What are Leeds, York, Notts, Newcastle & Birmingham Universities and cities like? No open days = no clue!

[Notdonna]

DD yr12 and all open days cancelled. We haven’t done much UK travel and don’t know the cities at all that DD has on her list. So if anyone has an insight to Birmingham, Leeds, York, Newcastle, Nottingham - the cities and their unis it’d be very much appreciated. Huge thanks!

What’s the subject?
I know well Leeds, Birmingham, notts and a little of York too
All fab unis but quite different
Leeds has international acclaim and a really good diversity as a city and student population, good links with industry and plentiful affordable accommodation. It’s walking distance to city but campus which is well equipped.
Notts is similar but smaller, city not as nice imo
Birmingham is trad Redbrick beautiful campus, narrower subjects offered. A Fab city centre, but most students focus on life outside of city between campus and selly oak
York & arwick both 60s campus, out of town, less diverse, very public school and international student population Pre COVID, accommodation is less plentiful but more uni based than others.
York is beautiful but it’s a much much smaller and very different experience to others.
Warwi k isn’t in Warwick but between lem8ngton and Cov. Some good industry links with JLR etc
Also consider distance from home as it’s rotten if you can’t afford to ever visit if you wanted to or if it’s 500 miles away...
If it was something like law or medicine I’d choose Leeds notts or Birmingham
If creative I’d choose notts or Leeds
If it’s core read stuff history etc York or Warwick

York is NOT very public school. It has almost the highest state school intake fro an English Russell Group Uni. tbh I think that is why some MNers aren't keen

Crikey! Seems all 5 are well thought of. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. No negatives?

@WingingWonder I’m really surprised York is more international than the others.
That’s interesting piggy re York and a good thing too!
@MarchingFrogs she’s registered her ‘interest’ in the universities but hasn’t received any open day info at all. She said today that nothing was advertised in the websites either, albeit I’m not sure when she last looked, so thanks for the heads up. I’ll ask her to re check the uni websites and look in her spam!
The course she’s looking at is incredibly similar content & teaching methods & exam wise at each of these universities. So it’s about support, decent library, pastoral care, careers advice and access to those things.

University of York or York Saint John's?

I visited the uni of York campus a few years ago and hated it - it was a bit untidy (like beer/wine bottles dotted about, duck poo all over, lots of flies). It has a whopping big lake in the middle that has a lot of ducks/geese which I didn't care for.

The accommodation was also extremely basic, especially for the price. The campus is also quite large!

The city is lovely though, a proper mix of old buildings (the Shambles are fantastic - little streets lined with small shops!), museums, big name shops, and culture.

I know it's not on your list but I'm at Sunderland uni and if you want any info, I'm happy to help.

Some are campuses, Newcastle is right there, in the city centre. Right next door to Northumbria.

It's almost 30 years since I last visited York campus and it was pristine then! They had obviously ordered a tidy up!

I was really disappointed. I'd really wanted to go there and when I visited the campus, I really didn't like it.

My dd in Y12 is joining virtual online open days , Birmingham is today (Monday) . They are not ideal but are helping her narrow down her list .

Birmingham: A large Campus, within a City. Some lovely facilities. A lot more greenery than people who haven't been to Birmingham expect. (On campus, but also throughout large swathes of the City). Birmingham has trees everywhere and nearly 600 parks and green spaces managed by the parks departments. There is a train line into the City Centre (two stops) and the station is in the middle of the University. Med school on the same site. The area students live in 2nd and 3rd year is a real student area with bars, food places, and practical stuff like supermarkets. Buses every 4 mins or so into the City Centre too. The City Cetnre is also a lot nicer than most people who have never been, expect.

Leeds : I haven't been but my dd really liked it.

York : 1960s purpose built campus, just on the outskirts of the City. City is obviously beautiful and full of tourists but still have enough affordable shops, pubs etc for folk that live there. Being a small, historic, walled City, although the Uni is on the outskirts, you can walk into the Centre. Much of the Accommodation is on campus but they now also have another student village with more accommodation. When we looked round they made quite a thing of it being collegiate - don't know how that impacts particularly as the course didn't suit dd when she looked closer.

Newcastle - never been

Nottingham : I really liked. Another quite spacious, quite green campus within a City. A tram takes you into the City centre - about 20mins trip. City centre looked nice - lots of shopping and night life, plus major sports grounds etc, like Birmingham (good for jobs). The med school (where a variety of courses happen, not just medicine) isn't so green - seems to be split over a major road. I came away with a really nice 'feel' for Nottingham, but my dd said 'there was nothing wrong with it, but I just didn't get that 'feel' ??

Don't know if that helps. dd is at the end of Yr 13 so we did our tours only last Autumn.

A university is often chosen as particularly good for certain subjects.

Warwick is a lovely campus and has its own Arts Centre. It is situated outside of Coventry. There are shuttle buses that go to and fro. I went there and loved it. It is particularly good for Maths and Business.

Birmingham is a nice campus and is in the city. There is lots of student accommodation available and in second and third year students live off campus and in houses. Cost of living is quite cheap in student living areas. Lots to do in and around Birmingham.

Nottingham is also nice. There is a high student culture in Nottingham as they have 2 unis; Nottingham and Nottingham Trent and also. Nottingham is a smaller city with the lace market. Parking is expensive.

What subject does dc want to study op?

This is all incredibly helpful especially as the online open days are when she’s in school (support or online lessons) & the virtual tours are a bit lacking for obvious reasons. A shame they couldn’t have pre recorded some open day sessions to watch after 4pm.

Just thought Birmingham has Grand Central railway station which is very large and buses are very frequent too. Public transport is excellent in Birmingham.

Warwick has lots of International students.

The DC I know at Glasgow loves the City, though found it a bit big at first. Very spread out, uni accommodation was over half an hour's walk away the first year. Pastoral care not great IE non existent in their experience.

Newcastle is interesting. It’s a stag and hen destination. Go into the city centre on a Friday and Saturday night and the place is heaving with large groups of scantily clad (whatever the weather) young people out drinking. Much falling over and vomiting, police and paramedics kept busy. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Week nights and days, it’s a different city, excellent for shops, bars, places to eat, cultural attractions, interesting buildings. Easy to get to attractive seaside as well e.g. Tynemouth, which is lovely.

Nottingham main campus is attractive and set in a nice green park. The city, IMO, has less going for it than Newcastle in terms of historical architecture and cultural attractions, but has plenty of interesting bars and places to eat. Whilst there is usually a police presence on Saturday nights, it seems more within normal city centre behaviour to me.

Yes, thank you, students need to look at the universities best for their subject choice. She knows where’s ‘best’ for her subject but they’re not on her list as they’re wanting a high number of As. No point having 5 uni choices all wanting AA*A. So the 5 she’s narrowed it down to are still pretty decent (she thinks) for her subject but give her a bit of scope grade wise if that makes sense.

Nottingham is an amazing, student oriented, city. The two universities are excellent, although the University of Nottingham is outstanding both in terms of the student experience and location. I did my degree here and my brother did his PGCE. My sister did her chemistry degree at Nottingham Trent.

There’s so much to do in Nottingham for students, plus the university itself has excellent sports facilities. It’s easy to get around with the trams system. Cripps Medical Centre, on site, is very modern and Up to date. Nottingham uni has a large medical school attached to a huge hospital. There is also a substantial school of nursing.

Nottingham Uni is a wealthy university with a superb campus. Every day there are new buildings being built and the architecture is modern and attractive.

What is she wanting to study? I'm friends with a few students at Newcastle on various courses.
Newcastle is so much more than night life that it can be famous for, the architecture and history are fascinating, the local areas are beautiful, there's a metro that can take you to plenty of places. Cost of living is fair, and shopping (if she's into that) can be had at the MetroCentre in Gateshead which is over the river Tyne, she can get a bus or train there.
Students can live in the city on campus for both unis or down the road in Jesmond, which is bursting with students and has a great, warm friendly evening vibe.
There is an international and domestic airport with metro links plus a great train network meaning visiting would be easy.
I've always found the people friendly and talkative (maybe that's just me!) but I'd be happy for my DC to go there.
I believe there's online tours at the moment, but I would recommend she reads up on the "What Uni" website so she can get the students view.

Re the virtual open days at Birmingham (and a few other universities), the specific sessions for different subjects are on different days - e.g. for History of Art, DS2 seems to have had the option of Wednesday or Thursday this week for a talk and a taster session, but not the other days. There are several open days this week, so it's worth checking again this morning.

Some of the 'virtual' days aren't until later in July now, though. Warwick is 6th - 10th and 13th to 17th and Sussex is 28th to 30th, according to the emails that DS2 has had, if anyone is interested.

OP, telling us the subject really would help as they do have differing reputations . They are also pretty geographically spread so do factor in travel to reach them. This is my knowledge of subject 'specialisms' (ie what they have a gold standard reputation for) but I may have missed a few :
Warwick : maths, computing, economics, English, film , drama
Birmingham : English, history, music (not sure beyond that but I am sure other things, too )
Leeds : not really sure but a very good uni, increasingly so
Newcastle : medicine (other than that I don't know as it is very far North compared to where my school is, so our kids tend not to apply)
York : politics, history, English, history of Art , linguistics, music

@Piggywaspushed, I am trying to 'sell' York to DS2 on the basis of the campus having quite a bit of concrete, like his beloved UEA and the city of York sort of like Norwich, if with more hardcore tourists. We were due to have spent next Friday and Saturday night in the conference accommodation on campus, after a night at the Briar Rose on Bennetts Hill in Birmingham (the street where Burne Jones was born and I do like a 'Spoons breakfast and bottomless espresso of a morning). .

At the end of the day, though, if he decides that only UEA will really do, with Leeds at a pinch and he gets the opportunity to choose those and gets a place at either, we would be perfectly happy for him.

Hi marching!Well, UEA is also lovely of course ! Norwich is lovely.

The only thing I'd say York has over UEA campus wise is it is a bit closer to the actual city? It is also very good for student jobs because (when everything is open again) there are so many tourists, there is an endless supply of student type casual jobs, including at Jorvik, for example.

Tourists are definitely everywhere!!

I must say, I'll be delighted in a couple of years time if DS2 has the option of any of these universities!

I think it’s rather silly to say these universities have reputations in certain subjects and then name a tiny number of subjects. Believe me, all of these have well rounded reputations. Warwick is not all about the subjects mentioned. It’s pretty strong all round and no one would look down on a History student from Warwick for example and think a York student with history was better. Ditto languages. All these universities are running well respected courses.

I do think the OP’s DC has done the research and come up with her 5. None of these universities is going to be a negative. In any subject.

It comes down to location and campus vs city. I can say Newcastle has always attracted students that work hard and play hard so if you are very quiet and don’t want “fun” in the way other students do, you might be in the wrong place.

Other than that, we liked Leeds but it’s big. York isn’t in the city. It’s campus. Nottingham has a great reputation and Birmingham is a solid choice on a great campus but handy for the city. Look at size of university and decide on whether being close to big city is desirable. York is smaller. All have good transport links.

I did say this was what I knew : quite clearly. And have said all are good choices. But I don't think anyone would dispute that Warwick is particularly outstanding in the field of mathematics, for example.