A fresher’s view on Hull, (University of) Week 1 – 6

Stay at The Lawns, you'll definitely regret it if you don't. Had an amazing year there and the blocks are basically one big house of 28 so you're bound to really get on well with some of your block and then you meet so many other people from other blocks too.

Stay at The Lawns, you'll definitely regret it if you don't. Had an amazing year there and the blocks are basically one big house of 28 so you're bound to really get on well with some of your block and then you meet so many other people from other blocks too.

I can't afford the Lawns but it seems most first years want to stay there... will I be disadvantaged? Also refuse to rely on buses to get everywhere so I'd rather be within walking distance to uni.

I am currently at uni and Halls is the best. You are more than likely going to meet a bunch of different friends. Some unis (such as my current one) did a building party, so each building was given a coloured t-shirt on arrival and when we went to the first freshers event, we got to see and recognise other floors we hadn't met. And I'm glad that I did cause for the first 4 months I went out with other floors, we invited other floors with us and etc. And it's so nice cause if you get on well with someone from other floors, you'll meet their friends and vice versa and it's just a great experience.

I know a few who got into houses and after a few weeks just hated it because they were missing out on it. You will make friends, but during Freshers, Halls' guys will be so busy with their residency, you won't get to make friends with them straight away. A lot of people I know also moaned about not taking a liking to their housemates. If that happens, you can't leave and get out of your housing contract, so prepared. I was close with a group of my flatmates for 5 months, and no we no longer communicate apart from them telling me updates and etc. It's not the end of the world, but it's not pleasant. Thankfully, I have coursemates so I tend to go out with them, or go to the student village and seek out friends that I've made through a coursemate. Some people don't meet their coursemates and if you ever do fall out with house/flatmates, the worst thing will be that you don't have nobody to befriend and feeling isolated.

I know Halls is expensive, but I wouldn't regret it and I honestly do believe it will make your uni experience 100x better, 100% guaranteed.

Many people get supoort from their parents or work before uni in summer and during the term breaks. Everyone u know will be living of tesco/asda value stuff. You should consider a student overdraft. That will work wonders as long as u keep it for emergencies.

Also, if you get a house you need to consider how much youre paying, anything you are paying extra for and how much are you paying a week. Usually the contract starts early and finishes later. You might think its cheaper but usually it equates to the same price as unis accommodation anyway, so you should consider that.

Unless youre a naturally confident person who has always been able to make friends easily then that shouldnt be a problem. It will be if youre an introvert. I think youll struggle to find friends if you dont find coursemates. I would consider making friends on fb with the freshers page. Look for anyone who is studying your course and id say join up with them when youre going out and freshers and stuff. Thats how i would go about it. People are so keen on finding friends after exam stayed, leading up to results day, once theyve found out their accommodation and etc, they will also be a hype on fb and leading up to arrivals. That will be peak time when people are rumbling around fb asking n tellin everybody what accom their in!

Defo make friends during freshers cause once its over, everyone will have made their friends and go out with their groups. People will incredibly bond over drinking games and doing stuff with their flates over freshers.

My parents don't have the money to help me. The university owned houses work exactly the same as halls - 42 week contract, £69-£83 a week inclusive of bills. They're owned by the uni in the same way as halls. I'm shy, but living in halls won't fix that. In halls I'd have less than £10 a week to live on - not enough. I can't get a job, at least not over summer, and once I'm at university I'm not sure I'l be able to cope with having ajob on top of hectic contact hours.. so yeah halls really aren't an option. I'm open to getting a job once I'm there if I have the time and am mentally in a position to do so, but I';m not risking not being able to, and not beingable to afford to live.

I can't afford the Lawns.. also you have to move out at Christmas or Easter and that' just not an option so close to exams. Will I still make friends in the houses?

For some reason on the website, it doesn't say how many people students live with and etc.

For instance, "house of 28"? Does that mean each floor has 28 people, but it's split up between "blocks" for example, blocks of 4, with 7 people living in each block, equating to 28 people on one floor? Is this correct?

well i think i'd regret staying in halls when I end up not being able to afford food to eat? kinda sucks that they're so expensive, it's literally not an option... i'm just worried that i won't make as many friends

Not quite, each block has about 25-30 people which is what they meant. So each Hall has about 5 blocks, each with about 25-30 people in it. Inside the majority of the blocks there is about 3/4 people per half floor and a loo on every half-floor. There are 3 kitchens per block so you share between about 9 of you and the kitchens are really nice considering you get meals provided in most halls. (This applies to most halls on the lawns except Ferens)



Um, are you aware that for the majority of halls with the exception of like one hall, all evening meals are provided? That's the reason it is that price. Plus as your bus pass is provided once you've paid for accommodation, that's pretty much all your big expenses covered.

No need to be rude. I can't do catered - I'm such a picky eater I need to be buying my own food. It's also not completely about the money - I don't want to rely on buses. I don't want to be that far from university. It means I can't go to the library whenever I want, only when the buses are running. I'd feel more trapped than anything.

Sorry, if I came across as rude, that really wasn't the intention at all, I honestly didn't know if you knew that so wanted to make sure you were aware. And ah, okay that makes sense. Houses probably are more suited to you in that case. It may be a little more isolated, but I'm sure you'll meet plenty of people on your course and societies/AUs are great place to meet people too.

I know you said you weren't the keenest on relying on buses but maybe check out the EYMS 20% discount card to save you a bit of money when you go into town or if you take the bus to the lawns to meet people you know who live there. It doesn't cost you anything, you just put like £10 onto the card and then pay using the card instead of money to get you 20% off your bus fare.

No worries, I shouldn't have been so quick to get defensive. Ah the 20% scheme is similar to something done in York, so I'll definitely do that. I don't suppose you - or anyone else - knows roughly what the bus costs to get from the university into the city?

Since the first few posts here were made in 2012, I thought I'd make one of these to mention any changes in the last few years and things the other posts didn't mention. I've also been attempting to keep this updated, you can check the last updated thing at the bottom to see how up to date I am.

Background Information
I am originally from the outskirts of Sheffield, Hull was my insurance choice after looking around a lot of universities and I am very happy I ended up here. I am not a Fresher like the title suggests, I am now in my third year studying Physics, however this means that I have had time to find out all my facts so I can inform you better about the university. I stayed in the Lawns in my first year and have lived in a shared house on Cranbrook Avenue (privately owned), but I know a lot of people and have talked to them about their experiences.

About the City
So Hull has this really bad reputation from years and years ago that it really does not deserve. The city is rapidly improving and with it getting City of Culture 2017, it is having lots of money pumped into it. Like every city, it does have it's rough bits but as a student, you probably won't have reason to go there.

You can catch a straight bus to the interchange in the centre of Hull, where there are several shopping centres (Princes Quay, St Stephens Centre, Prospect) as well as several streets full of shops. In terms of things to do, one of Hull's biggest attractions is the Deep. This is a really huge aquarium (they even have penguins), that I would definitely recommend a visit. A student ticket is £10.50 but lasts you for an entire year so you can go as many times as you like. There is also the cinema (there is one in Princes Quay and one in St Stephens), art galleries and a few museums, as well as a Laser Quest. Also of note is Big Fun, this is like one of those big play areas like Wacky Warehouse you get for kids but you can book it out for a group of adults. There is also a Hollywood Bowl at Kingswood and an ice skating rink somewhere close but I've never actually been there.

For a night out, there are lots of nightclubs to go to including Asylum which is on the university campus. There is also Spiders, Sugar Mill, Piper, Welly, Pozition, Propaganda and Fuel that I know of. For bar crawls there are bars all down Beverly Road, as well as in Old Town.

The Public Transport
My view of this is actually that it is fairly good. The buses are reasonably regular and not ridiculously expensive.

In your first year if you are living in Lawns, Thwaite, or Needler, you lucky lucky people get a semester card free (totally not annoyed about how I had to pay for one when I was there) This is really really helpful. It basically means you can go on the 102, 103 and 105 for free with the card. These are pretty much the only buses you will use in Hull in your first year, the 102 goes between all the Halls of residence and the university and the other two go between the halls, past the university and to the interchange in the centre of the city. Note, if you want to go to the centre of the city then stay on the 103/105 until the last stop when it reaches the interchange. Don't do what I did which was get off at the first sight of shops (turned out to be the bottom of Beverly Road) and walk the rest of the way as it's a decent walk.

If you don't live in those Halls, instead are living in Taylor Court or a shared house, it might be worth considering getting a 20% Discount Card, how much money this saves you depends on how much you are going to get the bus into town but as long as you would spend over £10 on buses over the course of the year (maybe 5 trips into town on the bus), it effectively means it costs you nothing. What these cards do is that you put money on the card, and on EYMS buses you just pay with money on your card instead of giving them money and it gets you 20% off the fare. You can top the cards up with any amount of money (like £1.50 so you've got enough on it to pay for that journey) when you get on any EYMS bus in Hull.

The costs of fares have inevitably gone up a small amount from what is stated in the first post but not a huge amount.

The University Area
If in your first year you live in the Lawns, Needler or Thwaite, then Cottingham is the closest place for you to shop. It is a nice little village, with a Co-op and small Sainsbury's that you can shop at. It also has a really good butchers, an off-license to buy alcohol at and a post office. There is also a market every Thursday that sells a variety of things.

Most people choose to live in shared houses in their second and subsequent years. Most of the student housing is on or on the roads coming off of Newland Avenue and Beverly Road which are two parallel roads close to the university. There are lots of shops on these roads including Lidl, small Sainsbury's and small Tesco. There are also several restaurants, pubs, bars and takeaways. Aside from the usual takeaway places (pizza, chicken, fish & chip, indian), Hull also has a few slightly less common takeaway places such as a pie shop, that does different savoury pies to take away (really yummy) and 2 different Japanese places.

On top of this there are multiple cafés, one that I will recommend is Planet Coffee, which is a small café on Newland Avenue with a very relaxed atmosphere. Their hot chocolates are divine, they do a wide range of different flavoured hot chocolates which all come with cream and a flake as standard (though they do ask if you want them), all for reasonable prices. I don't like coffee personally but I've heard their coffees are good too. The staff are all friendly and they have lots of sofas and comfy chairs to sit in. We've found that their drinks are also good hangover cures.


Okay, sorry about this, but before I go on I wanted to firmly disagree with what the first post said on this topic. Feel free to ignore the paragraph under the spoiler.


The University Campus
The campus is actually really nice, there are lots of green spaces and everything is reasonably close together so you don't have to walk that far between lectures. The union is really good to go in breaks between lectures and the union shop sells all your essentials. There are also lots of places to park bikes/scooters if you want to cycle in, Hull is very flat so good for that. Also if you want to bring your laptop/tablet, the entire campus has free wifi.

Physics at Hull
Like I mentioned before I study physics at Hull, I'm in my third year and I'm really enjoying it. It is hard work and to do it you've got to enjoy both physics and maths (there is an awful lot of maths) but if you do, it is really good.

All the lecturers are really nice and quite enthusiastic about what they do. (Wait til you meet Dr Buzza, he bounces off the walls) Plus Jules in the office is amazing and if you have any problems she will sort them out straight away. The lecturers all want you to do well and will help you the best they can. They are very good at listening to the students problems and making changes as well. For example for one of my lectures, we ended up in a badly designed lecture theatre with columns that blocked some peoples view of the front (most of the lecture theatres are better than this) so we complained about it. Due to this, we got moved to a much better lecture theatre for the rest of those lectures. Also they listened to us when exams and deadlines all ended up really close to each other and moved the dates of both some deadlines and some exams to allow us to have time to spend on each thing.

Also don't worry if you got a bit stuck with A-level maths or didn't do further maths as in the first year they go through all the maths from A-level though faster to make sure that everybody is on the same level. (If you did do further maths, you might find the first year maths very easy but don't worry, it soon goes past what you've done.) Also there are maths tutorials set every week. DO THEM. They are really helpful and if you can do all of them (without notes) you'll be able to do the exam no problem. Most of the exams are like that, really hard but reasonable. If you do the work you'll do well.

This year, because I was doing really well and enjoying the course so much, I decided to switch up from a BSc (3 years) to an MPhys(4 years), which was actually really easy. As the first two years are pretty much identical you can wait until the very end of your second year to switch up like I did. Also when I stared my degree, there was only about 10 people out of 70 doing the MPhys, now so many people have switched up that the majority of the class is now doing the 4 year course.

The university also has a really good Physics Society which I would strongly suggest any physics students or anyone interested in physics joins. It does loads of socials (both drinking and non-drinking), as well as stuff like a trip to CERN, a formal Christmas Meal with lecturers, Combined Science Ball, tutoring A-level students at a nearby school, ect. It is also a great place to meet lots of people and physics students from all different years. The higher years usually are very willing to give advice and sometimes will offer help and support if you are struggling and ask for help. (I'll be honest the society may not continue next year as it's currently being run by my year who are all going to be in forth year or have left next year so we don't want to commit and the lower years don't seem as interested)

The Brynmor Jones Library
The Library has actually been done up in the last year or so and is finally finished!! All the books have been kept but moved to a more compact layout, and the library rearranged to allow more and better spaces for people to work.

There are computers on every floor that can be used, as well as printers. Though it should be noted there are also computer labs elsewhere on campus that can be used if the computers in the library are all taken. You can also bring your own laptop as there is an abundance of plug sockets to use and the entire campus has free wifi.

There are conference rooms that can be booked with big screens that you can connect your laptop to or access your uni computer account from, these are great for group projects or presentations and are sound proof so you can be as loud as you like.

It also has spaces to account for the three different type of work people might want to do: silent, quiet or social

Social
The seventh floor is for people who like to study in groups, with big tables, whiteboards, as well as comfy chairs for tasks that require more talking and less writing like languages or brainstorming ideas in a group. There isn't a noise limit in here. The conference rooms are also good for working in groups.

Quiet
This is for people who want to be able to talk quietly but not get distracted by other people. The majority of floors (3 to 6) are for quiet study and have a range of places to sit and study quietly, where talking is allowed but only quietly. They have places good for pairs to work together, big tables for bigger groups who want to sit together but still work quietly to avoid distractions and sectioned off places to revise/work on your own. All these have plug sockets and individual lights to make sure you don't strain your eyes when it gets dark.

Silent
There is a floor available for silent study, where people aren't allowed to make any noise so this removes any distractions. This floor is also kitted out with lights and plugs.

The Union Building
The first post actually explained this very well but missed out/brushed over a few places that I use a lot. So I'm going to expand a bit.

So on the first floor, there is the union shop which is very handy. It sells all the essentials, from stationary to makeup to small gifts and wrapping paper to clothes to food. It isn't the cheapest place ever and I wouldn't recommend you doing your food shop there but it has everything you'll need while you're on campus. They also sell stuff for lunches like sandwiches and pasties. They have a microwave in the shop and upstairs in Retreat that you can use for free so I've got a pasty or sausage roll from there and heated it up for lunch. You can also get a 10% discount here with an NUS card.

If you want to buy your lunch though there is a few other places in the union you could go. There's Quickbite that does sausage and bacon sandwiches and jacket potatoes or Munchies that does sandwiches to order. Both of these are reasonably priced and gives you food to take away.

If you wanted a full meal though, you could go to the two bars in the union, John McCarthy and Sanctuary, both of these serve food. The food is similar to what you'd find in a pub but isn't bad quality. There is also a smaller room at the back of Sanctuary with pool tables, as it is still part of Sanctuary you can also order food and drink there. On top of this Sanctuary also has a nice outdoor space so you can eat/drink outside which is good when it starts to get warmer. Both bars are open most nights and host events, such as quizzes and karaoke on certain nights.

On the first floor is Retreat, this consists of three rooms which contains a mixture of table & chairs, sofas and comfy chairs. It also contains two microwaves that anybody can use for free. This is a good place to go to between lectures when the gap isn't long enough to justify going home or to each lunch in a relaxed atmosphere.

The Accommodation
The accommodation was one of the reasons why I put Hull as one of my choices, compared to the other ones I'd seen, it has the best Halls of Residence by far (I was judging this by the Lawns). I spent my first year in the Lawns and I think it probably was the best choice for me to go into there first as it was very social and I was able to make friends easily as everyone was in the same situation as me. There was also quite a few people so there was more chance to find someone I got on really well with. I heard that some people who lived in a shared house felt a bit isolated as they were so far away from the action when everyone else was making plans to do things. They only met people through the course. I should say by social I don't necessarily mean in terms of going out getting drunk (though that applies as well) as I didn't really go out very much at all and made friends with someone who never goes out drinking. However that's just how it looked to me personally, as everybody is different.

If you want to bring a bike, there are lockable bike sheds at the student halls. Bikes may not be left in hallways or bedrooms. If you do wish to bring a bike, please ensure that you have it security marked and bring a strong lock. You are also advised to top-up the basic insurance package to cover your bike.

By the second year though, people tend to have already made friends that they like, to go live with in a shared house and they already know people so can go round to eachothers house and don't have to worry so much about being isolated.

Bit of advice: In hull there is an excess of student housing, meaning some houses go empty after everyone has found a house to live in. This means it is competitive and you can get amazing houses for much cheaper than you could elsewhere. However the downside is come near Christmas people come and start pressuring you to buy a house saying they are all going to go. They then show you all the awful houses, then for the last one show one that isn't quite so awful so you think it's good, then they pressure you into buying it straight away by saying it will go soon. You buy it before you realise that the standard is actually much higher. DON'T BE PRESSURED INTO BUYING A HOUSE. DON'T GO WITH UNICOM. Unicom are notoriously bad landlords with awful houses with lots of problems and everyone will advise you against going with them. DON'T BUY A HOUSE WITH UNICOM.

Societies and Sports Clubs
When you come to the uni, a great way to get involved and meet new people is to join a society or sports club. There are lots of different societies and sports clubs available for you to join, a list of all the existing ones can be found here. New ones are often made throughout the year as well.

It cost £4 to join a society for the year and £25 per sports club though you have to pay an extra £5 for the first sports club you join for insurance. (So basically it costs £30 to join one sports club, then £25 for any ones you join after that). Sports ones cost more because they use more equipment and stuff. The prices might vary slightly with the new academic year but I doubt they will change massively.

If you find that a society or sports club you really wanted to join doesn't currently exist or you have an idea for a great society or sports club, then you can start a new society/sports club up. Anyone can do this, but for it to exist you need at least 15 paying (not necessarily active) members. If this interests you, then you can find more information about this here.

Student Offers
So this year (2014), Freshers Week has been improved a lot so there is a lot more on and it now lasts longer so is called a Freshers Fest. With this my advice has changed a bit, they offer a Freshers Wristband which will get you free entry to all the drinking events before 11pm, but this does not include non-drinking events (except laser quest) and you are able to buy tickets to individual events in advance. HOWEVER please note that there is a very limited amount of individual tickets per event (due to guaranteed entry for all the people with wristbands). If you want to go to any of the events like the Welcome Party or Tower Beach Party, if you don't have a freshers band or a ticket to that particular event that you bought in advance you simply won't get in. So if you want to go to the drinking events, it is your choice if you buy a wristband or buy a ticket to the individual events but don't try to get a ticket on the door as you'll be waiting a long time and still might not be able to get in. A wristband will be best if you plan on going to a lot of the drinking events, but the individual tickets will be better if you only plan on going to one or two of them.

With the non-drinking events (as most of these are new this year, this is my speculation and this advice might change after this freshers fest for following years) I expect that quite a few of them will be really popular so you will have to buy a ticket to the ones you want to go to in advance. There will still be stuff you can go to if you don't buy a ticket in advance but I imagine a lot of the popular ones will be sold out fast.

In terms of a platinum card, that is only worth it if you are planning on going out a lot. I don't go out that much so it definitely wasn't worth it for me but I have friends who go out a lot and it was worth it for them. The Platinum Card includes a freshers wristband, free entry (and a shorter queue) into Asylum all year, including most events and a End of Year Ball ticket. Bear in mind it costs £36.50 for a wristband, £4 to get into Asylum each time, ~£48 for an EOYB ticket and up to about £12 for events (like concerts). You can use these figures to work out if you think it'd be worth it for you. They do offer half semester ones at around Christmas.

I got a NUS Card and it's been worth it for me as I've used it several places where they only accept that, I also use the union shop a lot and it gets 10% off there. It might also get a 10% discount in Sanctuary and John McCarthy but I'm not sure. The main thing is to remember to ask if they do student discount as some surprising places do but you have to remember to get it.




Feel free to ask any questions and let me know if anything is wrong/needs updating/needs expanding upon or anything that I've missed. I'm looking to update this hopefully with anything else helpful that people want.

Thank you for this post! I'm studying physics at Hull in September and this has been a really great insight. It's exactly the image I got from the university on the applicant day. I'm really excited to start

I do have a question, I'm not sure if you can answer because it's a situation-specific thing - but have you had a part time job at any point during the degree? I'm a bit concerned that my student finance won't cover much at all, especially in my second/third years, but a few people have said that I won't be able to balance studying and working even just on a few hours a week?