it. I ended up buying a screw driver and sorting it out myself. I have seen worse though.

*Mail*
To collect your mail it is sent to the Postgraduate centre and is distributed into pigeon holes. Parcels have to be collected from the main office.

*Cars*
Clydesdale Rise has it's own car park with a fair number of spaces. You have to apply for a permit to par there, but it is only about £15 for the year so won't bankrupt you.

~~~The reality of Clydesdale Rise~~~~~

I have told you of the actual layout and appearance of Clydesdale Rise, however, it is always different when it actually comes to living there so now I hope to share with you what it was really like when I lived there.

*The noise*
Noise is always going to be a problem in student land. Clydesdale is in an area which is mainly student halls. However, because it is the last hall there is relatively little noise that can he heard from the surrounding buildings. In fact there were few occasions when noise from outside really bothered me. What did bother me though was the internal noise. Clydesdale Rise is a new bu
ilding and so the walls are not very thick. For example, I could hear the people on either side of me and above me every time they used their toilet (very pleasant) and I could also hear my flat mate next door each time she turned over in bed. I am sure you can imagine how I felt when her boyfriend came to stay, I actually went and stayed at my friend's house!

*The inhabitants*
I actually found living in Clydesdale quite hard. There were over 300 students and so there was no shortage of people. However, out of all of these there were only 5 English Students. The real problem was that the international students seem to find the others from there own country and stick together, leaving the English students to find each other. I found it enjoyable in that I met a lot of people from other cultures. however, I found it hard living with people whose native language wasn't English. After all I chose to stay in the UK and go to UNiversity and I guess I was just a little shocked at being in the minority! Yes, Clydesdale was lonely for me and so I spent a great deal of time away from the place.

*The telephones*
There are 2 payphones in each block as well as each room having it's own line. The payphones only take credit cards and phone cards and so are not a quick way of contacting anyone. It was frustrating when I first arrived and hadn't managed to have my own phone connectec. Campus link who run phones in a number of universities are responsible for the phone network and basically they are a whole other opinion in dodgy telephone networks. They run a scheme whereby when you arrive you are given a number, there is an internal number which anyone inside the uni can ring for free, and then there is an external one. Until you actually register with Campus link you can only recieve calls, not make them. Trying to actually register with Campus link was not at all easy. I rang them to request an application form on 2 occasions and each
time they told me it was in the post, however, both times it never arrived. Then unbeknown to me after a month if you haven't registered they just disconnect you. I survived a whole week thinking my family were ignoring me and I had no friends. It was all so annoying as I did want to register, I just couldn't as I didn't have the forms. Once registered I then started to realise how expensive the phone calls were, they were far from competitive anyway, so beware, the phone bills can mount up.

~~~~Final Thoughts~~~~~

I guess you now want to know how much all of this cost me. Well, Clydesdale Rise has a reputation of being the most expensive of the Exeter Uni halls and I hear that is why there are relatively few UK students as it is just too expensive. I paid about £85 a week, however, with all bills in I felt relieved just to know I didn't have to pay anything else. This also includes room insurance which can be quite expensive on top.

As far as University halls go I found the whole experience quite good, the halls were always clean and had all the facilities that I needed. Yes, they were pricey, but it was a good way to adjust to a new town and with it being on campus it was very handy for my studies. The grounds in which the university is set make any of the halls a great place to live and study and I think any student coming to the uni is very lucky.

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