Brighton rocks! (University of Sussex in general)

Member Name: debod

Product:	University of Sussex in general
Date:	07/01/01 (304 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great setting, good courses, fab people

Disadvantages: Is there such a thing as too trendy?

I did English and French at Sussex in the School of European Studies (or Euro - yes, get used to the jargon), from 1994-1998. Nearly all Sussex courses comprising a language element send you on a compulsory (ha!) year abroad. Believe it or not, it can be hard to tear yourself away from Brighton and from friends who will be leaving the year you are away. It also might increase your hardship doing a 4 year degree rather than a 3 year one. But it's more often than not worth it, plus you get bagsies on the top accommodation on campus (if you like campus) when you return as a sophisticated 4th year.

Campus at Sussex is a couple of miles out of town, (buses and trains are regular) in the lovely Southdowns, right nextdoor to Stanmer Park, with an old manor house, a little farming hamlet (cows abound on campus, as well as badgers and squirrels), woods complete with sculptures, a psycadelic abandoned observatory, cherry blossom and bluebells in the Spring and a blinking great rock festival in the Summer (initiated by the Students Union I'll have you know).

You'll find seven (if I remember correctly, hic!) bars on campus. Each has a certain clientele... the luvvies and the sportspeople hang in Falmer, the trendies in East Slope, the boffs in IDS, and so on. (It's probably all changed since I was there, but allow me my nostalgia).

Also on campus: a theatre/cinema, a launderette, a couple of grocers, one with video hire, a bookshop, a fast food place, a refectory, a "cafe" in the theatre, pretty good PC access (some of which is 24hours), a well-stocked library (I rarely had trouble getting coursebooks, although negotiation with other people in your class is a good skill). What else? Oh, a spiritual meeting house and other listed buildings. (Yes, actually, Sussex is famed for its architecture: the library looks like an open book apparently, and there are features such as the impossible steps in the Arts block amphitheatre... d
esigned to make pretentious arts students concentrate, or break their necks.)

Accommodation is good on the whole, ranging from individual rooms with shared corridor kitchen and bathrooms, to little shared flats and houses. There's a constant cycle of redecorating, so if you're lucky you'll get one of the spanking new rooms. At worst it'll be maybe 5 years since it was decorated? Campus accommodation is nearly guaranteed for confirmed first years, and there's a selection process for 2nd,3rd and 4th yrs willing to play social worker. But many people prefer to be in Brighton anyway, saying that campus is claustrophobic.

Brighton is one of the best towns to be a student in. Near the capital, near the sea, near the countryside, it's got great shops ranging from highstreet names in the newly refurbished Churchill Centre to funky little boutiques and second-hand places in the lanes. There are too many bars and restaurants to mention, and Londoners have been known to come to Brighton for the nightlife. The people, though suspiciously trendy, are also very liberal - hard to tell students from townies. Beneath the fashionable veneer, the seediness of any coastal town lingers hearteningly, with cheesy attractions on the pier.

Many programmes at Sussex have good academic ratings, but the place falls down in the league tables due to its accommodation and graduate employment records. The latter is misleading. It's true that Sussex doesn't do many vocational courses that I'm aware of, but it does do the year abroad thing very well, and this encourages a free spirit. Not all Sussex grads aim to settle into "proper employment" immediately after ceasing their studies. Lots travel, and benefit from a couple of years of drifting - several of my peers are just now getting excellent jobs. While I write Dooyoo Ops.

Summary: