I live in Lancaster, it's not the biggest city, but it has everything you need, plenty of high street shops and supermarkets ect. Lancaster University recently built a new sports hall so there're plenty of activites to do, and I always see students walking around in town, we have a few nightclubs too, not a lot, but they seem to be popular. I imagine the only real problem is the fact its about a 10 mins bus ride away from the city centre, but the university has buses driving through the heart of it all the time, I think. I've been to Lancaster University too for work experience, it seems to have plenty of shops and stuff, it's almost like a town of its own.