Excellent University (University of Wales, Aberystwyth in general)

Member Name: jpegington

Product:	University of Wales, Aberystwyth in general
Date:	07/03/06 (788 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Location, Good Teaching, It's in Wales, Reasonably Cheap

Disadvantages: It is in the middle of nowhere

Background:

First some background, I studied Business Studies at Aberystwyth University from 1995 - 1998. Therefore I can comment on the teaching within the Economics, Accountancy and Business courses as well as some German Language and History courses that I took. I am going to break this review down into two, the university and the town life as both are as important as each other should you decide whether to spend the next 3 or 4 years of your life there.. I spent one year on Campus at the University (at the top of the hill) and two years living in the town (which is situated at the bottom of a hill).

I am sure that a lot has changed since I left the University. I was however recently at the Town and nothing much seemed to have changed there since I left.

I will apologise that this will probably be quite a lengthy review, but there is quite a lot to say and I just love the place. Also I am concentrating on the Business Studies side of the University and the town itself. I do not think I am in a position to comment on other courses so will leave that to other people. If you do not want to read all the blurb about the place, then just fast forward / skip to the MY OPINIONS part which will tell you what I think of the place although you will miss a number of points that I have made.


About the University:

Ok, now I studied Business Studies which includes, Accountancy, Economics, Marketing and some Law. All in All the Lecturers were excellent and were extremely helpful.

A number of the Lecture Halls were quite old in my day, expecially the Economic Buildings, although the Accountancy Lecture Halls were the newest and best buildings. I believe that the New Business School has most of their lectures in the Newer sections, but am not certain.

Since I left they have created the Business School which has made itself a good reputation from what I hear.

One of the highlights of Aber Uni is that everything is so close together. All the lecture halls are within 10 minutes walk at the most and if you are living on Campus then you are at most 10 - 15 minutes away from all your lectures. If you are living in town then you have a 15 min walk uphill to get to your lectures (I must say that I have never been so fit in my life than when I used to walk up that hill 3 times a day).

I had on average about 18 hours of lectures and 4 - 6 hours of workshops a week when I was studying business studies so you were not exactly swamped with lectures.

The accomodation on Campus:

There are a number of different halls on Campus, Rendel which was an old all girls hall (now mixed) is quite nice. It is probably the most central of the Halls and closest to most of the Lecture Halls. TCE (Thomas Charles Edwards) Halls are probably the worst in my opinion. This is the section where they place those people who like to Party, play music and chill out. Rosser is a lovely Hall (but also one of the most expensive) they have excellent security where you cannot enter each building without a key and on suite showers (very good for single females who are concerned about security). The other Halls are all quite simular and cannot remember anything particular about them. I lived in Rendel and completely enjoyed myself there.

About the Town:

Now Aberystywth is quite a small town in and of itself. It has a population of around 13,500 and is situated in Ceredigion (a county of Wales) and can be found on the West Coast of Wales.

SHOPS:

It has one high street but it does have a number of shops on it. Shops like Monsoon, Argos, Boots, Burtons Menswear, Clinton Cards, Dolland & Atchinson, Laura Ashley, New Look, W H Smith and of course Woolworths are all available.

There is also now an Iceland, Somerfield and Safeway as well for your food shopping. NOTE these are all in the town itself, if you are living on campus (at the top of a hill about 15 min walk although you can get buses of course) then there is only really a CO-OP at the top of the Campus where you can get groceries. Otherwise you need to buy them in town and carry them up (or get a bus if you are prefer).

EATING OUT:

There are not that many places to eat out in Aberystywth town itself. There is of course Burger King in the centre and McDonalds out in the Retail Park (about 15 Minutes walk if I remember correctly). There are also a number of smaller diners in the town as well as numerous Fish & Chips, Chinese and Kebab places. For fast food no problem, for a nice quiet romantic meal then you would need to go out to one of the pubs in the surrounding area which are nice (You would need a car to go to these).

EVENING ENTERTAINMENT:

Now then, this is one section that I cannot say a lot about as I am not a big pub or club man. For factual information, there are about 65 pubs in Aberystywth alone. It was always said in the past that Aber has the most Pubs to Student Ratio in the UK. Whether this is true or not I am not sure. Basically what I am saying is that there are absolutely tons of Pubs to go to as well as the Student Union Bar and a number of clubs like Porky's (although no respecting student would ever go to Porky's in my day - mainly filled with 14 year olds from the town if I remember correctly) and The Pier (which was always packed).

Going from what other students said, Night Life in Aber was always good and they enjoyed themselves.

There is (was) also a cinema in Aber. It was in my day one of the last family owned cinemas in britain. It showed 1 film a week (with 2 showings if I remember correctly) as it only has one screen. The screen is large and it is a good cinema although as I have mentioned with no choice as to what you want to see.

The video shop that I used to use (which was on the pier) used to rent out video machines as well as videos which was quite useful for those of us with no Video machine but did have a TV. Doubt if this is such a problem anymore because Video machines are now so cheap, but back in 1995 they were still around £200 each which was beyond my student budget.

Accomodation in Town:

Now there are quite a number of student houses in the town and they do vary quite a lot in standards and quality. It is well worth looking early for a house if you can and check them and the landlords out a lot. I shared a house with 7 ohers and the house was OK. Some of my friends stayed in some really grotty places however. Thing to say here is that you get what you pay for. In my time the accomodation was not that expensive and you could get a decent place for a reasonable amount. If you wanted luxery then you had to pay for it.

SCENERY:

Now this is probably one of the best features of Aber. The university and the town are right on the sea. From the top of one of the Hills nearby (about a 15 - 20 minute walk up, you can see in Summer dolphins as they swim past the coast and round the cove.

There are a number of excellent places to go for walks in the area, the beaches are clean and are a nice place to swim in the summer.

Worth noting is that in the summer this is probably in my opinion one of the nicest places to be, although in winter it can be dark and very rainy.

MY OPINION:

OK, now as you might have gathered from above, I love this place. In the summer Aber Town is lovely, a beautiful place which I completely love. However in winter it gets very cold and wet. If you do not have a car, then Aber can get a little small. I did not have a car and some days I just longed to be able to get into a car and drive somewhere nice just to get out of this small place.

The University is good and I found the lectures in general interesting and enjoyable. Obviously you get the occaisional poor lecturer, but that is the same everywhere.

The town is OK now, when I first arrived at Aber there was no McDonalds, no Iceland, No Safeway, etc. Since then all these have been built allowing you much more options for shopping, especially food shopping.

Getting to and from Aber can be a pain. There is a railway station, but generally if I remember correctly you have to change at least once to get there. By car it is also a bit of a trek as it is for the last 90 odd minutes single winding lanes. Did not bother me too much as once I was there I stayed there for the term and did not leave until the holidays again. I used to use the National Express buses back and forth to London because I did not have to change - but it did use to take about 7 - 8 hours.

The scenary is excellent with great options for walking and viewing the area. If you have a car then I recommend you visit Devil's Bridge which is about 1 hours drive away from Aber. Should you need to get away and into a larger town then Chester is about a 2 hours drive away which gives you major large shops etc. This is a really good day out should you be feeling oppressed from Aber.

I personally found the people of Aber really nice. They are aware that they survive as a town on the students and are generally nice and friendly. It is very welsh however and you do hear a lot of welsh being spoken.

Now I go to Church regular and Aber has some excellent churches and something for just about everyone. The University had an excellent CU (Christian Union) in my day which was around 80 - 100 strong. I really recommend Aber should you be interested in a Uni with some good churches and a good CU.

Overall Verdict: 4 out of 5

Summary: Great Place