Southampton university - thoughts/insights?

[Thepaintedgarden]

I've searched but not found many mentions of Southampton uni.
DC is wanting a city university and to study politics.
Predicted grades are 2 X A* and an A.
I think those are probably fairly realistic.
Southampton uni seems to come reasonably high up the league tables for politics (I'm very aware that these should be taken with a pinch of salt).
Entry requirements are considerably lower than, say, Bristol (which is the current favourite). I'm not sure why that would be?
Does anyone have any insight into uni life at Southampton? Or anything else about Southampton that we should be aware of?
Thank you!

Bump.
Anyone?

It's solid with a great reputation for subjects like accounting & finance, engineering, comp science etc. I don't know anyone who has taken politics.

Southampton was badly bombed during WWII leaving an architect's nightmare of a city. It doesn't make the most of it's city walls and doesn't have a pretty cathedral. Everyone I know who has been there loves it and has stayed on into graduate employment. However, it doesn't suit those whose parents want to have nice weekends away unless they want to stay in Winchester or the New Forest!

Thank you @HewasH2O that's really helpful. Despite its being a RG uni it really doesn't seem to be on the radar for students from their school (who tend to have parents who care about such things).
Wanting a city uni seems to reduce the options quite a lot.
I think we'll have to go and visit.

The accommodation is spread around, with lots of new blocks in the city centre & older cheaper halls closer to the campus. One huge bonus is that they guarantee everyone a place in halls in their first year, even if it's an insurance place. The campus itself is a couple of miles from the city centre, but there are frequent buses between the two.

My DS has just finished his first year there and loves it. It wasn’t on his radar initially and not many from his school have gone there, but we are in the north, 4 hours away which is probably a big factor. He has found that the majority of students he has got to know live in the south east. He got his place in clearing so it was a risk, but he has loved the University and the city and is very happy he landed there. It is a nice size, not too big but seems to have good nightlife. Accommodation after 1st year is reasonably priced and plenty available. The buses are great and easy for them to get around the city.

@Thepaintedgarden The grades required reflect how popular a course is snd the calibre of student anticipated. Southampton and Politics isn’t really on a par with Bristol and Politics for high achievers.

I would also caution against studying Politics as a single subject. Can he find joint honours courses that include politics? I know, for example, at Sheffield, Politics contact time is low. The world of work is not always easy for pure Politics grads who, even after a Masters, can really struggle to get jobs remotely involved in policy or politics. Having more of a workload (competing against PPE types) and an additional subject might be a better course of action if grad employment is a goal. Civil Service has stopped recruiting and getting a think tank job is very difficult given the competition. I know a number of young people with this degree and the only one with a job using the degree is a young lady who speaks four languages.

Southampton uni seems to come reasonably high up the league tables for politics (I'm very aware that these should be taken with a pinch of salt).
Entry requirements are considerably lower than, say, Bristol (which is the current favourite). I'm not sure why that would be?

Probably because the Bristol course is much more competitive to get a place. So a higher calibre of student applying to Bristol?

The high tariff for entry on the Bristol course is because of the level of competition. The competition comes from many people wanting to be at Bristol because of the course, the reputation of the university, what the university offers and the desirability of being in Bristol. The latter is a huge pull, a lot of students really like Bristol as a city, many more than like Southampton as a place.

The larger the number of people apply, the harder it is going to be to get in. However for all this talk of 'higher calibre of students', bear in mind that Bristol makes a lot of contextual offers and these contextual offers are less competitive. On the politics and IR course at Bristol, the standard offer is AAA, the contextual offer is ABB.

My DD wants to study International Relations and Politics, but doesn't want to go to Bristol so it's not one we're looking at. We did go to the Southampton open day the other week and went to the politics & IR talk. DD liked the course and we both found the talk really engaging. At the subject stand came across another related subject that she was even more interested in, and we spoke to the staff and it seemed a good fit for DD.

DD liked the Southampton campus, although not as much as a few others we've seen. She didn't particularly take to the town but that was of less priority for her. I think she's likely to put it down as one of her five choices, although not at the top, because of the content of the course.

It was DDs insurance choice and she did a lot of pondering between finally choosing between there and Cambridge for engineering.
The campus and accommodation seemed nice, it didn't really strike me as a 'city' university. She'd probably have spent a lot of time doing watersports if she'd gone there ... if your DC is half duck that may be a good or a bad thing.

Can I ask what the related subjects was?

The campus is really lovely, lots of open green space. There is plenty of accomodation available to rent close to the uni after the first year and Southampton as a whole feels pretty safe. I don't know about the politics course but I certainly rate the university and area.

The amount of open green space was a big draw for DD. It seemed peaceful.

One thing they said at the subject talk is that the university as a whole is going through a huge refurbishment programme over the next few years.

Another big plus is the great travel links. Two train stations both about 25 mins from the centre of campus by bus, good unilink buses, an airport by one of the train stations, trains into London Waterloo and also of course elsewhere.

I was particularly impressed by the talk giving by the professor who runs the department; it was incredibly engaging in terms of thinking about politics and IR and he was very down-to-earth and approachable, with a forward thinking approach.

I studied there so long ago it’s probably not worth sharing my experience, but I did enjoy my Politics and IR degree very much.

That's great to know @llareggub

DS1 applied to Southampton as one of his five for Biochemistry and at the post open day stage, it was his favourite. Post offer holder days, he knocked Warwick off his list of possible firm choices and Southampton was 'relegated' to one of 4 now pretty much equal options. In the end, it was pipped to the post by Birmingham, but had he been told, Sorry, you said it was your favourite, so you have to firm it (yes, I know, bot something that would have happened in reality), he would have been quite happy.

Thanks everyone. This is so helpful.
I'm not sure anywhere is going to bump Bristol from the top spot at the moment (has a sibling at Cambridge and I think is deciding that that really isn't right for him) but it sounds positive as another one to visit /have on the list.
@TizerorFizz I hear you. I'm aware it's a very popular course and that there are vast numbers of graduates with that degree. He's not inspired by the joint honours he's looked at, even though joint honours with either of his other A level subjects would probably be good options.
It's not set in stone so we'll see over the next few weeks/months.

@Thepaintedgarden I do think people who look at engineering at Southampton are really not looking at Politics. Chalk snd cheese. Ditto any degree that is a science. Also don’t ever think the head of a department professor will teach undergrads. It’s a great selling talk but it’s not everyday reality. I would stick to Bristol for a whole host of reasons. Yes, they offer contextual places but that doesn’t alter the quality of the education on offer.

It's not really a city university. It's a bus ride into the city centre, so not miles out, but its probably an hour to walk from the university to the city centre and it has more of a campus feel. They have spent a lot on nice new halls and some of those are city Central, but then you have to travel to the campus.

Has he looked at Manchester? My ds is going to do Politics and Philosophy there - A levels last year currently travelling. He also applied for Pol & Phil at Bristol- he wasn’t offered Pol and Phil but was offered an alternative choice but chose Manchester above the alternative.

Luverpool also do Pol and Phil - both city unis.

I grew up near Southampton (Winchester) and wouldn’t chose it if he’s looking for a buzzy city - Manchester or Liverpool would be far better from that respect.

After Manchester got a lot of bad press before the start of this last academic year for saying some things may be on line speaking to friends whose dc started this year doing humanities / social sciences everything has been f2f.

@TizerorFizz Did you not read that the OP was looking for general info about Southampton, not just relating to politics? @ErrolTheDragon was giving her view on that basis. A bit rude of you to dismiss it.

I was the poster who talked about the professor's talk. I don't know whether he teaches undergrads or not, I didn't think oh great he'd be teaching my child because I know that for the majority if not all the time he wouldn't be. But my professional experience, including guest lecturing at a law faculty, means I've learnt that the ethos and quality of a department usually runs top down. Again the OP asked for experiences and opinions, and I'm giving mine on the basis of having recently been at the university and subject talk the OP is asking about. Your views aren't based on visiting Southampton.

You'll know of course that the OP's son can't put Bristol down as both his firm and his insurance. Which means he does need another university. Perhaps you'll be gracious enough to advise the OP on what her son's insurance uni should be, to save the rest of us the time and effort of posting.

I wouldn’t call Southampton a city university at all. The campus is quite far from the city centre. DS3 liked it for maths, but he wanted a campus uni. No idea how he ended up in Manchester which really is a city uni! Southampton was a strong insurance possibility because of its guarantee of accommodation even to insurance students. Very few other unis offer this, though tbf, only a small proportion end up going to their insurance choice.

Russell Bentley, the current Head of Pol/IR at Southampton, does teach undergrads. Admittedly it’s mainly 2nd and 3rd year optional models on American history and thought (he’s American) but he usually does some first year teaching too. He’s a lovely guy and a very inspirational lecturer 😊 Southampton is a great university and I would recommend doing Pol/IR there (I did Philosophy and Politics a decade ago) but I would add the usual caveats about studying a non-vocational subject-there’s a reason I’m now a MH nurse…

I went to Southampton sone 25 years ago.

The university is 2-3 miles north of the town centre but it is pretty much a campus university for most courses. I stayed in hale near by in First year then got flat in student central portswood in year 2-3 -25 walk to campus or a bike ride or bus.

I did actually get a graduate job there too afterwards too!

Thank you - yes, Manchester is on the list. He isn't keen on Liverpool. Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham (even though it's campus) are also on the list at the moment. There are options - I think it's just wanting to make sure he's considered them all properly; we know people at the other unis and don't know anyone who's been to Southampton since the early 90s.

Thanks. I hadn't realised it would have that much of a campus feel. Leeds I suppose is also a sort of campus in a city - maybe they're similar. I think he's more put off by feeling out of the way such as Bath or Warwick; he'd like to be able to walk around and see normal people too.