Uni of Birmingham

[Uset577jiuh]

Daughter applied to Birmingham and went fur a visit this weekend with friends and Birmingham seemed to be quite …. Hmmmmm- lots of homeless and druggies in the high street. Is this usual? They are having second thoughts about going.

DS friend started at Birmingham uni last September and there was a shooting outside his halls. Other than that he seems to enjoy it.

DS has visited said friend and says he wouldn’t go there.

The homeless guys tend to keep to themselves.Much like other cities. Birmingham is a friendly city.

The university and accommodation is not in the city centre but in leafy Edgbaston, where students make up the majority of the population and it feels safe and beautiful. It’s in close proximity (via train) to walks in the Malverns or Lickey hills. Yes, it’s the UK’s second city and the city centre has its fair share of homelessness/ social issues, but it’s a friendly town with loads going for it, including theatres, Symphony Hall and museums. I’m from the south but love living here.

I haven’t been to Birmingham for years but I thought it was a lovely city when I stayed with friends.

Birmingham and Coventry are currently the 2nd and 3rd most dangerous cities in Europe. Make of that what you will. I would never have thought that when I was there.

Birmingham is one of the biggest cities in the UK. There is going to be homelessness and crime sadly. I went to Birmingham uni (many many years ago) and as its a Campus uni, its generally quite insulated from the city itself. We only went into the city centre if we wanted to go shopping or on a Big Night Out (eg. Not the student union or bars in Selly Oak). But if your DD is concerned, maybe a city uni isn't for her. There are lots of fully campus unis she could consider. For me, at the time Birmingham was one of the top unis for my course so the cons of the city outweighed the course quality/teaching.

Well it’s a big city and lots of people live and work there perfectly happily but I agree maybe it’s not a city uni your daughter wants?

dd1 had a murder at her bus stop in Manchester a week after starting and dd2’s mate was bitten by a mad woman on a bus in Bristol so I don’t think you can avoid issues in any city

By 'the high street', do you mean Bristol Road (closest actual shopping street to canpus, the one with the Aldi and the Korean supermarket)? Or one of the main streets in the city centre?

Both DS1 and DD went to Birmingham and DS1 moved back there after doing a Master's in Bristol. Granted, he currently lives on a lovely leafy road in Edgbaston, but both he and DD were in 'Selly Oak Village' halls in first year (Jarratt and the then brand new Battery Park, respectively) and between them have lived in six different roads in the badlands of B29 that is the main habitat of the UoB student. Tbh, one of my main concerns for DD in her second year house was that it shared a garden space with the house next door and I was worried that in the height of the covid 'tier four' nonsense, some busybody would see them out there at the same time and report them for household mixing.

DS1 did once comment that one of the downsides of staying 'up' during the summer (he lived actually on Bristol Road at the time) was that he had sometimes been approached by dealers, presumably feeling the pinch with many of their regular customers having gone back home. It wasn't something that had happened during term time, and if it ever happened to DD, it obviously didn't bother her enough to mention it.

Where we live, in the second most desirable bit of our own bot enormous city, over a relatively short period of time a few years back we had a young person murdered by someone local and known to him, an older man murdered by someone local but a total stranger to him - and our longstanding MP murdered whilst going about his constituency business. At least that wasn't carried out by a local.. These things can and do happen anywhere.

Yes, parts of Birmingham are probably a bit 'rougher' than a lot of students are used to, but it is a city. And the homeless and 'druggies' are everywhere (lovely, of course, if you live somewhere where neither ever make themselves known, but I'd really be quite surprised if neither group isn't around somewhere).

DS is at Brum. He loves it. Never goes to the city centre! First year on campus. Now in
Selly Oak. He hasn't had any issues.
Birmingham is a big city. Everywhere has homelessness and drug use. Everywhere! My town (small county town in SE) has it too!
We love Selly Oak, it's a vibrant area with loads of local colour and plenty of students, loads of shops, pubs and takeaways.
It would be hard to go anywhere to uni and not see this sort of stuff. Maybe St Andrews!!

Based on perception as opposed to actual crime statistics

https://www.numbeo.com/crime/region_rankings_current.jsp?region=150

https://www.numbeo.com/crime/indices_explained.jsp

The data in this section is derived from surveys answered by website visitors, structured similarly to established scientific and governmental surveys. Individual responses are assigned a numerical value between -2 (indicating a strongly negative perception) and +2 (indicating a strongly positive perception).

It's important to note that the Numbeo's Crime Index is based user-contributed perceptions, which may differ from official government statistics.

Given the size of its population, the number of druggies and beggars is probably around the same proportion as any other UK city. I don’t know what the drug of choice of the city’s beggars is, but it renders them unable to speak a coherent sentence when they’re asking for cash. As in any other city, much of the street violence will be low life criminal scum feuding with other low life criminal scum. The biggest danger is to anyone foolish enough venture onto the city’s main roads post-afternoon rush hour. There is an epidemic of ‘cruising’ (ie. racing) among the city’s drivers. Stupid young men treat the roads as a race track, driving recklessly, ignoring red lights, not using car lights when it’s dark and committing scores of traffic offences every few seconds. The police cannot/will not do anything about it whatsoever.

Having said all that, DS studied there, had a great time and now works at the university.

DD is in her second year there. Like all big cities it has dodgy areas and homeless people in the city centre but DD’s experience is of safe uni, with a leafy campus (especially the Vale halls) and safe student areas like Selly, but she’s also happy to go into the city centre for shopping or a night out. She’s had a pretty sheltered upbringing in a leafy suburb so it’s not that she’s used to worse! I frequently go to Birmingham for work and have never felt unsafe in the city centre either. I think the uni is an excellent combination of campus uni that is well integrated into the city.

I went to Birmingham and now live 100 yards from the uni. Honestly I find the middle class disdain for the city really grating. It is just like any big city and anything negative that you find here you’ll find in London, Manchester, Bristol, Newcastle etc. It’s a great uni with a beautiful campus and more importantly really solid academic performance across the board. Anyone looking at Russell Group unis would be foolish to ignore!!

@holaquetal on a previous thread, on the subject of how dangerous UoB is vs Oxford, I found the actual crime statistics for DS1's friend's postcode in North Street and those for the postcode of one of the Oxford colleges (Balliol, possibly). I don't think this gave the result assumed.

To be fair, little murder spree notwithstanding, when we moved here from SELondon in the mid-90s, I did notice that the crime rate was generally lower. Which is not to say that I actually felt unsafe out and about in the areas we'd lived in in London. Nor when I visit Birmingham; last year, I stayed at the Aston conference centre for a couple of nights and the only distress I felt traipsing up and down Corporation Street was due to the unexpectedly hot weather for the time of year and the apparent addition of about half a mile to its length on each trip. Tthe second may have been a product of the first, I am willing to concede. (Also, possibly another consequence would have been that I was wearing a pretty solid Don't even think of it expression).
(I am solidly middle class, brw).

DD in final year at UOB. Never had any issues and loved every moment of it, both halls and student house in Selly Oak.

Very rarely goes into Birmingham itself.

If you want to avoid homeless people and drug users best to stay at home and not venture out to any big cities at all.

Thank you!!

Yes there are homeless people/druggies in the city centre, but I don't think they'll pose an issue to your daughter, except that she might feel uncomfortable. It's similar in every big city.

As long as young people have their wits about them and don't do anything stupid, they'll be fine. We lived there when our kids were secondary school age and they spent many Saturdays roaming round 'town' with their friends from age 12/13 upwards.

However, as others have said, students don't have to go into town much if they don't want to, there's everything they need in Edgbaston/Selly Oak/Harborne, which are nice areas of the city on the whole. My daughter went to the school next door to the campus and took the train to/from the uni station every day; my son took two buses to school and changed in Selly Oak. They never came across any issues in that area, and neither have I working there for the last 6 years.

https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/student-advice/where-to-study/crime-rates-in-university-cities-and-towns

This might help. Birmingham seems to be comparable to others.

I will be honest it is our closest large uni and my DD didn't want to go there and I am relieved. I don't feel that safe in Birmingham anymore.

DS is just finishing there. Never had any issues. There are homeless people especially by the train station. This is true of any major town or city, sadly. The uni is in a very safe area .

Then campus is beautiful and suburban and lots of students live in nearby Selly Oak - a real student suburb. There are excellent transport links including a train, with a university stop, which makes getting into the city easy and connects to the main station. Most cities have issues in their centres now but as always, students tend to stick to well trodden parts. I think you could have a great time as a student in Birmingham.

But you’ve literally stated your DD never goes into the city centre which means she’s just the same as everyone else you’re slating because she’s also not venturing around homeless drug addicts in a city centre. Which kind of reeks of hypocrisy

I didn't say she never goes, she rarely goes because everything she needs is local so there's no need.

However she's not scared or worried about going into Birmingham if she needs to because she's a sensible adult who knows how to keep herself safe.

It's strange when people who haven't been to a city for years comment on a thread about it. I generally only comment on threads about the uni/city my daughter is at or the one I work at/used to live near, because I've not really got any insight into, say Bristol or Leeds, which I've only visited a couple of times! You just can't know what a place is really like unless you've lived there or someone you know well has. Obviously anyone is allowed to comment on any thread they like; I just find it odd!

My DS busked at Christmas so went into the City loads. Came away untraumatised!