Nottingham university. Views please!

[DinkyDaisy]

Hello,
My ds is going to university open days. Not sure about attending Nottingham this coming weekend. Someone told him it was a rough town.
However, from what I understand a good university and information he has got from an unhelpful friend may well be out of date!
He is not a party boy [yet!] but I would imagine all universities have a mix of students and he would find fellow nerdy types!
Any views on Nottingham are welcome.
Thank you.

Ds has started there this year. Loves it. University park is beautiful, though he is on another campus about 10 mins walk away.
He is in self catered halls and seems to be living the dream.

He has learnt more about playing poker then anything to do with his degree but that's to be expected in term1

I was dreading him going, but once I saw the site and his accommodation I felt much better

Jubilee campus is on the road parallel to where I live. It's about a 10 minute walk from the main campus. And 20 min from city centre. Loads of new huge blocks of student accommodation are being built. The Costa is always busy!

Jubilee students live on and around faraday road/ Derby road. There are huge blocks of student accommodation.

@Tree543 I suggest you take the park and ride or public transport. Parking is really tricky round the Jubilee campus. Particularly now QMC reintroduced parking charges. Most on street parking is permit only.

Reading that reminds me how much I hate driving in Nottingham. Every time I take dd there and back I just panic for days. So many multi lane roundabouts, underpasses, badly labelled lanes, etc. Maybe I’m just a terrible driver but I just hate it! The tram system is amazing so use it if you can.

Thanks. There is parking available for the open day on University Park and there are buses between the campuses. I am planning to set off at the crack of dawn to made sure I get a parking space!

One of mine went there and was very happy. Fantastic support when sudden illness meant a hospital admission, surgery and some time out.

I have 4 kids all have degrees and Nottingham was the best graduation ceremony for several reasons one being their support for my disabled DH.

I went and absolutely loved it! Great campus with lots to do. If you can afford it I’d try to go for catered halls as you mix with a bigger number of students rather than the self-catered which are mainly off campus and in smaller groups. Great place though!

@Afterfire you are so right. I loathe driving round Nottingham. The one way system drives me insane. Other cities are so much easier!

@Tree543 just walk between the two campuses. They are so close. Have a walk round the lake at Highfields park. It's beautiful.

Just dropped ds1 there last month. He's having a ball. The campus is lovely. Most courses are very well respected. Rough? I liked the town centre. Sports and gum fabulous.

Visited Southampton, Durham and Queen Mary. Went for catered but only because got such an incredibly cheap deal.

Not at uni in Nottingham but live here. Nottingham is a great city. I’ve never felt unsafe on nights out. Great transport links like people say with the tram. Uni campus is beautiful and has a great reputation. Great music scene/ bars and restaurants and lovely green spaces like wollaton park close by. Beeston is great which is quite a studenty area but also lots of families. There’s a few areas that are a bit rough, but no worse than any other city. A pp has quoted a couple of gun crime incidents, however I don’t think this is any worse than other major cities and is largely drug / gang related. It’s definitely not something I have ever worried about living here for 35+ years.

@Tree543 Ds1 is doing accountancy on Jubilee campus. I liked it. He says it's no problem getting to it from main campus. The lunches are better there.

He says it's more varied ethnicity wise because more students from diverse backgrounds study business.

DD2 went to NTU and loved Nottingham (having heard the same stories you have before she went @DinkyDaisy.) She never found it rough or unsafe, even in the early hours and although she moved cities for her Masters she wouldn't rule out going back to Nottingham for further study or work in the future.

One aspect she enjoyed was that it seemed quite a diverse population geographically. Yes, there were quite a few Londoners, but also lots from further North. We're from the south but her 2 best friends are from big northern cities.

Thank you, everyone.
Glad to hear so many people have had such good experiences of Nottingham.
I am going to share this thread with ds later...

I frequently walk home from
QMC on my own after dark. I've never felt unsafe.

Room pictures:

I went to UoN in 90s and ended up staying here. I've spent many, many nights in town and never felt unsafe. There's quite a big student population so lots of clubs with student nights, which I think can feel a bit safer. I think the city is quite small and quite safe.

There's a couple of places I wouldn't really want to live (Radford - although I've worked in that area and it was fine. Shopped there today too - and St Anne's) but there's some lovely bits.

The rooms look good actually compared to some I've seen.
Thank you.

Staying to live in the place you went to university is a good advertisement!

Loved it. Stayed at broadgate for my 1st year as I wanted to be self catered and in lenton for years 2 and 3. Felt very safe there. It's so cheap and easy to get a job if he wants part time as there's so many restaurants, bars and shops and public transport is excellent.

Its the nicest campus of any Russell group uni I went to and has great sports facilities if he plays anything competitively. I'd have happily stayed on if I could have found a job. Best of luck to your son.

I believe that the small Lenton shop is the most expensive Sainsbury's in the UK!

I went to Nottingham Trent Uni in the late 90s and have stayed here to live and have a family. Trent was great back then for art based course (the reason I went there), not sure about the academic ones. UoN has a beautiful campus, and Beeston nearby is a great little suburb. Nottingham itself has a good nightlife, lovely choice of restaurants and shops etc but isn't a massive city. There are lovely parks and nature reserves nearby and I've always found it to be a fairly safe city. Yes there is gang culture in certain areas but this has never affected me personally. As with all bigger cities there are areas that are not so great, but many that are. I would absolutely recommend coming here to be a student.

@blameless that doesn't surprise me. Lenton is not cheap! Almost had heart failure at the
Price of a latte in Costa on triumph road!