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Bournemouth,Teeside,Herts or Bradford ?

Hello !

I am an international student(greece) . I already have offers from bournemouth teeside herts and bradford . 4/4 :smile: . Now.. I would like to ask what would be the best place for a student. I already know how good are the universities on the course I have applied for but I am speaking for the town, cost of living, girls of course , nightlife and generally how good the uni is ( nice campus etc... ) . Any help would be greatly appreciated :smile:

Have phun guys and girls :smile:
I am from Teesside. Lived there all my life but did not go to the univeristy. Basically, it is pretty low ranked. Usually it comes around 96th position in a league table of 100 universities (try searching for the Times newspaper for such tables). However, a few courses, especially computing and IT, are very highly rated. No-one in Greece would know this anyway so I imagine employers in your own country wouldn't care.

The majority of students are local and live at home so that might feel weird since at lot of them will already know each other. There are also a lot of mature students (including my dad!). The library is really nice and new and appears to be well stocked. It is right in the middle of town (Middlesbrough) and has a cheap students union. Boro has a population of about 150,000 I reckon. Big town centre with lots of shops. Fundametally an industrial wasteland so it's pretty ugly but functional. Built on steel and still going strong. Big port at Teesmouth where north-sea oil comes ashore, and lots of oil rig building on the Tees itself. Largest chemical works site in Europe. Lots of clubs and pubs, big cinema etc so you won't be bored. Plus the football team won the Carling Cup this year and are playing in Europe for the first time next season. Only a short drive from the north york moors though, which are beautiful.

However, there is no getting away from the fact that Teesside as a whole is a poor area. one of the most deprived in the country. I should know! This means it's very cheap to live there as a student. But it also means crime is relatively high. Students tend to live in bad areas too. The centre of town close to the uni is best I think. I don't think it's that bad and you won't be physically harmed, but don't buy a car because it will get stolen. My car has been stolen from the driveway more than once! Also, you won't understand the local accent at first, but you will get used to it.

local BBC site
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tees/
Reply 2
wow very helpful post :smile: thanx :smile:

Yes i know its a pretty low ranked uni ... but I found its computing courses to be one of the best(weird huh) and my dad said that multimillion dollars are going to be invested in those computing courses... I really don't care about nightlife that much ... I had done that in 14-15 ... what I really want is : a good course that will not get bored with , a nice campus , cheap living , good house and nobody to disturb me... :wink: Also is there nature that I can walk outside the town and be beatiful ?

Oh now that I said house , will be it easy to find a house for 2 people ( me and my brother ) ? 3 rooms+toilet will be fine for us and how much ?

Well bournemouth sounds more tempting and it's course is highly appreciated but it's more general than teessides...

Bradford doesnt seem to have good courses ... and

Hertsfordshire nor the uni looks good or the courses...

Well thanx again for your replies , please help an international student :wink: hehe
Reply 3
Lets just say if you walked outside naked in Teeside you will be arrested :tongue:

Teeside is cheap, I have a cousin at Teeside doing a research masters and he is getting paid for doing it.
Reply 4
Herts have just built a brand new campus, but whether you go to the new campus depends on which course you'll be doing. The campus i'm at (College Lane campus - the old one) is okay, they aren't blessed with money but the facilities they have are good. The biggest problem here for me, is that Hatfield town is pretty run down (they're planning a regeneration of the area but i don't know when it's planned to finish). Hatfield station is on a line that goes straight into the centre of London though. And Watford and St. Albans (large towns nearby) are easy to get to by public transport. Rent is pretty expensive, i heard that we pay London prices. There are quite a few two bedroom flats in the town centre, but i don't know how much the rent is.
Reply 5
Teesside is my firm choice, also for a computing course. I've only been to the uni twice and the area doesn't seem too bad. (although I've only seen from Middlesbrough train station upto the uni - Passed lots of shops walking along as well)
Facilities of the univeristy seem good as well although haven't really seen that much of it. The campus itself looks nice though.
Reply 6
Living in Hertforshire, I would suggest you don't pick Hertfordshire uni! They seem to be building lots of nice shiny buildings, but in general I would say it's an expensive place to be. It's main bonus would be nearness to London, but if you don't care about nightlife then that won't count for much. I don't really know much about the others but Bournemouth is a nice place.. .
merxx
wow very helpful post :smile: thanx :smile:

Yes i know its a pretty low ranked uni ... but I found its computing courses to be one of the best(weird huh) and my dad said that multimillion dollars are going to be invested in those computing courses... I really don't care about nightlife that much ... I had done that in 14-15 ... what I really want is : a good course that will not get bored with , a nice campus , cheap living , good house and nobody to disturb me... :wink: Also is there nature that I can walk outside the town and be beatiful ?


Nature within walking distance. Hmmm Stewarts park? Where you can see the man eating emus (Captain Cook is Middlesbrough's favourite son. Possibly the only famous person ever to come from the area. He discovered Australia, hence the native Australian creatures by the Cook museum in the park.)

You could go to the beach at Redcar, only a short bus ride away. Whitby in North Yorkshire is about 20 miles away and is accessible by bus and train. York is 1 hour by train. The Cleveland hills are very close but hard to get to by public transport.

Oh now that I said house , will be it easy to find a house for 2 people ( me and my brother ) ? 3 rooms+toilet will be fine for us and how much ?


Easy I should imagine. People aren't exactly queuing up to move to Teesside. Most of them move away like me because they can't get jobs. Not sure how much it costs since I never had to rent there because I lived in my parents' house.

I personally would be a bit worried about going to Bradford because there were riots there due to racial tensions a couple of years ago. However, I don't know if this was anywhere near the student area so maybe someone who is at Bradford can give you more information.
Reply 8
hey i am in Bradford and i am an international student as well, i think the biggest advantage of bradford is the living cost here is quite low,and here you can meet lots people from different culture...
Reply 9
I'd say Bradford. I know nothing about the uni but Bradford itself:

1) decent size and close to Leeds so pleanty oof scope for nightlife, shopping etc.
2) Airports - Leed-Bradford which is actually no where near either place and good links to Manchester airport by train. - you are going to want to go home for holidays.
3) On a main train line so east to visit places like London
4) Multicultural city
5) lowish cost of living
6) lots of nice countryside very near
Reply 10
bournemouth's quite pricy to live but its got teh added bonmus of being by the seaside (not that it'll be warm enough to go there most of the time you are actually at uni). Other than that nightlifes pretty good with bucket loads of clubs/pubs. The transports system is a bit crap and again quite pricy though. Bournmouth's a cool place to be and the seaside is a perk. Also you will be fairly near some fantastic countryside.

Locationwise Bournemouth is fab but the downsides are the uni accomodation and the cost of living. Also not sure where Bournmeouth ranks compared to the other unis you mention.

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