University life in UK

AZ — Fri, 15 May 2009 06:01:12 +0000

Want to know what University life is like? Well, look no further. Simply watch the video above to get the inside scoop on what our students think about Bedfordshire, our accommodation and how they rate our facilities. You can also find out about our undergraduate courses, and our diverse social scene. So, what are you waiting for?

And why not read below to get the latest on our league table successes? You can also check out our exciting investment plan – which will provide you with even more fantastic facilities to use during your studies, and you can also find out about all of the free cash that you can get, just by studying with us – yes really!
reception
Latest on our league tables

The University of Bedfordshire has an excellent academic reputation. Recently runner-up for the prestigious title of University of the Year in the Times Higher Education awards 2007, the University of Bedfordshire has also been placed third in the country for Media courses and 12th for Sport (Guardian 2007).

More recently, the University has been successful in climbing up the league tables, according to the Independent ‘Good University Guide’ 2008, and our Hospitality, Leisure, Recreation, Sport and Tourism courses have been ranked 21st in the UK. And that’s not all. Our Dance courses have recently been rated 2nd in the UK, Journalism 6th, Marketing 11th, and Business 21st in the UK, and our Computer Science courses have been ranked among the top 25% of all UK universities, in the 2008 National Student Survey.
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Exciting new facilities

The University is investing a massive £130m into its main campuses in Bedford and Luton to provide a wide range of state-of-the-art facilities, including a brand new £34m Campus Centre and new £40m en-suite student accommodation at the Luton campus.

So far, the investment has introduced a £5.5m Media Arts Centre which is home to a broadcast television studio and two digital radio studios, a £7.8m Learning Resources Centre, £20m en-suite student halls of residence at the Bedford campus, £1.2m pioneering ‘Business Pods’ which resemble modern offices, an £8m Physical Education and Sport Science Centre that is set to train athletes for the 2012 Olympics, and a £6m Campus Centre which houses a 280-seat theatre.

Fantastic Bursaries and Scholarships – Up to £4,180 Available

Bedfordshire offers the best financial support in the south of England and the second best support in the whole of the UK. Most UK/EU students that are starting full-time degree courses will be able to receive up to £4,180, and at the very least every student can receive £310.

Don’t blame students for ’studentification’

AZ — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:03:38 +0000

Abandoned pint glasses, overgrown gardens, heavily curtained windows and loud kerfuffles at the crack of dawn.

If housing minister Caroline Flint has her way, these hallmarks of undergraduate living could soon vanish to restore suburban order to student-saturated streets.

In some areas, students outnumber local residents. Belfast’s Queen’s University students inhabit more than half of houses in the immediate vicinity of the campus while around two-thirds of the 10,000 residents of Headingley, in Leeds, are students, all packed into 73 streets of terraced houses.

Town-gown relations are notoriously tense during term time in cities such as Leeds, Nottingham and Southampton.

The government’s plan is to halt the “studentification” of university towns by capping the number of houses in multiple occupation (HMO).

Flint wants councils to get together with universities to plan more purpose-built accommodation. She says her main concern is communities left as “ghost towns” when students desert them during the summer months.

But let’s not forget why these ghettos sprung up in the first place.

Thanks in part to the government’s ambitious target to get 50% of young people into higher education, the UK’s student population has swelled to 2.5 million.

Couple this with an average student debt of £17, 500 and you can’t blame students – and landlords for that matter – for searching out the cheapest, most convenient housing, however overcrowded or antisocial this may be for their neighbours.

Flint’s drive to “blend student populations into well-mixed neighbourhoods” seems a seriously delayed reaction to a problem that has been building up for years. And announcing her plans in the middle of a dip in the housing market is unlikely to get landlords on board with changes in legislation.

A spokesman for the housing charity Shelter said: “This seems to be a cheap dig at students, many of whom are forced to live in HMOs because it’s the only way they can afford to attend university.

“Students are often some of the most exploited people in the private rented sector, having to live in poor but expensive accommodation because it’s located near the college or university.

“If the government really wants to tackle the issue, it should be looking at the sector as a whole and not just blame students.”

And Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, fears that “added bureaucracy will discourage landlords from the HMO market”.

The truth is that universities and clusters of their students bring in a substantial income to many towns and cities.

According to Universities UK, higher education institutions generate £45m each year, and for every 100 university employees, a further 99 jobs are created in the wider economy as a knock-on effect.

So, in theory, top marks to Flint for recognising that many UK university towns are swamped with students.

In practice though, with so many millions of young people in full-time higher education, the ghost-town problem is unlikely to disappear.

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University life in UK

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