Lancaster Uni - honest views please

[BCBG]

Looking for feedback on Lancaster Uni from people who know it/have studied there please. My DC has an offer for law - having visited I was struck by the fact that almost every student in the subject talk (when the lecturer asked) came from less than an hour's drive away. DC would be more than five hours away from home. Not in its self a problem as siblings were at uni in the North of England, but is Lancaster Uni really as dynamic and outward looking as it claims - or is it more regional in vision and approach? Curious to hear other perspectives - thank you

I was a student there not so long ago and in my first flat I had people from London, Yorkshire, China and Spain! It is a proper multi cultural university. I think it just won International University of the year as well My course had lots of students from across the UK and Europe also.

My ds is there now studying law. He's in first year at County college and loving it. We are less than an hour away but his flat mates are from all over. Seems to be quite a few from the Midlands and Wales, and one from Devon.

Maybe more students these days are trying to minimize their debts by living with their parents?

I went to Lancaster University in the 1990s and loved it. I had friends from all over the country and indeed the world. In my flat there were students from Belgium, Spain, Iran and Greece.

Very dynamic and very outward looking! It’s a gem of a university in a gorgeous little town with easy links to the rest of the North of England plus Scotland. Staff there are excellent.

I taught there for a bit (moving away was for other reasons than professional) and still miss living and working there.

And as for your sense of it being regional - maybe think about it like this - it’s great that there’s a world class university that young people from the Mirth can attend and afford to attend. Instead of having to go south.

When I taught there we had a lot of students from north wales and from across the North. If you’re not a northerner you might not understand that we like living in the North and don’t see that as having a “regional vision”. Does a university like exeter (mostly students from Surrey so the joke goes) have only a regional vision?

I’d your DC liked it then seriously think about lancaster. It’s a fantastic undergrad experience at a top ten in the UK university

I don't know about the proportion of local to non local UK students. I teach there occasionally and there are lots of Asian students. I'm not sure what courses they do but as a parent I would be looking at the percentage of overseas students on the courses in question. They tend to stick together and spoken English is sometimes limited.

Dolorabelle no unintended slight I promise! I completely agree that Exeter felt very Home Counties/London-based student body and I think DD is wanting to get away from that. It's just that her ambitions are towards international and human rights law so when they were talking about graduate employability and work placements it was hard to work out how broad based the outcomes were. Not sure I'm making sense. But DD loves it I think - and personally I would move North tomorrow so...!

My DH is originally from Devon he loved it when he visited and that's where he did his degree (good few years ago now!) made some of his best friends there and he would recommend it to anyone

Human rights law is ludicrously competitive. Not sure Lancaster will cut it as Barristers who specialise in this area of law are often Oxbridge. It’s just a fact of life. Solicitors are more evenly distributed but where does she intend to work? And in what role and who for? Government lawyers would not be so competitive but she needs a fall back position. How many lawyers from Lancaster actually go on and work in this field?

A decent test would be to look at the top human rights Barristers chambers and see where the Barristers’ degrees are from. Look at Kirsty Brimelow QC and the Bar Human Rights Committee for info.

They tend to stick together and spoken English is sometimes limited

Is it any wonder they "stick together" when people think it's OK to make comments like that.

Lancaster itself is lovely. Very diverse and.safe.

A lot do commute to uni these days as it's cheaper 💁🏻‍♀️ but people still.come from allover the world to study and live there.

The DC I personally know there shared a first year halls flat with students from the US and China. Absolutely loves it there. Admittedly the DC falls into the 90 minute radius, but also has made friends across the UK.

Human rights law is ludicrously competitive. Not sure Lancaster will cut it as Barristers who specialise in this area of law are often Oxbridge

I suspect that if that is the case, it's because mummy and daddy can finance them through the unpaid internships. There is no reason to think Lancaster doesn't "cut it".

Being a barrister is hideously competitive whichever university you went to. Becoming a solicitor isn't much better.

But there's a lot you can do with a law degree and 3 years is a decent length of time to decide what that might be for you.

When I went to uni I was 2 hours from home by car. Not everyone wants to go miles away and have expensive journeys home

That is absolutely not true! Kirsty Brimelow who I mentioned is state school educated and from Lancashire. She went to Birmingham university. There are generous scholarships for the best trainee Barristers and wealth of parents, or lack of it m, is besides the point as Barristers do not do internships.

There are league tables for top solicitor firms and Barristers. It is true that university counts. Someone wanting a career in this field would be mad not to look into what is required. However wealth isn’t it!

Any other opinions on Lancaster? DD liked the look of it when she visited but thinks she would prefer a larger city. Is there enough going on? And I know it does well in the rankings but is its present reputation deserved?

Reading with interest as DS has just firmed Lancaster with an unconditional offer for Computer Science so is off here in September.

DS loved the campus and was specifically looking for a campus uni with a safe village feel. He was not bothered about nightclubs as he is more of pub person and we only live 15 mins from Liverpool so if he wants a "big night out" he can have that when home.

I live near Lancaster. I don't know much about the university, but the city itself is not very... vibrant imo. Maybe it's different as a student.

There is plenty of pub/club nightlife. Theatre x 2. What sort of night life are you looking for?

I went to Lancaster (graduated 2003). I did modern languages. I enjoyed it but was ready to leave by the end as I had definitely outgrown the city and campus. And I actually chose it because I didn't want a big city.

I went to Lancaster and absolutely loved it.

However in the last year, if you don't have a car, etc it is limited. I remember feeling quite bored and desperate to leave in the end, but the first two years were incredibly fun.

The town is run down and offers limited entertainment or opportunities to work. I did work in a bar etc but that was pretty much all available and I was lucky as supply far outstripped demand!

Barristers do not do internships

Yes they do - mini-pupillages. Which are not usually paid. Placements with law firms usually are paid. Scholarships are few and far between.

And plenty of people do internships with human rights organisations and NGOs. I have heard of Kirsty Brimelow. And you can have rich parents and still go to state school.

Mini pupillages are typically 3-5 days. Not summer internships. Scholarships are awarded by the Inns of Court to the students most likely to succeed at the Bar. If you don’t get one, then you know where you stand in the pecking order!

DS spent a week there in the summer on a cyber first course. He didnt like the campus, said it felt quite isolated and he hated the constant drone of the M6.
He thought Lancaster itself didnt have much going on.
All depends what you are looking for I guess.

DD wasn't keen on Lancaster for the same reasons that Serin's DS didn't like it. She went to Newcastle and loves it.

We live rurally so she didn't want to go anywhere that felt isolated, even tough the "isolation" in Lancaster's case was only a couple of miles. She hated York and Warwick for the same reasons.

Well it gets good reports generally on this mumsnet site, and some of DS's friends have gone there and are enjoying it.

No, no, no. Exeter far superior. Lancaster is....just no.