hi everyone welcome back to the channel as you might see i'm alone today so becca did a video
a few days ago all about her experience at the university of warwick so today you've
guessed it i'm here to tell you all about the university of birmingham so i went there
between the years of 2017 and 2020 so the first thing to tell you all about is the accommodation
on offer at the university of birmingham so in first year as at most universities you will
live in the halls of residence and birmingham has this amazing place called the vale village
which is made up of loads of different types of accommodation that can really suit
everybody so some are catered some are non-catered some have shared bathrooms some have ensuites
as i said something for everybody and you're kind of in your separate place from the rest of campus
it's gorgeous and green and there's a giant lake in the middle it's got good facilities so you can
go to the shop you can go to a restaurant get your favourite coffee or pizza and everything's
within a short walk and you're all around at the first year so it's perfect for socialising
if you meet a new friend the night before you can go and see them the day after and be like hi
so my first choice was chamberlain and luckily i got it so there is a chamberlain tower
alongside three blocks blocks a to c so i was in block a and really happy because chamberlain
is quite a new build so it's very modern at the time that i was there chamberlain was
catered so for those of you who don't know i wasn't a good cook before i started university
so i was really pleased that in firstly that's something that i didn't have to worry about
so i was really happy with my flat there were six of us and it was supposed to be three girls three
boys but in fact it was four girls everyone was really sociable but i do know that in
chamberlain some people have mixed experiences so definitely look around by the sounds of it
tennis courts is the best one for socialising so just see kind of what your priorities are
and if you need to ask me any questions i'm sure i'll know someone from each of the accommodations
to to get back to you then in second and third year as with other universities you move out of
your halls of residence and into a local area and at the university of birmingham you tend to
move to selly oak or selly for short so it's not the nicest area but it is very studenty
again it's got all the facilities and it's really a short walk to university sometimes especially
my third year accommodation i would wake up and i could be on campus within 10 minutes easily
next we move on to nightlife which is obviously an integral part of your university experience
and this is where birmingham really shines because there's something for everybody so in first year i
would often find that i would end up at the duck and scholar which is on the vale village which
is where all the accommodation is as i previously mentioned they have djs on the weekend and really
good cocktail hours i recall so that was a fab and safe place for me to go and really easy to
walk home it also meant that you can make friends the classic conversations in first yearv would be
where are you from what degree are you doing what accommodation are you in and it was just
such a gentle easing into the university nightlife experience again in first year i also found myself
going on to broad street which was probably a 10 minute uber from where i lived maximum
and there are the likes of players and snobs and rosies and they're all fab you've got to go there
as a fresher you'll soon work out what kind of rooms you like to go into what floors of each club
and again it's a really good way to make friends then when you live in selly oak you tend to start
going to the pubs and to circo there were two pubs when i was there but one has just
closed down very sadly so the pub that's left over is called the goose and it's fantastic
again great drink deals and then literally just over the road is a place called circo it is a
bar but it really does turn into a club at night time and it's fabulous because you will just bump
into people that you know it's a great time and then you can just walk home after a night out
another night out that's local is of course the students union
so on wednesday evenings they have what's called sports night so all the different sports societies
have pres in their different locations sometimes in circo and then you would all congregate
in the students union for just the craziest night out ever on a saturday it's called fab and fresh
and again that's fantastic super cheap really easy you can walk there do it in groups so you're safe
but you can walk there and it's a great time and again you know your surroundings because
you're literally partying on campus but if you want to venture out and go into birmingham there
are so many bars and clubs and there's literally something for everybody so i quite quickly came
to realise that my favoruite night out venue was a place called lab 11 which is in digbeth
and i would love it every single time i went there so if you want to try something new when you go to
the university of birmingham make sure you go to lab 11 and i really hope that you love it
okay so on to facilities as i think i mentioned at the beginning it is the most gorgeous campus
especially the central part it's completely red brick and it's stunning and luckily that's where
law school was so in terms of my own experience the law school inside is quite traditional
i wouldn't say run down but it definitely hasn't been given a new lease of life recently
however they do have great facilities inside such as a mock courtroom and all the different sizes of
lecture theatres and seminar rooms and then onto the side of the law school we've built something
not me but the university of birmingham have built something called harding and it's a harding
law library and it's stunning it's so modern and it's just where the law students go it's perfect
so if you're thinking going to the university of birmingham and studying law like i did
that's probably where you'll end up studying and it's fantastic but the main library is also quite
new it has three or four floors gorgeous great access to loads of resources really easy to use
and i used to find that there was always a seat especially if you arrived at a good time in the
morning but adjacent to that they've also built the teaching and learning building which again has
great facilities loads of study spaces so people are kind of venturing out to that as well in terms
of other facilities we have a really new sports um building which has kind of a state-of-the-art gym
and swimming pool and all the different like exercise classrooms a lot of money is pumped
into this university so they do keep building fabulous buildings for the students to enjoy
so if you want a quiet space or somewhere to study as a group or if you want to grab a coffee
or if you want to go and watch a sport there's really everything's within walking distance
it's fantastic i couldn't i couldn't ask for better facilities during my time okay so next up
we're going to talk a bit about the support that i received in terms of my um course-specific support
the law lecturers were amazing they are literally experts in their fields some of
the irish lecturers had recently written some of the um clauses in the new abortion act in ireland
and then you had like the head of counter terrorism who was on bbc news literally
last year i don't know they're all just fantastic and you can tell they're really passionate so then
it makes you excited to learn in terms of support i would say my top tip is utilise office hours
at first i was scared i was like why would i go and see my lecturer specifically and waste their
time but that's not what it's about they are there especially in their office hours with an open door
ready to answer any questions that you have i would say the support was second to none
my lecturers were my favourite people ever and then more generally about the city
it's kind of up and coming at first i think birmingham had a bad reputation
but now especially for law it's the second city again they've pumped a lot of money into the city
they're moving all the big banks from london it's gorgeous and you can really find some amazing
places there that leads me onto my final three top tips my first tip is explore the city because
when you go to university you'll feel safer and more at home if you understand where you live
so i think within the first two weeks i dragged my course mates into the centre of birmingham
and we just walked for three hours or so around the jewellery quarter digbeth the bull ring just
to kind of familiarise ourselves and get our bearings and then we had a better understanding
of the city that we live in top tip number two is make the most of induction week it's very daunting
when you first arrive at university you know that you need to suddenly live independently you need
to make friends you need to get to your lectures on time and make course mates it can be a lot but
in induction week there are always people there to help you and you will probably meet some of your
best friends potentially in induction week so for example i went to the law society which is called
holdsworth i think they had a barbecue in circo well outside obviously and that's where i met my
course besties just be out there confident if you can introduce yourself to everybody
because realistically you're all in the same boat you're all nervous and you just want to get a good
start my third top tip is of course try all of the different nights out you won't know what you like
unless you try them again there's something for everybody you will just have the best time once
you find the place for you so just go out there grab your mates and go travel the nights out
and honestly lab 11 is the place to be so thank you so much for watching this was my honest review
of the university of birmingham i would give it a 10 out of 10. if you haven't watched becca's
video already make sure you go back and watch that she reviews her time at the university of warwick
and on sunday we have our fifth video of our launch week we aren't yet going to tell you
what it's about but it's a really exciting one and we are buzzing to share it with you
so stay tuned like comment and subscribe and we'll see you sunday bye