Aberystwyth-Student guide

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This article is a student guide to Aberystwyth University.

A Student Guide- Aberystwyth University

Welcome to Aberystwyth, a Historical Town founded by Edward I, situated by the beautiful setting of Cardigan Bay. Aberystwyth is the largest town in the county of Ceredigion but it still retains a friendly, community feel. The resident population of 12,000 swelled by over 8,000 students for most of the year adds a cosmopolitan student community feel to the town as described by the ‘The Times… “The Towns sizeable student crowd helps to give it a relaxed, cosmopolitan air”.

Aberystwyth always tops the student satisfaction surveys, both as a university and as a town. The Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey, published in 2009, placed Aberystwyth as offering 'the best all-round student experience in the Country'.

Aberystwyth University is, for the second year running, the best university in the Country for student satisfaction according to The Times Good University Guide 2009, which was published on Thursday 19th June 2008. With a student satisfaction rating of 81% Aberystwyth University is one of only 9 UK universities to register a rating of 80% or more, which highlights the excellence found at Aberystwyth for the student experience.

These comprehensive surveys clearly shows that students who decide to study at Aberystwyth enjoy the best of both worlds: a University which offers an excellent academic experience and excellent facilities, and a town which is safe, welcoming and offers a varied and intense social life.

The Town

Aberystwyth University’s main campus is on Penglais Hill, looking over the beautiful scenery of Cardigan Bay. Most of the Halls of Residence are based on the main campus which is very convenient for the students, as they don’t have to get up to early to attend lectures!

The cultural facilities of the Town are excellent, it has the biggest Art Centre in Wales offering a variety of performances as well as film festivals and various exhibitions. The National Library of Wales, which is a copyright library, is a very important aspect of the town, and it includes many rare books including the first book printed in welsh in 1546: ‘Yn y lhyvyr hwnn’, and the first Welsh translation of the complete Bible.

The Town also offers a range of different shops and trendy coffee shops, such as ‘Polly’ who sell unique clothes and shoes (ideal for wacky students) and Gusto’s who sell the latest designer clothes such as Motel, Killer, Great Plains and Archies, for the footballer’s wife look, along with plenty of bookshops and the main major banks and chain stores for your more practical needs.

Aberystwyth is ideal for students as it’s cheap, especially during the week as many of the pubs and cultural facilities, such as the Commodore Cinema, offer cheap deals e.g the cinema on a Monday throughout the week.

Aberystwyth is a very compact town, everything is within 20 minutes walking distance, and the public transport within the town is very good since the launch of the “Ar Hyd Aber”; the ticket costs £30 and is valid for 12 months (October to September). The AHA (Ar Hyd Aber) is a joint initiative between Aberystwyth University, Arriva Wales and the University’s Guild of Students, and offers free travel for students within Aberystwyth as well as half price travel to destinations beyond Aberystwyth on Arriva buses. These buses run to and from the student Union and are very popular among the students because the equivalent number of journeys by car would release an additional tonne of carbon dioxide every day and, of course, they avoid walking up Penglais Hill!

Despite this the train line to and from Abeystwyth is not the best source of transport, but you can get a straight line to Birmingham and Shrewsbury, but going to Cardiff on the train could take as long as six hours; four hours more than it would take you in a car! But the isolation of Aberystwyth means that you experience true University life!

Aberystwyth is a very safe town, and getting home at night is no problem as there are plenty of taxis available at cheap and reasonable prices for you and your friends.

Study Time

Aberystwyth offers several different courses with excellent facilities. Several new courses have been introduced at the University this year: Psychology, Open Source Computing, Computer Graphics, Vision and Games, Mobile and Wearable Computing, Criminology, and a new Welsh medium BA Hanes a’ r Cyfryngau^{[Outdated info?]}. New courses for 2010 include Astrophysics (BSc and MPhys), Space Science and Robotics (BSc and MPhys), and Mathematical and Theoretical Physics (BSc and MMath).

Aber has excellent facilities with four main libraries, which are all of good size and standard depending on your subject. The Hugh Owen Library is the main library on campus and it has all the latest computer software equipment which have recently been updated. It also includes different floors for different subjects e.g the frist floor is mainly the short loan collection and rare collections, with the helpdesk and checkout services, which are convenient and hassle free. The second floor is mainly for science and mathematics, but also includes a separate Law Library who also have their own helpdesk, the Law Library is a very quiet area of the library and recommended for those who require complete silent whilst studying. Third floor contains Welsh books, and all other academic and humanitarian science subjects such as History, Politics, English. All libraries are very convenient and contain the latest equipment.

Students are very fortunate at Aberystwyth as Aberystwyth also have a legal deposit library: the National Library of Wales, which contains all books published in the UK, so if you fail to get hold of a key text book on campus, then you’re guaranteed of finding it in the National Library, it’s also very convenient because you can pre-order you’re books online an there ready for you when you arrive, but you cannot take any books out of the National Library but you can photocopy them at a reasonable price.

The computer facilities at Aberystwyth are very easy to access as there are plenty of them on campus, and around the town and all halls have free access to the JANET academic network, but if you haven’t got a laptop they also have 24hour computer rooms. The University’s latest project of setting up a WiFi wireless connection all over Aberystwyth town means that students will soon be able to get on the internet wherever they are.

The University year is like all other University’s with two semesters, split across three terms. Assessments take place at the end of every semester (January and May). The number of lectures you receive a week varies, it depends what subjects your studying, but usually humanitarian subjects have less lectures than those that study Biological Sciences but they should use there spare time researching and reading key sources!

Socialising and activities at Aberystwyth

The Town

Aberystwyth is very well known as the social party town. There is some serious student entertainment to be found in Aberystwyth. From cosmopolitan eateries (ranging from French, Chinese, Indian, Turkish, Italian, Greek, Spanish amongst others), to a choice of 56 pubs and clubs all of which that offer a warm welcome to students – you won’t find it hard to boogie on the Pier Pressure dance floor or dance to the cheesiest music in Yoko’s, but if you’re a music dude then there’s some rocking music in the Bay with all the latest indie/rock/reggae bands playing in the background! The Angel hosts different nights as well such as Metal/indie/rock soc. So there’s entertainment for everybody at Aberystwyth, plus live bands and entertainment nights in the Union.

The Union

The Union at Aberystwyth host all sorts of nights for students such as comedy nights, re-load, guest DJs, evenings hosted by MixMag and various party nights that range from comedy to Pound Parties, Back to School Nights and Bar FTSE! The Union also exists to benefit its current and future members and staff by. Advancing their education, promoting their welfare, providing representation and high quality services, raising awareness of relevant issues, promoting co-operation between members for cultural, sporting and social activities and encouraging the development of skills through student-led activities and clubs

Cultural Facilities

The award winning Aberystwyth Arts Centre is the largest and busiest arts centre in Wales, with a wide-ranging programme of events and activities across all art forms including drama, classical music, dance, world music, films, children’s shows, literature readings, live bands, opera and comedy. It is recognised as a national centre for arts development. The Arts Centre's exhibition programme is one of the few venues in Wales acknowledged by the Arts Council as a Centre of Excellence. The Centre welcomes over 650,000 visitors a year through its doors, including nearly 100,000 attendances to its unique community arts and education programme, making it the UK’s largest arts education provider. In 2000 the Arts Centre completed a major £4.3 million redevelopment project which was largely funded by the National Lottery. The Centre has facilities unrivalled throughout much of the UK - and is recognised as a 'national flagship for the arts'. Aberystwyth also has a commodore cinema which show all the recent movies at reasonable prices. We also have the National Library of Wales who have various art and book exhibitions about the culture of Wales.

Sporting Facilities

The sporting facilities at Aberystwyth are excellent and many students take part in various clubs. We have every sport club you can think of boxercise, scuba diving, Thai Fighting, surfing and kayaking which is stress free at Aberystwyth: we are right by the Sea! The sport centre has recently been renovated with all the latest equipment, swimming pool, gym and rock climbing wall! They also offer membership for only £40 a year which covers all insurance cost!!! You can also enjoy a great social life if you’re a member of a sporting club; they usually train two or three times a week and go out on a Wednesday night dressed in silly outfits. All clubs arrange outings and trips, so it’s well worth joining a sports club.