Ask a first year anything....

I'm not saying that I am better than you.. People's value is not based off the number of A grades, your natural intelligence etc

What do you study btw?

My point was simply that for some people, especially given the new triple times tuition fee prices. University for many, rather than being a means to an end.. i.e A profession or further research, is simply an excuse to cling onto childhood for another 3/4 years at close to practically no benefit to them or society.

Instead just collecting huge amounts of debt, they spend the rest of their lives attempting to pay off, or if they never even break above the £21,000 salary mark, just dump taxpayers with their debt.


Going to university is 'an investment' anyone who says otherwise is simply ignorant... or monetarily priviledged (e.g. Prince William studying art history) Can you not at least see my point?

The reason I include university of portsmouth in my assessment, is because it's 67th in the UK alone.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/displayPopup/0,,13373,00.html

I mean for goodness sake the entry requirements are bordering on the non-existent, just an interest in the subject. Doesn't that show you, they're willing to take anybody and everybody. In addition, they have not performed any research of any major significance in the academic world. Hence my judgement the university is a joke and just wasting the time and money of the students who for god's know how go there.

You should select apprenticeships, or training related profession courses. It's a ****ing joke and we all know it.

You go to uni 2learn how to write shorthand faster? FML... THIS IS EXACTLY MY POINT!

Maybe's he's really jealous, due to him not getting in?

Question to OP: What can you do in portsmouth (spare time wise), whats the shopping centre like, are there local pubs, with sky sports (love my footy )

Spare time:
It's a fairly small city but you have all your usual things, there's a big cinema, a bowling alley, lots of shops, many pubs and decent transport links (direct trains to Southampton, Brighton, London etc).

Then there's all the lovely "we live on the coast" type things, there's Clarence Pier with a traditional funfair sort of thing (if you brave the rollercoaster Skyways, I salute you), mini-golf, a huge patch of grass on the seafront known as Southsea Common which you'll spend your entire summer on...

There's also the Portsmouth-specific things, some of which are worth a look at some point during your time here. There's the Spinnaker Tower at Gunwharf which everyone has to go up at least once, you'll get amazing views of all of southern Hampshire and the IOW. There's the Historic Dockyard with HMS Victory, HMS Warrior and the Mary Rose. Even if naval history doesn't particularly interest you, they're a good day, maybe when the family are visiting? There's also Old Portsmouth and the Round Tower which is just quite pretty and a nice wander on a sunny day.

It has basically everything you could want really. All the standard things for being with your mates, then art galleries and museums and stuff for when you're feeling posh and your family want to know that Portsmouth has more than a never ending supply of vodka redbull.

Shopping:
Shopping is essentially split into 3 (maybe 4) areas of the city.

Gunwharf Quays - This is the site down at the Harbour. It's where the cinema and bowling is, as well as about half the restaurants. It has a number of shops, most of them outlet versions of relatively expensive places (Karen Millen, Ted Baker etc). There's a French Connection, Superdry, Monsoon, Jack Wills etc and even in the nicer places you can sometimes pick up a good bargain. It's not exactly every day shopping but it's also quite possible to shop there without bankrupting yourself.

Commercial Road/Cascades - This is the main High Street in Portsmouth. It has all your typical high street shops - TopShop, Debenhams, New Look, Boots, Waterstones, M&S, Starbucks, H&M, Primark etc. There's a few things you'd have to pop to Southampton for (Zara for example) but most of your shopping can be done here. The shopping centre is called Cascades and is right in the centre of Commercial Road. Tesco is also just off Commercial Road and if you're in the Guildhall halls, that's where your shopping is most likely going to be from in 1st year. There's also Palmerston Road down in Southsea which is essentially a much smaller version of Commercial Road, not great but alright to pop along to if you happen to be living that way.

Albert Road - This is the more independent part of the city and where you'll find all the "vintagey" shops. There's quite a few clothes shops, at least 2 that sell jewellery, a couple of antique shops. Even if you're not really into that sort of scene, it's good for an hour or 2 of wandering along and if you ARE into it, then it's quite easy to find some bargains.

Pubs:
Oh so many. Can't really give you recommendations until you know where you're living but there's a few Wetherspoons for when you want a cheap drink, some very nice places when you're feeling classier and a number of places with Sky Sports.

Nightlife is split into a million pubs, some chavvy bars on Guildhall Walk (you sort of learn to love them...), some established clubs (Liquid, TigerTiger, Jongleurs), a couple of gay bars (Marthas and HB), some more indie places (Scandals) and gig venues (Wedgewood Rooms, Guildhall, Eastney Cellars, the Pyramids). For such a small city (it's compact enough that you can walk across most of it within half an hour), there's a surprising amount of variation.

Anything else you want to know, ask away. I've been around here most of my life so I'm probably one of the best to know. (Plus I could really use the distraction from 3rd year work!)

Thanks alot, thats alot of info, much appreciated

I dont know whether you'll be able to answer this, but, i play alot of football, so are there any clubs or anything like that to join?

This is ridiculous, you are arguing that university should be a means to a higher paid job yet criticising a Portsmouth journalism undergrad when the Journalism course at that university is one of if not the most industry respected in the country.

I disagree with your cynical and frankly depressing factory view of universities in principle but if that's what you think then at least don't be a douche and come on a helpful freshers thread and start criticising people doing a degree your own thinking proves is valid.

...

The person prior to you, who mentioned anecdotal evidence, to which she can not even prove, could be entirely made up, that herself, and another friend of hers have recruited my 'respectable' graduate employers - without actually mentioning who these employers are (only adding to the increasingly uncertainty of her story) never mind the definition of what a 'respectable employer' is:- Apparently believes that this little story of hers, summarises the entirety of Portsmouth students graduate prospects.

... have committed myself as part of an team of Ph.D students

*a

To be honest, from a supposed budding lawist, your inability to use correct English is frankly worrying!

Presume that's aimed at me. I have a training contract at Bond Pearce for September 2012. I also obtained interviews at Coffin Mew and DLA Piper.

I didn't say that every single person graduating from Portsmouth has wonderful prospects. In fact, I even stated that I don't agree with people studying pointless degrees for the sheer sake of it. That doesn't mean that attending Portsmouth is the end of the world. University is what you make of it and it's quite possible to leave with reasonable prospects. Most people will know someone from a far better university with a good degree in a traditional subject who can't get a job. I know someone with a 1st in History from KCL, currently works in a basic retail position in Jack Wills.

I couldn't attend another university due to health reasons. I had to stay at home in my first year. The only feasible commute would have been Southampton and I was far too ill then to manage an hour each way every day. I had to go here. I've had to make the most of my lot and it's worked out because I worked hard. It's achievable but it won't fall into anyone's lap. I never claimed it would.

Hmmm, stubbled across this while looking for PGCE info and all I can say is from reading your rant Steve I hope you're not in charge of proof reading or punctuation!!!

Hello all!

I was going through what you are this time last year so if you have any questions, especially related to the university of Portsmouth then please reply to this thread or send me a private message.

Anything on halls, the city, the uni, the transport, the teachers or anything!

Look forward to helping.

What's more worrying, is you accepting everything I said, unable to argue against it, and thus picking up on a single additional letter added into one word.

Why don't you offer a plausible reply, rather than your patheticism.

Once again, why don't you offer a real response rather than some cheap shot.

My own thinking proves valid. Wherein anything I have said... proves that I follow a train of thought that validates the studying of a degree at Portsmouth university. Please quote me, without editing, and show me this.

To be honest, from a supposed budding journalist, your inability to follow very straight forward English and understand suppositions is frankly worrying! But then again, you are studying at Portsmouth! Only proving my point further!

I read law at Trinity College Cambridge and have committed myself as part of an team of Ph.D students to conduct thorough research into degree courses, their financial and otherwise benefits to students, and their viability given the latest rise in frees, to project a value of various courses, academic and vocational, from different universities. When it gets published this year, and most likely the head researcher will be interviewed on BBC's this morning, as well as the actual research being referenced and posted in journals. I shall send you a copy, for you to see exactly how great portsmouth is.

The person prior to you, who mentioned anecdotal evidence, to which she can not even prove, could be entirely made up, that herself, and another friend of hers have been recruited by 'respectable' graduate employers - without actually mentioning who these employers are (only adding to the increasingly uncertainty of her story) never mind the definition of what a 'respectable employer' is:- Apparently believes that this little story of hers, summarises the entirety of Portsmouth students graduate prospects.

Here's a quick fact... something I almost would have expected two people studying journalism to be acquainted with, rather than unfounded, unproven evidence based off anecdotes...because unlike your amazing journalism portsmouth brains, I understand the value of empirically proving what statements and points I make. 58% of your graduates get jobs within 12 months. Most of those jobs are within the public sector, around 32%. Generally speaking, these jobs tend to be within education (which is the easiest industry to enter as long as you have any degree from any university) including follow up PGCE courses to gain qualified teacher status.

Teachfirst, a 2year programme, to train and place teachers into under-achieving academies:- This programme largely seen to take on some of the highest achieving graduates to put into it's teacher prpgramme, takes less than 0.12% of its yearly intake from Portsmouth. Meaning that 32% of the 58% that end up getting jobs within 12 months in the public sector (paid for by taxpayers) that then select teaching/education advisory are not even considered the best potential teachers, but must complete the 1 year PGCE programme prior to teaching. I'm looking through my statistics tables now.... and of all PGCE students, around 84% pass (It is a very very easy course), yet 21% of portsmouth graduates who take the PGCE do fail it.

Go and learn how to structure arguments, you amazing 110 word a minute shorthand writers... and take the time to realise writing words fast, does not mean you can viably argue nor structure a piece of writing, using the correct semantics and lexis as required.

I respect that. I never said every single person who goes to portsmouth is going to live a failed life. I'm saying the by far majority of you will. Individual determination by far outweights going to a slightly better university.