University of Plymouth
speciality: Earth & Marine Sciences

I began my degree in marine biology and coastal ecology officially in 2016 upon completing a foundation year in 2015 at the University of Plymouth (UoP). Firstly I would say that the foundation year felt unnecessary, however I had to complete it as my A-level in biology was slightly below the expected to let me straight on to my course. I didn’t feel as if I learned much during the foundation year, so I spent most of my time pre-reading for the degree to get ahead of the game.

Then I started my degree. The first year was a harsh introduction in to statistical analysis. This element of the course is dominant but necessary to complete the whole course! The teachers will drill the use of R statistical programming in to you for good reason.

The tutors are very passionate and engaging about their chosen specialisms, and of course like any course, some are drier than others (some topics cannot be taught in a interesting way). I would also say that the tutors are all very engaged in active research and this became more and more apparent to me. I felt as though the course is very much designed to set you up to go in to a career in research. I myself never saw myself going that way so I made an effort to look at careers early to gauge how easy it might be to transition in to said career after finishing my degree. That would be my biggest pointer, always think what next?

The course had an interesting selection of modules in addition to the compulsory ones, with varying types of assessment, ranging from written exams, coursework, presentations, scientific poster display etc.

The campus is a little dated in areas but I think it is what you make of it. There is enough going on in the city and in the student union to keep you busy and blow off some steam.

In summary, looking back I possibly would choose a different course in hindsight, but only because I felt that it was research centric. With that being said taking this course taught me a lot and led to a lot of self development.

Plymouth is set in a great location where you have a mix of city life and nature. It is a 10 minute walk from the campus to the sea and a short drive to Dartmoor National Park which is stunning. It is also right next to cornwall which has great towns and beaches to explore. I felt like the University definetly puts a lot of effort into engaging all students in other aspects of university life and not just the degree. This includes societies, career help, mental health advice and socialising. I had a great deal of support whenever I reached out to these different areas. The only issues I found with the University in some cases was the lack of communication. Especially during COVID when students has questions that needed to be answered we would sometimes be left in radio silence. This was particularly for my course however some other faculties had better communication. I understand that COVID was a bad time for all universities but I felt especially unsupported by my lectureres during this time. We missed out on a great deal of class time, field trips abroad and practical lesson which were never made up for. Instead we were continually told that they could do nothing at all about our loss of learning and our fees were still to be paid. Overall, Plymouth is a great location and I believe that if it had not been for COVID my time at Plymouth would have been most enjoyable. I would like to also highlight how great the career services are and how many opportunites they had to help me gain access to more than just my degree.