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Kingston or Anglia Ruskin?

hiya, I can't seem to decide between Kingston and Anglia Ruskin >.< I don't want to make an un-researched descision, so I was wondering if anybody could give me an insight into which would be best to study English Literature at? Anglia Ruskin's meant to have a good rep for the course but reading the forums, I'm seeing lots of negativity. Hope someone can help me out ;;^^
Also kinda curious as to the atmosphere's at both uni's, all uni websites obviously say that they're friendly and so forth, but I'd like to know what they're really like.
Thanks

Reply 1

akmd

11

Have you looked at any other unis? Kingston is the best one out of those two.

Reply 2

lolita_rose

OP

London Metropolitian, but Kingston still seems to be best of the three. education wise i figure it'll be best. but atmosphere wise, i think that Anglia Ruskin quite wins ;;^^ its why i was curious.

Reply 3

akmd

11

lolita_rose

London Metropolitian, but Kingston still seems to be best of the three. education wise i figure it'll be best. but atmosphere wise, i think that Anglia Ruskin quite wins ;;^^ its why i was curious.

What course are you applying for and what grades? I may be able to suggest other places.

As a former Kingston student (I'm now at Goldsmiths), I can tell you what it's like:

Kingston University is spread around 4 sites - Knights Park, Penrhyn Road, Kingston Hill and Roehampton Vale. KP and PR are pretty close to each other. Both sites can be reached within a 5-10 minute walk. The other two are more isolated as they are located a few miles from Kingston town centre. KH is the only site that has halls on campus so it has a reasonable atmosphere.

The library facilities are pretty good. They have an extensive collection of books, journals, slides, videos, and DVDs across all the sites. The computer networks aren't so great. Not really enough places available at KP anyway.

One major problem the uni has it that it's spread across 4 sites. There is no central socialising space for everyone to meet at. KP, PR and KH all have bars on site. The KP is very small but fairly pleasant and is also by the Hogsmill River making it a very nice place to hang out in the Summer.

I reckon KH is the best site to study at. It's a conservation area so there are loads of trees and it's really lovely there. KP is located on a quiet residential street and is quite relaxed. PR, on the other hand, is far more busy, as it is the main campus. I don't like it very much. It's the uni's weakest campus IMO.

Anything else you would like to know, please feel free to ask. :smile:

Reply 4

lolita_rose

OP

thanks for the help so far ^^
well i'm going to study english literature and sociology. or if thats not available. english lit and history, i got a BCD. Not great i know >.<
I've been told i'd be mainly on PR if i attend there. ive been told by anglia ruskin that thier english department is very prestigious, and cambridge is of course a very beautiful place. i wish i had more time to make a descision so i could look into it a lot more.
Did you leave Kingston for Goldsmiths? and if so, could you maybe tell me why please? ;;^^ though personally i have little hope of going to somewhere like Goldsmiths :frown:

Reply 5

akmd

11

lolita_rose

thanks for the help so far ^^
well i'm going to study english literature and sociology. or if thats not available. english lit and history, i got a BCD. Not great i know >.<
I've been told i'd be mainly on PR if i attend there. ive been told by anglia ruskin that thier english department is very prestigious, and cambridge is of course a very beautiful place. i wish i had more time to make a descision so i could look into it a lot more.
Did you leave Kingston for Goldsmiths? and if so, could you maybe tell me why please? ;;^^ though personally i have little hope of going to somewhere like Goldsmiths :frown:

You should try Goldsmiths anyway. They aren't too fussy about grades. I got into a BBB History course with CC!! Give them a ring on Monday and ask them. They offer English and History as a joint degree if that takes your fancy. It's worth trying. :smile:

I did a 2 year foundation degree in Graphic Design at Kingston. At the time, I thought this was what I wanted to do and went there without researching it (as I did with all my choices). Not long after accepting, I was introduced to league tables and places like this. I began to worry that I had made a horrible mistake!

The first year went just fine. I passed all the modules and was able to go on to year 2. At the end of year 1, I wasn't very happy with my course and was consudering leaving to do something else. I was eventually persuaded to stay. During the second year, I got more and more disinterested. The fact I wasn't even at Kingston most of the time (the majority of the course is taught at an HE college in Twickenham) didn't help either. I stopped going in and my work suffered.

By May of this year, I realised it was quite likely I would not complete the course successfully. I then made the decision to look at other options. After briefly considering Business or Economics, I then decided on either English or History. I opted for the latter. I had already applied via UCAS to unis to do the 3rd year of a BA in GD so had three spaces left. I applied to Queen Mary, Goldsmiths and Roehampton. Only Goldsmiths offered me a place.

Sorry this has become a short novel but things have been pretty complex. I'm looking forward to starting there. As it's part of University of London, I can access facilities like Senate House library, University of London Union, other UOL colleges and even the chance to study at another UOL college! I have far more opportunities than I ever had at Kingston!

Reply 6

lolita_rose

OP

i had originally considered going to goldsmiths or royal holloway to study, but unfortunatly i had to do my last two terms and exams under some difficult circumstances, and ended up missing chunks and being disinterested myself, i only applied through clearing because everyone including myself was expecting much much lower grades. i had considered redoing the modules that had brung my grades down, but kingston and anglia ruskin are apparently good universities, but hey, if they would be willing to accept me with my quite shoddy grades, doesn't hurt to try =P
i'll give them a call on monday and see how it goes. thanks for all the advice and insight, its really helped a lot ^^
hope everything goes well for you, being a londoner myself, i can at least recommend the night life xP its a great city to live and study in and i'm sure you wont become disinterested in goldsmiths, from what i hear from a few friends that go there already, its a good place to study.

Reply 7

akmd

11

Glad to help out. I hope everything works out for you wherever you end up!

Reply 8

x.Crystal.x

2

Anglia Ruskin was my insurance, but that was only because they did Typography. I never researched into it, so im afraid im not that much help.

Reply 9

Hop-along

6

Wel Im going to be a freshr at anglia ruskin, from what I can see its very nice the atmopshere struck me as being good. League tables to a ceratin extent are a bit misleading for edxample if you look at the spend per student anglia ruskin has 28000 students over 2 sites so the money they spennd is quite good.
In my opnion you should go to where you fele the most comfortable.

Kingston or Anglia Ruskin?

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