Nottingham Trent or Swansea

[twosoups1972]

Dd's first choice of university is Birmingham. She wants to put down a safe choice for her insurance which is either Nottingham Trent or Swansea. Unfortunately she missed the Open Days so hasn't seen either.

Her course in English Lit + Lang. Does anyone have any experience of these universities in terms of the course, the university itself and the city? Many thanks.

I taught at NTU. The campus (Clifton) is a couple of miles from the city and not very lively. The city itself has plenty going though, a good place to be a student.
I wasn't particularly impressed by the students at NTU, they were not committed or inspired in any sense. They were the reason I left. That was a while ago though.

Have you compared contact hours?

Dd is quite quiet and not into drinking/clubbing so a quieter environment would probably suit her. Is there a bus into the city fafoutis?

Probably Swansea.

• Higher in the league tables for English.
• By the seaside.
• Not currently having a mumps outbreak (as far as we know).

Has she loked into accommodation? There is literally no accommodation left at NTU! My DS has just (with regret) had to turn it down because of this. This is City campus, mind.

I have sent many students over the years to NTU and all have been very happy.

A former colleague of mine did Enlgish at Swansea and liked it. Are there offers the same? Swansea definitely has the better reputation for English.

Ps Both cities are great. Regular buses (and trams!) into Nottingham from Clifton. I did my PGCE at Nottingham Uni. Great city to be a student.

My DD loves Nottingham Trent.

There is still accommodation left in private halls but you'll have to be quick (her friend booked a room in the glasshouse today)

The room in The Glasshouse literally became available yesterday (I know because I phoned them up : they are used to me by now!) so the friend was lucky! Last week, Glasshouse was 'fully booked'. I just couldn't stomach these risks with my own DS!

Obviously OP's DD will want Clifton.

Swansea is a great uni, everyone I know who went there loved it and did well. Seaside, small city centre, mountains, reasonable public transport, low cost of living, new campus, lots of new student accomodation being built. Train station in the centre, easy M4 access to Cardiff and beyond, ditto excellent train connections. And also good connections to west wales. (I am biased, I live here, we moved back around 5 years ago and wouldn't want to leave again)

Swansea is incredible! I studied English there and it's a great size to get to know lots of people, is mainly campus based, very easy and cheap to travel, good shops, bars and a beach on your doorstep. Good live music scene, great sports clubs and weekends can also be spent exploring award winning beaches in the Gower or for more bustle head into Cardiff. Absolutely the best choice ;) cheap accommodation relative to lots of other universities!

A friend of mine is doing a PHD at Trent. I think she feels the same about the quality of some of the students. I deal with Uni of students in my line of work as well. And I agree. Nottingham massively student orientated, somewhat to the detriment of everything else.

NTU does have a city centre campus as well as Clifton

It does but English is at Clifton.

NTU has a 'party uni' reputation!

I went to Swansea many years ago and loved it so much that I ended up up living there for a few years afterwards.

Small city but plenty to do yet small enough to get around easily. The Gower coast is beautiful. Cardiff is great and only a short train ride away.

Does your DD like sport? NTU Clifton has lots of that.

Yes, English is at Clifton. There is a lot of good student accommodation on the campus.
The English lecturers are good, but they have quite a distant relationship with students.

Thank you, she's deferring for a year so accommodation not an issue. She's not sporty but is a keen dancer so a good dance society would be a bonus.

Dance is popular at Clifton campus. It seems to be most days of the week.

Don't know Swansea but Nottingham is a great city for students. Big enough to offer everything a city should but quite compact and friendly too. There is the other university too, so lots of students but a big enough city that they don't overwhelm and there are other things going on.

If you have the time / budget I'd highly advise visiting both to really get a feel. Ideally stay the night and see the uni, suss the halls, the transport, the local shops etc. She will get a good vibe about one of them more than the other

That's good advice, especially since you have a deferred entry so no huge rush. They are very different. My DS hated Swansea on a visit day (for which I blame the [Welsh!] GPs) and liked NTU the most of anywhere he went.

Also, the courses are actually really dissimilar, so she needs to consider the modules.

Where else did she apply? I'd be tempted to go for a less safe option than Swansea and Nottingham Trent, especially if she is planning to defer for a year.

If she doesn't make her Birmingham grades, she can apply next year to places, safe that she will get offers from any university whose standard offer she meets or exceeds, and she will have plenty of time to visit them.

Swansea is great, my DS is there, there are a huge number of clubs and societies and good facilities. Singleton Campus to an Olympic sized swimming pool. I think English is on Singleton which has it's own cinema, museum, shops and lots of activities and halls on site. They have built a lot of new halls, so you don't have the problem of insurance students ending up with poor or no university accommodation. My DS went there as insurance and got new en-suite halls. Lectures are recorded, contact hours are high and student support seems good. The city itself is small enough to walk around but large enough that everything is there. There is a great market where several stalls do student packs of assorted meat etc. There is a quite large student population and the bus services, bike lanes and bike hire scheme are geared up to them. We do enjoy our visits there (my DD enjoys shopping in Swansea). I have heard it's good for English (but this isn't my son's subject) I don't know much about NTU , so I'll leave that up to others! I would suggest that your daughter contacts the English dept there and asks if she can come and visit. My DS did this and had a meeting with the admissions tutor followed by a guided tour by one of the PhD students

We went to open days at both.

Much preferred Swansea but we would have been on the bay campus which is lovely.

Wasn't impressed by NTU at all but Nottingham itself is great.

Bay campus at Swansea and Clifton campus at ntu are chalk and cheese. Dd thought NTU Clifton campus was too much like her current 6th form! Swansea bay campus was much more impressive

Singleton Campus has a mixture of old and new buildings. Not shiny spanking new like Bay, but lively, welcoming and attractive, walkways over the road to the beach too. It really feels like how you would expect a uni Campus to feel! We visited Singleton with yr 12 DD so I've seen both, as DS is on Bay.

NTU just awarded Guardian University of the Year. If this means anything I don't know