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!

Yep not a chance he would consider a vocational degree (and to be fair I can't imagine what he would enjoy) but I absolutely know what you mean (I did one!)

Thank you everyone for your thoughts. They are appreciated. I do feel I've got a better picture now.

I graduated from Soton about 10 years ago but studied medicine. I loved it and the surrounding towns are beautiful too. The people were lovely however the halls of residence we stayed in (Montefiore House) in first year was in close proximity to a fairly rough area and there were occasionally issues with students being verbally assaulted (sometimes racist taunts like p**i) etc by the chavvy locals. The campus security and police were helpful though. It was a great place to study!

We went to their recent open day and didn't like it but it seems fairly popular on WIWIKAU.

I came to Southampton to study 25 years ago and now work at the Uni. Transport links are cheap and easy - the interns and younger staff in my team all use the Voi scooters to get around.

UoS has just bought the James Matthews building in the city centre. It will be refurbished by September and will probably be used to teach some of the Social Sciences courses.

There are lots of postgrad employment opportunities as it's easy to commute to London, Reading, Basingstoke, Portsmouth, Winchester, Andover, Bournemouth and Poole.

The Student Union is independent (not NUS) and is more active than many, which might be of interest to a politics student.

My son had to choose between Southampton and Bristol for this year, he went for Bristol in the end as although he loved the Southampton course, the uni itself felt very campus and big city enough and he really wanted to be somewhere buzzy (we’re on the edge of London and he wanted the same city vibe)

If he’s looking for straight Politics QMUL do that.

It has a good reputation that is very well deserved. Southampton is nice too.

... Birmingham (even though it's campus) are also on the list ...

It's a campus with Selly Oak on one side so it's not hard to 'walk around and see normal people too' - and a train station for very easy travel into the city centre.

Thanks for posting this @JennieTheZebra as reassuring to know that my and DD's instincts about Russel Bentley were correct (ie inspiring and a lovely man). We got a v good feeling about him and the other staff we met which is an important consideration for DD as she's autistic.

I did get the impression from RB's talk that he taught undergrads including 1st years but didn't want to state that in case I'd mis-remembered!

London would have been a great option but we live in London and he's completely written off any London unis as too close to home.