How did you find the uni?
I will probably delete. I joined around 2022, it was a last minute application that I put in at 8 pm. It felt like a miracle as I had managed to mess up my previous applications (international student and had issues with visa timelines). A uni still open after all the others? That's great I thought...
Don't get me wrong the uni did have some ups, the teaching was pretty good, the campus was clean and safe and I liked the level of support given in some areas such as mental health etc.
However, I found some aspects to be very cold? I remember learning about how the uni has a lot of brutalist architecture and it felt like this translated towards the attitude around the campus. I never made much of any personal connections with the lecturers and they seemed mostly uninterested. I arrived a couple of weeks late and never really made any friends, despite going to every possible SU event (expect clubbing) specifically made for people to meet. I also was very active in the SU itself as well as other areas. During a meeting one student once stated that they too felt like there was no one in the Uni which shocked me because I thought I was alone. The uni was pretty dead to me.
Another area of major complaint was the lack of classes, academic support and any competitiveness. I got my degree (barely because my final year was like an electric boogaloo) but even during the awards ceremony I was shocked to hear of things I had never heard of before like certain awards. Now, I know to some extent some things you habe to go and look for yourself but I did every possible thing to add to my resume but never knew these were a possibility. I felt like the tutors and even lecturers were super laid back on this area and there was no real guidance on how you could enhance your qualification. In fact, during my final year my lecturers seemed to just switch off and weren't very helpful. My tutor in particular was very dismissive about my questions and concerns. For some reason the uni axed it's internship program half way through despite doing interviews which I felt was really weird knowing how awful the job market is. Some people even had offers. Then, about the academic support.
My sponsor/parent was always pissed when I would tell her just how few classes we had. In the first year it was decent but by the second things slowed down. I have a very hands on course (STEM/Science) and repeatedly complained about the lack of practical experience and these people just simply told us the IT practicals (which are not as essential to our field at all) were the practicals. We had very minimal training which played a big role in how my final year (dissertation) went. For context, we would learn a skill just once during a practical and that would be it, this includes us only practicing writing a real paper once and then we had to do it in our dissertation with only one chance to actually practice anything. It felt a whole lot more like the uni only cared for the money it was getting (especially from int. students), not about the students (especially international students). It's not a degree mill but almost one.
Idk if I could go back in time, I would have just chosen a different uni. I know it was stupid to just go with whatever uni was available but the uni does present woth good ranking and reviews. I was wondering if this was just isolated or if other peoplw felt the same way? My advice to others (especially int.) is to go to a cheaper uni (typically lower ranked but not that low, like not below 80) that really cares about training because that matters much more for STEM.