Are Smaller Unis More Nuturing? Your experiences please

[Goldenfigs]

At the beginning of looking at Unis for a shy socially awkward DS.

Which Unis have been nurturing and offer nowhere to hide. I am worried that my DS will just stay in his room, make no friends and not go out.

He seems fine but I must admit I don't understand him at all so trying to pick a nurturing uni so he becomes more social and confident.

thanks in advance

It might be worth looking at student satisfaction tables. Not sure how to link to them, but lots come up if you Google it. The Guardian one is quite comprehensive.

I would disagree and say go big. The bigger the uni, the more likely he will find likeminded people as there will be more groups and clubs. What does he like doing? My uni was a massive campus one but with clubs from orienteering and rambling, to gaming, religious, amazing orchestra and choir, sports, ballet, musical theatre, all sorts! I was in halls where everything was catered so I had to meet others. I had a shared bathroom with one other person. Didn't want sharing with loads and thought ensuite too isolating. It was great.

We also had a questionnaire prior to accomidation allocation asking if we wanted to be with other students on our course and whether we were night owls or early birds etc

I was going to say a collegiate university too. Like @KingdomScrolls I went to a large Bailey college at Durham and despite being quiet and shy when I got there it suited me perfectly, with pastoral tutor support and two pools of students to make friends with, college and department.

York!!!

The collegiate system and the styks and styms are amazing.

They don't let anyone hide in their rooms, freshers week was so great (pre pandemic this is)

Colleges are homely and each one us quite small

Highly recommend it

I should also add that my daughter is shy and is neuro- atypical too.
She's had a great time at York.

Try for big university, small course, perhaps. Best of both worlds for shy students.

Make sure he's passionate about it. Mostly agree lecturers won't work on his social life directly, but do see if he'll have a personal tutor. Is there a society related to the course. Are there field trips. Who teaches the first years, and are there small group classes.

He only needs a few good friends, so agree following his passion should be a priority.

Cardiff Metropolitan University? It has two campuses. I'd say pastoral care was excellent.

It's interesting that some posters don't think it's a University's job to be nurturing.
We met with a friend a few years ago - who's a Professor at Stanford and he'd just been given this role - to look after the new students - they had recognised that their incredibly bright students were increasingly unable to cope with socialising and looking after themselves and needed someone to help them adjust - he was struggling to remember whether that was something that had changed over the years or whether society was just recognising it more - anyway, they did see it as their job. Maybe you need to pay $50k a year to get that kind of support!