To start off, academically, the University is good at providing resources. With a vast library located on campus, students are given 24-hour access to extensive resources. You can also use the library online and access journals and articles. The lectures themselves are pretty good. They always encourage students to email them if they have any queries, and the seminar groups allow them to build a closer relationship with lecturers to ask questions.

What lets the University down is the social, environmental, and financial aspects. Norwich itself is a quiet city, but there are many shops; however, the University is an hour away by walking, and buses are limited and stop running at 11 pm. As you can imagine, if you like shopping lots, you are limited to the expensive on-campus Spar shop, which sells items for triple the amount, and on-campus cafes, which close at 6 pm. After 6, everything is practically dead unless you go to the Bar, which is again overpriced and overcrowded and gets mundane after a few visits. After living on campus for a while, there isn’t much to do, and all the events die down around winter, leading to my other point. Univeristy lonlieness.

It’s a common issue in many universities to feel lonely, but this uni in particular, due to the lack of economically friendly activities as the sports are highly overpriced, you’re left stuck in your room or in the library for the most part. It would help if you could walk out of campus and browse through cafes, shops or independent businesses. Still, you are stuck living in a residential area unless you take a 30-minute bus ride to the city, which, again, everything closes around 6, so once you’re done with lectures, there is nothing to do.

Financially, it is incredibly overpriced for it to be one of the smaller cities in England. With the nearest supermarket, Aldi, being a 40-minute walk with no buses, you’re left to use the on-campus shop again. Additionally, the uni accommodations are so overpriced for what you get. Having lived in Crome Court, one of the fancier accommodations, I found there to be little to no storage space for food, a very uncomfortable dining table, and almost hospital-like decor that makes you feel like you are in an asylum, with all that costing £200 per week. There are no jobs on campus, so you have to apply a year in advance for the next school year.

For my recommendations, they need to add more activities all year round. When I first started, there was a tent with free cinema nights for people to join and mingle. After two weeks, it was taken down. If they were to continue that all year it would first add more job availability for students to manage. Create a third space for people to chat and create a sense of community.

Another recommendation is to start introducing more shops on campus. They could partner with independent businesses to have small shops for food,books, clothing, etc.