Warwick vs Plymouth: the arts, mental health, quality of life, and more

Hey! I study bioscience at Warwick, so I can't comment much on the artistic side of things, but I'll go through your main points:

1) We have a cinema / arts centre which holds a lot of events, both internal (e.g. student bands / orchestra, theatre performances, art exhibitions) as well as external (comedians, music groups, etc.). I haven't been to many of these but the arts centre itself is lovely and in the centre of campus, very close to the Humanities building where you will be studying. Everything at Warwick is very central anyways since it's a bubble campus, so regardless of where your department is you will be able to walk to other bits of campus fairly easily.

2) From my experience the mental health support could be better to be honest, you have to book wellbeing appointments by first doing an online video call with one of the wellbeing team. I personally found this a bit intimidating since I didn't want to speak to someone on a video while I was at home (overly conscious of flatmates listening in, etc.). However, once you get past this they do try to book you in for an appointment, but from what I could tell they only provide long-term support / counselling sessions for those they think are really struggling. If you do end up coming to Warwick and you don't feel that the wellbeing services is supportive enough / doesn't provide what you're looking for, you can get in touch with IAPT - an online telephone based therapy (CBT), or you can ask your GP (there's one on campus) what other options there are. IAPT is free and I found it very helpful, but I was on a waiting list for a few months.

HOWEVER, I do know of other people who have found the wellbeing services more helpful in times of crisis or more 'severe' cases such as grief or if they believe you may be putting yourself in danger.

3) Cost of living / jobs - I do online tutoring which is not super consistent but manageable with workload. I know a few other people who have tutored online and managed, but I don't know of many people who have part-time jobs while studying (especially as most of my friends are studying STEM degrees). There are loads of opportunities on campus for part-time work though (Cafe Nero, Tescos, Rootes grocery store) and I'm sure you will be able to find something if you ask around. In terms of costs of living, I would say it's not terribly high, especially if you don't go out a lot. Food on campus is quite expensive IMO so I recommend making food at home to bring in for lunch. Depending on the area, some houses will be considerably more expensive (nicer areas of Leamington spa, for example), and rent of campus accommodation has gone up in recent years despite the fact that most of the rooms are quite small (e.g. Jack Martin is ≈£180 per week w/ single beds). In Coventry / Canley, there are more houses and flats that are better priced, but the tradeoff is that it's a slightly "dodgier" area.

4) There are virtually no cars ON campus, but there are obviously road around. On campus you will not have to worry about dodging cars - there are a few roads you have to cross but they aren't very big, people tend to stop for you, and traffic usually isn't terrible. I've never had a problem crossing / feeling unsafe on campus.

5) Day to day life is nice! In term 1 / the start of the academic year, campus is quite busy and can be overwhelming, but this calm down significantly in later weeks. In spring there are lots of flowers and wildlife around, and a lot of the buildings are more modern (FAB, Oculus, Sports Hub) so I enjoy working on campus. In terms of social life, there are lots of interesting clubs and sports available. The ones that I'm a part of are very welcoming and supportive, so I would recommend looking through the warwick SU website to find one that suits your interests.

6) To be quite honest, areas around campus are not the safest places at night. Coventry city centre in particular - sometimes homeless people will come up to you to ask for money or there are sketchy people hanging about, but I personally don't know anyone who has ever been hurt or attacked. In groups, you'll be fine. Leamington spa is slightly better for safety but I've still had a few homeless people come up to me there. It really depends on the area. I live in Canley (area just outside of campus towards Coventry) - I don't feel safe in certain neighbourhoods (but I don't go to them anyways), but the area I live in is lovely and mainly full of families / other students so I've never had an issue with crime or safety.

7) I can't provide much experience on this, but there are a lot safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people - there are specific LGBTQ+ events at Terrace Bar (on-campus bar), and I know some societies hold get-togethers / meetups / little socials to support other LGBT members. Personally I have felt like the atmosphere is very welcoming, everyone is super open and supportive of each other's sexualities / gender identities, and I haven't witnessed or heard of anyone being targeted for their identity on campus. However, I have heard some people mention that the greater West Midlands / Cov area itself is a bit more conservative, and apparently have been not treated as kindly by members of the public. Gender-neutral bathrooms are available in the Sports Hub and several others buildings I believe.

Hope that helps!

Hey! I’ve spent some time as a student at Warwick.

So campus is pretty pedestrian I think. Don’t need to worry too much about cars I think. Ofc there are cars but not overwhelmingly so. I have anxiety around cars and roads too so I get it!

Campus itself isn’t in Warwick. It’s on the outskirts of Coventry. Coventry is kind of a **** city so there’s that. But idk why nobody talks about the face that we’re just outside of Coventry, just outside the city. You leave campus and there’s literally fields and a railway construction site that seems frozen in time and not about to be done anytime soon.

So, it’s nice that everything is on one campus (ignoring Gibbet Hill ofc) and I like that because I get overwhelmed in big cities and I hate the rush I feel in places like London. (Social anxiety too lol) but even then, if you’re prone to getting stressed out, that can be suffocating. In term 3 of first year I actually found it sickening to be living in campus, surrounded by students when I’m already stressed out of my mind about exams. Again though, I have an anxiety disorder so that’s just my experience.

Big thing - there’s no catered accommodation!! There are cafes and stuff on campus all over but they sell similar stuff. And nobody talks about this enough but location-wise, it really narrows down your options for the range of food you can get delivered via Deliveroo or just eat. Factor that in bc I think it’s actually not talked about enough. You can only eat so much dominoes (I tried)

Leamington spa is really nice but the buses are notoriously unreliable and even though there’s a form to fill in when buses are late or full/don’t show up, I don’t think the uni cares much at all. There are always mega queues for buses that honestly don’t always show up. There’s always some sort of construction going on between Leamington and uni so that adds to the journey a lot of the time too. I hate crowds and it’s awful.

The student community is honestly really great (ofc you’ve always got some groups who are iffy) and I was pleasantly surprised. International community is great, but also in terms of other protected characteristics, like there’s a lot of representation in the student population - race, gender, disability-wise too. Really welcoming 🌈 too imo.

Student community is great, even as an introvert with social anxiety and neurodivergence.

Societies/sports clubs are really great. I joined quite a few and made some pretty good friends. Arts societies are pretty big on campus. We’ve got the arts centre with a lot of performances and tours. I think Warwick’s acapella society was in the finals or something (unsure) but very active either way in terms of arts societies and stuff. Note, there are music societies but there isn’t actually a dedicated music degree at Warwick, if that is something that matters to you.

Again, student community is really great. It’s more the university itself that isn’t massively concerned with students imo. Societies often bring in therapy dogs (I’ve heard of the occasional therapy alpaca??) but that’s again the student body. Wellbeing doesn’t seem like a real concern for the uni itself, more like a box to check. Especially mental health and disability-wise.

It’s literally against the law to refuse to make accommodations for disabilities but the gaslighting and just lack of support is pretty wild (and I didn’t even realise it at the time). From them literally not caring about social anxiety or literal access needs for things like sensory processing disorder - ‘support’ is concerningly unsupportive. Whether it’s telling a student who has been rushed to hospital that they need to withdraw because lectures can’t be made accessible online (literally just after Covid) or module convenors suggesting that you switch to a different module because they won’t accommodate for your disability needs, or even being told by the disability team that your very reasonable access requests are invalid because ‘what did you expect when you applied to university’ - student-wellbeing seems more like an empty promise and an afterthought at best.

Hiya! I’m trying to decide between these two universities, and I’d love to get some perspectives from others on TSR ahead of the offer holder days I’ll be attending next week.

I’m planning to study creative writing, so I’d like to study somewhere artistically stimulating. I’m not one for clubbing (or really going out in general — anxiety disorder go brr), so “nightlife” isn’t a big concern for me.

* What is the arts scene like on and around campus? Music, theatre, dance, poetry nights, etc.. Are performing societies very active? Is there much promotion for the arts in uni communications?
* What’s the mental health support like? I’ll ask more about this in person, but if anyone has first-hand experience then that would be great to hear about.
* What’s the cost of living like? Is part-time work easy to find? Again, experiences would be great.
* Are there many cars in the areas surrounding campus? Is it easy to cross the road? Are dangerous drivers frequent? Please be honest because this is a big concern for me as I’m very afraid of cars 🥲 and it was difficult to gauge on open days as traffic flow was different to usual.
* What’s the general atmosphere like when it comes to day to day life?
* I know that campus is going to be relatively safe considering security staff, but what about the areas outside campus? When excursions are necessary, do you feel safe?
* Fellow 🏳️*🌈🏳️*⚧️ people: safe? yes? no? performative diversity but won’t stand when it matters? or genuine allies 100% of the time? is it easy to find other 🏳️*🌈🏳️*⚧️ people outside of specifically 🏳️*🌈🏳️*⚧️ societies? do you encounter judgemental people often on campus or in town? are neutral bathrooms consistently available?

Feel free to answer as much or as little as you are able 🫶 this’ll be a big help knowing what to ask more about on the offer holder days!

Hey there!

I'm a current student here at Plymouth and, although I don't study the same course, hopefully I can answer some of your questions! 🙂





I hope these answered your questions, and please feel free to reach out if you have any more! We also have plenty of students on Unibuddy if you're interested in speaking to anyone from your course of interest or people from different backgrounds to hear about their student experiences.

Best of luck and hope to see you at an offer holder day soon! 🙂

-Alfie, University of Plymouth Undergraduate Student Rep

Hey there!

I'm a current student here at Plymouth and, although I don't study the same course, hopefully I can answer some of your questions! 🙂





I hope these answered your questions, and please feel free to reach out if you have any more! We also have plenty of students on Unibuddy if you're interested in speaking to anyone from your course of interest or people from different backgrounds to hear about their student experiences.

Best of luck and hope to see you at an offer holder day soon! 🙂

-Alfie, University of Plymouth Undergraduate Student Rep