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Original poster

Self organised open days - university cities - suggestions of what to see please

31 replies

ratticus4 · 07/07/2021 15:01

In the absence of Open Days this year, DD and I are planning to visit some university cities to get a feel for them. I'd be grateful for any insider knowledge on them - along the lines of Sussex university is a campus university and not in Brighton! - so that we can plan accordingly and not just wander around a city aimlessly.

The cities we're looking at are -

Oxford
Bristol
Cardiff
Durham
Sheffield
York

all to study music. Of course, any other suggestions of where to study music are welcome.

OP posts:
RatherBeReading · 07/07/2021 15:07

In Oxford, some of the colleges are now open to tourists, so I’d get her to look up those she’s most interested in and then visit a few of them as a tourist. In times past, if she said she was a prospective student at porter’s lodge, many would let her in for free, but don’t know if that’ll be on offer at the moment.
I don’t know how many of the colleges offer music, but on top of that I imagine she’ll want to consider things along the lines of which have organ/choral scholarships open for her admission cycle/the strength of their choir, etc.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 07/07/2021 15:11

In Sheffield I'd get a feel of the walk between the music department and any halls you are considering. Sheffield has many hills. Plus where the city centre bars are.

(And if you can go into the Arts Tower, have a ride on the Paternoster.)

BlackCatsRule88 · 07/07/2021 15:12

I’d suggest also looking around the areas where students in second / third year tend to live.

Topbird29 · 07/07/2021 16:08

Is is Bristol uni, or UWE in Bristol? The Uni is more central. UWE has several campus sites - I can't remember which does music. I went to UWE about 25years ago, but stayed in Bristol. Its a lovely city. Doesn't feel too intimidating and large (I went from a small village), and there is plenty to do. Will she be in halls, or renting a house with others? I know rentals generally can expensive.

Topbird29 · 07/07/2021 16:10

In Bristol, Clifton is most expensive area to live, whilst Bedminster, horfield and other areas are cheaper.

StrawberrySquirrelThief · 07/07/2021 16:21

Has she considered the specialist conservatoires? www.ucas.com/conservatoires

mimbleandlittlemy · 07/07/2021 18:38

Birmingham ranks well for Music. Uni easy to reach - has its own train station just a few minutes ride from New Street. Lovely to stroll round and has museums and art galleries on site plus you can see the sports facilities etc whether it's term time or not.

www.birmingham.ac.uk/community/university-campus/museums/index.aspx

City itself has a great orchestra (Simon Rattle was conductor there), theatres, lovely museum.

Orangecinnamon21 · 07/07/2021 18:38

I did Cardiff for Music recently , you may be able to contact department to get a tour...theybeere doing buildings tours on the day.

Our day went like this;

Train to Cardiff...walk through city towards Castle (route below)

28 min (1.4mi)

  1. Walk south-east
  2. Turn left towards Penarth Rd
  3. Turn left onto Penarth Rd
  4. Turn left onto St Mary St
  5. Continue onto High St
  6. Turn right onto Duke St/A4161
  7. Slight right onto Kingsway/A4161
  8. Continue onto North Rd/A470
  9. Turn right onto City Hall Rd
10. Turn left towards Museum Ave 11. Turn right towards Museum Ave 12. Turn right towards Museum Ave 13. Turn left onto Museum Ave 14. Arrive at location: Museum Avenue 15. Walk north-west on Museum Ave towards College Rd 16. Turn left onto Corbett Rd 17. Arrive at location: Corbett Road 18. Walk north-east on Corbett Rd towards Colum Rd (where I pointed and what way the Talybont Halls are)

We took in the Hepworth sculpture outside the Muso building of course!

Back to the city centre via Bute Park for eats and shopping then down to the Bay area to explore. They have a restaurant that specialises in Gin and Baked goods. We then walked back to the train centre via the Riverside.

We made a day out of it ...you don't have to.walk miles like we did. Everything is so compact ...it is a great and affordable city. We all loved it..but Dd is having a bit of a wobble and would like to be closer to home so Southampton is now very much on cards.

official uni self tour map here

Orangecinnamon21 · 07/07/2021 18:44

If she is bright enough for Oxford the joint course at Manchester with RNCM would be great. Apparently v near each other. We also considered Notts, Birmingham as above is a really big well supported department with a solid history of music provision (Elgar connection) it looks wonderful..not my decision though or it would be on the list.

Piggywaspushed · 07/07/2021 19:33

So, in the spirit of your OP, York is a campus uni but it is in York. Sort of. It isn't as far as quite a lot of MNers seem tot think. Take the right route from the uni and it's a 15 minute walk. Lots of York students have bikes.

It remains an astonishingly lovely , compact city.

Durham is cold!

MarchingFrogs · 07/07/2021 21:12

Durham is cold!

Haha, I'm sure I saw an article / video recently by a newly-arrived International student at Durham, commenting on how unexpectedly warm and sunny it wasGrin. Mind you, early October is usually reasonable instead places (and the author may have been from Northern Alaska or somewhere).

Piggywaspushed · 07/07/2021 21:24

Maybe!

I'm Scottish and think Durham is Baltic! Am from the West mind.

motogogo · 07/07/2021 21:33

I'm off with dd next week, she starts September. I'll give you tips when we get back - Cardiff

Delphigirl · 08/07/2021 07:52

We did a self Cardiff tour but had a car so as well as walking all around the uni and into town we also drove past the talybont residences to get an idea of the geography/distances/have a look at them from the outside. It was a very worthwhile day

Delphigirl · 08/07/2021 07:54

For oxford agree with visiting colleges but maybe also try to get to a lunchtime concert or an evensong in one of the college chapels/Holywell music room.

Orangecinnamon21 · 08/07/2021 07:57

@Delphigirl

For oxford agree with visiting colleges but maybe also try to get to a lunchtime concert or an evensong in one of the college chapels/Holywell music room.
Sounds lovely!
Dozer · 08/07/2021 07:57

As a PP says would look at the likely buildings for the course she’d be doing, halls of residence, and the most popular residential areas for students living together.

Delphigirl · 08/07/2021 08:34

www.dailyinfo.co.uk/

This will give you info of anything going on in oxford (plays, music etc)

Comefromaway · 08/07/2021 08:43

@mimbleandlittlemy

Birmingham ranks well for Music. Uni easy to reach - has its own train station just a few minutes ride from New Street. Lovely to stroll round and has museums and art galleries on site plus you can see the sports facilities etc whether it's term time or not.

www.birmingham.ac.uk/community/university-campus/museums/index.aspx

City itself has a great orchestra (Simon Rattle was conductor there), theatres, lovely museum.

They also have an arrangement with Birmingham Conservatoire for thier 1:1 tuition as does Manchester University and Royal Northern. The same with Kings College London and Royal Academy.

Southampton, Royal Holloway & Surrey might be of interest.

pistachioicecream · 08/07/2021 09:37

The self-guided tour at Cardiff was really good. I did that with my DS a few weeks ago.

Cardiff was actually my old Uni so I sort of knew where I was going, but it was really useful to have the guide and it was very easy to follow.

It's really easy to walk to the city centre from the campus too. It's only about 10 minutes. We had a great day.

Original poster
ratticus4 · 12/07/2021 12:47

Thank you all for your replies. This is fantastically helpful. Interesting to see how popular Cardiff is too. A city I know nothing about. Also Birmingham - that was popular when I was at school but I haven't heard of any friends children going there.

OP posts:
crazycrofter · 12/07/2021 13:17

If you're visiting Birmingham, park at one of the stations on the cross city line (so Longbridge/Northfield on the south side or Sutton Coldfield/Four Oaks on the north, depending on which side you're coming from) and get the train to the university. You can walk round campus and to the halls and then check out the city centre afterwards by train too.

Malbecfan · 15/07/2021 17:17

I studied Music at Leeds back in the day. One of my course-mates has a DD who is there now, also studying it. The city is brilliant and there is a lot going on. There is also Leeds Conservatoire (used to be Leeds College of Music in my day) where I had my instrumental lessons - you would have to check how much interaction there is between the two.

Manchester is really good. Someone has mentioned the joint course with the RNCM but a lot of people who didn't get into Oxford end up there.

We have sent students to Goldsmiths - the popular music course is very well-regarded, and I attended a course at City University in London which looked good.

Monkey2001 · 15/07/2021 17:17

If you are flexible on where you stay when you look, try University Rooms - you can stay in an Oxford college www.universityrooms.com/en-GB/search/in/oxford

Orangecinnamon21 · 15/07/2021 18:10

Good point ..we often stay in the LSE London Halls. Just came back as it occurred to me could probably do Bristol and Cardiff over one weekend if inclined !