to ask you all for positive (or at least realistic) stories about Manchester/University Of Manchester?

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I’m panicking a bit about DD starting Uni in September. We’re from down south and the vibe feels so different up there. Not in a bad way at all, just very different. I know I’m seeing it through my middle-aged eyes, but I keep reading about the crime rates and the constant rain, and it’s making me anxious! Please help me see it in a more positive light. (I’m being upbeat with DD, but I’d like to actually feel that positivity myself.)

I went to Manchester University in 2007 and never left! It was a fantastic place to be a student and young person. I had to move an hour away three years ago, but I lived there happily for 15 years and didn’t want to leave.

Yes there is crime my boyfriend now DH was mugged in the student area and also my DB twice in a week quite violently. You have to be careful as in any city. I remember saying goodbye to my DH on the street and someone stole my handbag from the house within a few seconds?!

Birmingham and London are the same. I am sure your DD will be fine but to say it is all rosy is not the truth at all. I will be honest that my DD did not want to go to any 'gritty' cities for Uni and most of her DFs have chosen Unis that are a bit quieter and have lower crime rates.

Another who came to Manchester uni in 1995 and still here 30 years later! Originally from central London and just didn’t want to return.
My eldest is considering Manchester for their degree as well now.

Having said that it did rain for the entire of the first term and I said I wasn’t going back…but I did!

No, uncertainty about the unknown is quite reasonable! I came to Manchester from a rural area 25 years ago- uh oh, nearer 30… and I never left. I remember walking down Oxford Rd clutching my purse like imminent mugging was a certainty, but I never had a problem. Yes, our house was efficiently and politely ransacked in final year but doors have locks for a reason… we learned to use them even when nipping to the pub for a quick pint.
I feel antsy when visiting London just because it’s unfamiliar, but I work in one of the ‘roughest’ areas of Manchester and I really value the people there, they treat people well. If students are considerate and respectful then they’ll experience this in return.

Both my kids went to Manchester and loved it. One loved it so much she’s never come home!
Yes, they have to be careful like they would in every other city but it’s rammed with students and there’s always something going on. She will have a fab time.

I'm from Manchester and went to Manchester University.

When I went back to the city centre for work I was shocked how it has changed- much more upmarket than it used to be. The Northern Quarter for example is really trendy it used to be just deserted and pretty rough. The city centre is great, lots of upmarket shops and you can walk to the campus easily, which is one of the beauties of Manchester, its all walkable. It's a Russell.Group University so one of the top universities in the UK. It's huge with a massive student union and loads of bars/ restaurants on site. It's vibrant.

There are some shocking areas of Manchester of course that I'd probably choose to avoid, but that's the case in any big city.

I’ve lived in Manchester for 12 years and it’s fantastic. It has the same issues as any large city - yes there’s homelessness, drug use, some crime (although I’ve never, not once, been a victim of it). The only place I’ve ever felt slightly unsafe is the area around Piccadilly Gardens in the city centre.

I imagine it’s a brilliant place to be a student. There’s certainly a huge student population and loads going on.

I am from the Home Counties and went to uni in a different, smaller Northern city. I’m sure my DM - never knowingly north of the Watford Gap - felt as you do, but I loved it.

That said, I lived in Manchester for 10 years after graduation and still own a house there. It is the most emphatically ugly city I have ever visited, has little of any architectural merit, is horribly polluted and grubby (seemingly with a worse litter problem than comparable cities), the traffic is dire and it’s exceedingly dicey in places. (A colleague was stabbed outside a bar in my first week at my graduate job, which coloured my view on relative safety!) It has changed a great deal recently, but as far as I can see, that mainly involves building hundreds of tower blocks of cheap-looking flats that block out what scarce light breaks through the cloud. Electric buses no doubt help with the pollution, but they don’t get you down Oxford Rd any quicker.

BUT, it’s just horses for courses, not a north v south issue. I still live in the North, in a place that is more beautiful and affordable than anywhere in the overpopulated Home Counties. My time in Manchester allowed me to get on the housing ladder in a way that wouldn’t have been possible if I had gone home. It’s also got its own student eco-system, so no doubt very appealing to young people like your DD, and lots of facilities.

Manchester is also one of the top unis for targeting by large employers.
www.aheadachiever.com/news-and-blog/top-uk-universities-preferred-by-leading-employers-for-graduate-recruitment-in-2024

Surely that would have been the winter term so not entirely unexpected?

Manchester is such a great city. I had the opportunity to go a few times a year when i lived in the UK, as I worked on a couple of projects there. I wish I had made the most of it and explored the music scene in particular, like gone to Warehouse Project or Park Life festival, or just went ‘out out’ more instead of only to restaurants and bars. I think it would be an absolutely fantastic place to be a student.

It has barely rained in months!! It’s a great city to be a student in I think. Loads going on and millions of other students to mingle with.

Are we talking about the same city?!

Oh, come on. We haven't burnt a witch in weeks and we're planning to get that new-fangled electricity once the latest scrofula epidemic is over.

I loved living in the city in my 20s, adored it and thrived. 25 years later it has a different, darker feel but that might just be me that’s changed, not the city itself. If she keeps her wits about (phone, bag, taxis etc) she’ll have a ball!

Ah, the rain 😆

I don’t mind that, except if it’s also windy, which is less frequent!

“Not in a bad way at all”…lists bad ways and asks how to view it in a positive light…

Is your daughter made of sugar? If not she will be fine.

I was a student there in the late 70s so can contribute nothing useful about modern Manchester. I can vouch for the rain though. I'd never seen anything like it. My first term it rained every day, literally every single day. Make sure your DC has a really good coat!

Nothing like a snobbish Southerner to be so blatantly Northernist! Honestly OP, how did you even have the nerve to post your opinion of Manchester! You must be the most ghastly mother imaginable - wait until you see your DD's choice of life partner..........it might be someone from even further North.
PS this is tongue in cheek.....

Are you from Liverpool or Leeds?

First term October upto Xmas,?
Is rain such a surprise in winter?
Honestly it's not thst bad i have loved in Greater Manchester my entire life .

The weather honestly was a surprise to a student who'd grown up mostly in London. Manchester has nearly double the rainfall of London. I'd thought a huge amount about courses but not about weather. I'm not dissing Mancunian life and culture, I was there nearly 50 years ago so I'm sure it's changed. I am saying a student needs a good raincoat.
I'm glad you like the city you live in.

Manchester is not the UK's wettest city. The west of the UK does tend to be wetter than the east. This is at least partially due to the effing big mountain range down the middle of the country.