UoB is an extremely diverse and welcoming university with a beautiful campus. Provides students with the best environment to succeed and offers consistent support. After nearly 3 years of studying at this university, I can confidently say that I would not have wanted to study anywhere else but here.

The University of Birmingham represented a break from my past tradition of academic failure. The university gave me a chance where other universities did not.

Firstly, I enjoyed my Joint Honours course greatly and believe I benefitted from the dual degree. The ability to immerse myself in two subjects at once was something I shall forever appreciate. I was able to gain experience from both colleges as well as work experience that I took full advantage of, bouncing from NGO support to history lessons in the Black Country. The campus itself was stunning, providing a positive learning experience in the heart of Birmingham.

Issues did however present themselves throughout my 2nd year. The well-being team within my department (College of Social Sciences) did not account for lost hours due to strikes or illness. This affected me greatly due to my debilitating health anxiety and generalised anxiety disorder. Also, while I support strike action and understand that it is a nationwide phenomenon, the university seemed reluctant to institute support for students and left many in the dark regarding coursework and exams. This was a clear violation of what was promised within our syllabus. Furthermore, due to this university being within the Russell Group, many people from privileged backgrounds attended the institution. This critique is more of a personal one as I found the culture clash to be immense once out of the lockdown years.

Overall my experience was mixed but definitely something that I would do again if I had the chance. The people I met and the life experiences I gained are invaluable and can never be replaced.

I thought, in many aspects, my course was strongly devised and inspiring. Unfortunately, it felt all too easy to become lost amongst a lack of contact hours, and lack of necessity or incentive to actually do work.
For all second year modules, there was only one assessment. This went against the claim made prior to joining that progressive, and interesting forms of assessments were a part of the course – rather than traditional essays and exams. Unfortunately, the majority of this promise was not delivered upon (and not delivered upon at all in second year). Only a select few modules had assessments past the traditional essays, which I know a number of my peers did not find in any way to bring out the best in them. Additionally to this, it felt like any complaints, no matter how many people would make them, would simply be deflected to different departments and ultimately end up lost in a sea of bureaucracy.
This being said, I did find the lecturers to be passionate and inspiring and willing to give advice and further discussion where needed.

The university has a great environment for students to aspire to achieve the best possible results. The combination of beautiful campus and modern facility’s provides an excellent basis to reach your full potential and builds an extensive drive for success. Alongside this, the course i am currently enrolled in, is fantastic and whilst topics pose difficulties the lecturers and seminar leads constantly strive to provide the best support to allow for the best understanding of the topic for all students.

This department is not only full of expert academics, but with professors that actually care about seeing you succeed. They are comprehensive in help students get the most out of their university experience, and are always on top of well-being of students! Even with challenges as daunting as the dissertation, they are kind and informative support even before the final year. This one of the few universities to place decolonisation studies not only at the forefront of the curriculum, but also a mandatory lesson for all politics students. Overall, this is the best department to grown as a political scientist and a student.

Overall, I’ve enjoyed my time at Birmingham. The campus looks fantastic, they recently inaugurated the new “green heart,” and there are excellent on-campus dining options. Sports facilities, particularly those related to hockey and football, have been excellent. The instructors and tutors on my course have been excellent, and it has been simple for me to select the things that interest me. There aren’t many hours in class, which is good for me as I prefer to study on my own time, but when there are, the lectures and seminars are focused and direct. There are several resources available for career support and essay guidance.

I really enjoyed my time at Birmingham. I love how connected the student area was to the university. If you stay in Selly Oak, you are only ever a max walk of 30 mins from uni. In which you past all the shops on the way. I know with some other universities the main student area can be a bus ride away from campus or can be quite diverse in that it’s common to live next to families. I found families were the anomalies in Selly Oak. But also the train station means that if you decide to stay in Selly Park you have the option to jump on that to get to uni and also be in town within 10 minutes.

There is a variety of first-year accommodation however I did find that it was quite expensive unless you went for something very outdated.

The campus is really easy to navigate around and very ascetically pleasing! They also offer a really good student job opportunities on campus through Work Link. It pays really well and has a variety of roles all suited around your degree.

Plus the nightlife is great with a variety of options.