Portsmouth vs Swansea

I am an international student and am going to study English in the UK. I got two offers. One is BA Communication and English Studies at Portsmouth and the other one is BA English Language Studies at Swansea.

Swansea ranks about thirty places higher than Portsmouth in Times University Guide, but my friends in the UK told me not to study in Wales and said Portsmouth is a better place to study. Can anyone tell me why Wales may not be a good place and give me some advice?

Thanks very much.

Reply 1

chel

um i'm at cardiff. wales is an awesome place to study - your friends are wrong. i live in bournemouth area which is not far from portsmouth and no offence but for the most part portsmouth could be described as the 'armpit of england'. So if Swansea being higher doesn't swing it for you i can assure you it is probably a hell of a lot nicer. perhaps try and find people on here who go to swansea - i think there is a swansea forum actually - and ask them

Reply 2

Elusive Moose

My friend's brother studies in Swansea- though at the Institute, not the university- and loves it! Sounds like a great place to be a student.

That said, I also know someone at Portsmouth who really enjoys it too... So you're probably likely to have a good time either way. Which course do you prefer the sound of?

Reply 3

~Sam~

Swansea is the better university, and is right by the beach! What more could you want?! :smile:

I go to university in Wales and it's great. It really isn't any different from England except that all the signposts are in two languages...

Reply 4

Elusive Moose

That was so weird on the train. Within ten minutes everything goes bilingual!

Reply 5

mousey

you really should look at course content, they sound hugely different. xx

Reply 6

whoknows

Thank you all for your help!

I'm worried about studying at Swansea because I was told that people in Wales often speak in Welsh instead of English and their accent is more difficult for non-native speakers to get used to. On the other hand, I have to study with native speakers in Swansea's course while with non-native speakers in Portsmouth's. I believe I'll do better in Portsmouth's course, but it may not be that rewarding as studying in Swansea.

To me, Swansea's course seems to have a better focus, but what I can learn from Portsmouth appears to be more practical. This really confuses me.

As my brother is going with me to study Year 11, my parents think it's better for him to study within England. They believe the schools are better in England and he can get accustomed to the new environment more quickly, so they prefer Portsmouth. Is that really the case?

Thanks again!

Reply 7

polkadot

I Live in Wales, not far from Swansea and i can asure you that people do not speak welsh all the time in Swansea. Being honest it is a minority of people that actually speak welsh in wales. It is used as a 2nd language.

My firm choice is Swansea Enlgish Literature and my insurance is Portsmouth English Lit !!

Reply 8

Zenfrozt

I have visited both unis, admittedly for slightly different versions of the course: Swansea: English Language Studies and Portsmouth: English and journalism.
To be honest I hated portsmouth, the course wasn't well organised as it was the first year they are running it and you weren't given much of a chance to talk to current students as you spent time being shuttled from place to place on a very tight schedule. The feel of the place made me feel very alone, the uni is quite spread out in the city and it made me feel somewhat lost.
Swansea on the other hand, we were given lots of oppurtunity to talk to current students, the campus is tightknit but not stifling as the city centre is about 10-15 mins walk away. The welsh people were very friendly and I believe you have been mislead about the fact that they speak welsh all the time, I've been down to Swansea 3 times now and the only welsh I heard was in the train station via the announcements which were repeated in english and from the tv channle S4C.
Swansea is a beautiful place and looks like its going to be an awesome place to study. I may be biased as I have put Swansea as my firm choice but yeah definitly recommend Swansea over Portsmouth as the welsh seem friendlier then the people in pourtsmouth.
Good luck with your choice and if you choose Swansea, we might well meet each other.
Blessings.
Zenfrozt

Reply 9

FeedTheGoat

Judging solely on the title without reading your post, I'd say 2-0 Portsmouth.

Reply 10

superted2708

Hey hey, I live near Swansea and you have nothing to worry about with speaking welsh - the majority of people who speak welsh all the time live in the north and although lots of people might speak welsh here, most people speak english on a daily basis. There really is no difference in school for your brother between england and wales - but although I'm biased as a very proud welsh-girl, wales is more fun!
I've got lots of friends in Swansea Uni and it really is so much fun - its in a perfect location aswell, you've got the beach right opposite you, a friendly campus uni with lots of cheap student bars, aswell as a good city 10 mins away - you couldn't ask for any more! (I know its not my first choice, I prefer the course in Warwick)
Also I have ahem reliable information that Swansea is the 'drunkest' university in Britain...maybe not my best argument but good to know!

Reply 11

whoknows

Thank you all very much for the information! Swansea seems to be a great place for study!

But may I ask more about the accent of people in Wales? My uncle, who is very proficient in English and has studied in the US for years, found it really hard to hear Scottish's speaking in English. Therefore, I want to ask if the English accent of Wales people is quite different from that of people in England.

This is probably my last question and I may finalize my decision next week. Thanks again.

Reply 12

Zenfrozt

In Swansea certainly its quite a gentle accent and certainly I find it easier to understand then some of the scottish accents and I live just south of the scottish border. I cant percieve you having much trouble with it, you may find the first couple of days difficult as you get used to hearing it but beyond that you shouldn't have much trouble.
Oh and one thing to note don't let the Welsh here you calling their accent and English Accent - its a welsh accent. :p:

Blessed Be.
Zenfrozt

Reply 13

Elusive Moose

Scottish accents can be a lot harder to understand than Welsh ones IMO. My cousins are Scottish (and not particularly Northern either- Midlothian, nearest city would be Edinburgh) and sometimes I have so much trouble understanding them. Never really had trouble with Welsh, though, but I've not spoken to so many Welsh people :p:

. Scottish and Georgie though, hardest accents to understand for me. Byker Grove was a nightmare to watch :wink:

Reply 14

Zenfrozt

Geordie* isn't that hard to understand, but I suppose living 20 minutes up the road from Newcastle all my life has probably helped lol.
Blessed Be.
Zenfrozt

Reply 15

Elusive Moose

Hehe probably. We don't really hear a lot of Geordie in Oxford :p:

Reply 16

wiggles

I applied to both Swansea and Portsmouth for English with Creative Writing, and I liked Swansea much more. The two lecturers who spoke to us seemed really nice and helpful, and the things they said sounded like they knew what students thought when they were going into the course, like they told us not to worry if we weren't that into poetry or were a little scared of it, as they were when they did their degree, and that they'd ease you into it and help you understand it so you'd enjoy it, which I found really comforting. I liked the area a lot more as well, the beaches are amazing.
Whereas at Portsmouth, all the buildings are scattered around the city. The city is nice, but I preferred Swansea. Also, at the open day, the lecturers that spoke to us seemed a lot less friendly, they were saying things like "If you don't get your work in on time, you're out. You'll be expected to read out all of your own writing to the rest of the students. If you don't, you're out." Which just made them come accross as *******s, compared to the Swansea lecturer who said he understood how nervous people might feel sharing their work, but you have to do it to become better writers, and he'd make sure it was done in an intimate environment so you wouldn't feel pressured or anything.

Overall, go to Swansea, it just seems better in so many ways. I know the things I've quoted above may make it seem like the Swansea lecturers coddle the students, but that's not how it came accross. It was more like they were trying to make the course as interesting and enjoyable as possible, and to make us into the best writers and students we could be, as opposed to Portsmouth, where they were acting like they were same amazing uni that had really high standards, and if you didn't match up to them, you didn't deserve to be there, when in reality, they're not that good.

Swansea is my first choice, Essex is my 2nd. I rejected Portsmouth completely.