Your Birmingham experience

I'm not sure if that is true - if you go into the job zone (in the Guild) they'll be able to advise you https://www.guildofstudents.com/jsv/jobs/students/

I found them to be very flexible - bar work is obviously daytime and evening including weekends. I never worked set days but of course things may have changed. There are lots of other options aside from bar work though.

Definitely pop in to the job zone and have a chat - they will be able to help

Hi, I am currently studying AS and have found a perfect course for me at Birmingham university. Having researched Birmingham, on the surface it looks great - beautiful campus, great position in the league tables (above Bristol!!) and is very close to the centre of the UK's second city. However, I know a couple people who are studying at Birmingham and are really not enjoying it. Obviously this is a small group of people, but I just wanted to know if this overall feeling of disappointment is felt by the masses of Brum students? I'm sure this type of thread has been posted before, but any responses would be greatly appreciated ...

The student village Selly Oak isn't very nice either. It's generally okay most of the time, but it gets a bit dodgy after term time as soon as the students leave and the chavs come out.

I'm from Manchester and the equivalent of Selly Oak which is Fallowfield isn't nice either - everything you've said about Selly Oak can be applied to Fallowfield and I think this goes for the vast majority of student areas all over the country. So it's not something that should put you off a university because they're all pretty much the same.

birminghams a hole. I made the same choice as you. picked birmingham because of superior course. but so regret that decision.

what are your other choices?

Fair enough.

To be fair I haven't even visited the universities at Manchester or Bristol, so I'm not in a position to assume they're better. I'd just imagine preferring them myself because the university departments are dotted around the city centre rather than being squished into one campus a bus journey away, and that there'd be more variation in where students typically live outside of Halls, but I could be wrong.

I'm interested in hearing all the different perspectives of current students at Bham as I've not yet made up my mind of whether to go through adjustment.

What, in your experience, are some of the worst things about Bham uni and conversely what are the good points? And what course are you doing?


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I was doing photography. I thought initially from visits to birmingham that it was a cool place. but living there is totally different entirely.

the city lacks a lot of cohesion. like no one really knows whats going on there half the time. and i mean the locals mind you. like marilyn manson played there and like nobody knew. or like you'll ask someone for directions and they won't know anything about their own city.

its really not worthy of being called a second city. everything shuts down really early and for its size it lacks a lot of variety and stuff. if you want a big city outside of london try manchester. if you want cool and quirky art stuff try bristol.

like birminghams art culture really sucks. a long with local music scene. its not a very innovative or trend setting place.

and if you live pretty much anywhere other than south birmingham its all quite grim n grey.

the rent there is stupid. like the quality of housing and how much it costs is disgusting. in many parts of birmingham they don't have wheely bins so when its a bin day people just leave trash bags out on the street. which means that you should get used to the notion of having a rat problem.

the food variety in birmingham is ok but not what you'd expect from a big city.

the club scene in birmingham again is pretty bland. with all students spending their time between snobs and rainbow room. the arcadian is like a load of bars that are all the same that look good from the outside but are crap when you get in.

a few black night clubs if your into black music but even then thats pretty bad for a city with so many black people.

the main economic force driving birmingham is the asian community so really everything that isn't muslim related is kinda just not really as good as anywhere else. you have the odd place like mechu bar which is just... sad. its like their posh club but its like... so so so overrated.

then theres gate crasher. which if you want to dance to chart hits thats ur bag.

the travel theres pretty bad. you need a bus pass cuz they have this coin slot machine system. a lot of cities i've been to their buses all lead back to the city central bus station eventually so if you get on the wrong bus you can always go back to the city. but in birmingham theres buses that just skip the city centre and leave you ina random place.

the taxi drivers are pretty much your typical stereo type of an asian grooming gang guy. if your a girl it'll be a rarity if they don't try or say something sexually innapropriate and if your a guy and make conversation with them don't be suprised if they offer you drugs or prostitutes which (and here's the selling pitch) YOU DON"T EVEN HAVE TO RAPE THEM? so great prostitutes then...

birmingham is just a city that seems to just not really be good at anything. like its not awful at somethings. but its just not that good either.

bristol or leeds or london's night life is awesome.

and even places like leicester and hertfordshire have way better life styles cause the students have made the whole thing cater to them.

basically birmingham is just a slightly larger luton. but whereas luton has a sort of Southern sharpness that u might associate with londoners birmingham has none of that sharpness. the droning mooing local accent loses its charm quickly and will eventually start to turn you more stupid than you were before you moved there.

i had a choice between brum and bristol. i so regret not picking bristol.

the food variety in birmingham is ok but not what you'd expect from a big city.

I was doing photography. I thought initially from visits to birmingham that it was a cool place. but living there is totally different entirely.

the city lacks a lot of cohesion. like no one really knows whats going on there half the time. and i mean the locals mind you. like marilyn manson played there and like nobody knew. or like you'll ask someone for directions and they won't know anything about their own city.

its really not worthy of being called a second city. everything shuts down really early and for its size it lacks a lot of variety and stuff. if you want a big city outside of london try manchester. if you want cool and quirky art stuff try bristol.

like birminghams art culture really sucks. a long with local music scene. its not a very innovative or trend setting place.

and if you live pretty much anywhere other than south birmingham its all quite grim n grey.

the rent there is stupid. like the quality of housing and how much it costs is disgusting. in many parts of birmingham they don't have wheely bins so when its a bin day people just leave trash bags out on the street. which means that you should get used to the notion of having a rat problem.

the food variety in birmingham is ok but not what you'd expect from a big city.

the club scene in birmingham again is pretty bland. with all students spending their time between snobs and rainbow room. the arcadian is like a load of bars that are all the same that look good from the outside but are crap when you get in.

a few black night clubs if your into black music but even then thats pretty bad for a city with so many black people.

the main economic force driving birmingham is the asian community so really everything that isn't muslim related is kinda just not really as good as anywhere else. you have the odd place like mechu bar which is just... sad. its like their posh club but its like... so so so overrated.

then theres gate crasher. which if you want to dance to chart hits thats ur bag.

the travel theres pretty bad. you need a bus pass cuz they have this coin slot machine system. a lot of cities i've been to their buses all lead back to the city central bus station eventually so if you get on the wrong bus you can always go back to the city. but in birmingham theres buses that just skip the city centre and leave you ina random place.

the taxi drivers are pretty much your typical stereo type of an asian grooming gang guy. if your a girl it'll be a rarity if they don't try or say something sexually innapropriate and if your a guy and make conversation with them don't be suprised if they offer you drugs or prostitutes which (and here's the selling pitch) YOU DON"T EVEN HAVE TO RAPE THEM? so great prostitutes then...

birmingham is just a city that seems to just not really be good at anything. like its not awful at somethings. but its just not that good either.

bristol or leeds or london's night life is awesome.

and even places like leicester and hertfordshire have way better life styles cause the students have made the whole thing cater to them.

basically birmingham is just a slightly larger luton. but whereas luton has a sort of Southern sharpness that u might associate with londoners birmingham has none of that sharpness. the droning mooing local accent loses its charm quickly and will eventually start to turn you more stupid than you were before you moved there.

i had a choice between brum and bristol. i so regret not picking bristol.

Culturally Birmingham pales in comparison to other cities like Manchester, especially musically.

No, just no, it is a myth that Manchester is a great music city. But you don't have the national broadcaster waxing lyrical over Birmingham music 24/7 until the message drip, drip, drips through.

Birmingham's music is worldwide. How many Manchester bands have had number 1 albums in America? Led Zep had six. Moody Blues had two, Fine Young Cannibals and Black Sabbath had one each. Steve Winwood had one as well. If you include bands with a Brummie in it then you can add Pink Floyd with four and Fleetwood Mac with three. How many Madchester bands did that? I think inventing Heavy Metal - a genre that has lasted the ages and has worldwide appeal - is more significant than five years of Madchester.

I haven't even mentioned Elgar either. Or our Reggae scene, Steel Pulse were the first outside of Jamaica to win a Grammy.

Doesn't matter that they didn't have any number 1 albums in America, to me that's not a measure of how good something is. I prefer Joy Division/New Order/The Smiths/The Stone Roses (etc.) to most of those bands anyway. Also Led Zeppelin originated in London and I'm pretty sure none of their bandmembers even lived in Birmingham.

People who say the music scene in brum is **** clearly haven't ventured past broad street on a night out.

Jesus, this thread has gone absolutely toxic.
If Birmingham is such a ****hole, why do over million people live there?
It can't be as bad as Belfast. That's why I reckon the city's fine.