Cardiff, Edinburgh, Sheffield or Manchester for architecture 2025?

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The staff are so lovely, so smart, interesting, helpful and supportive.

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The Welsh School of Architecture (wsa), is one of the leading schools for architecture in the country.

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The school hosts an annual student-led show called the WSA Student show, where employers and leading names in the field come from all over the country to see the student work and network - really great for growing your network and potentially looking for jobs.

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The building (and main uni cathays campus) is so lovely, great location and super conveniently placed next to the city centre, Bute park, Alexandra gardens, and where most students live - Cathays. So nothing for me is more than a 15 minute walk it is so amazing.

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Real life case studies and fieldwork experience to apply your work to, from travelling around the UK to abroad they really like you to have an understanding of the places you are working with and get stuck in.

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The uni and students' union (su) is outstanding, the SU is one of the best in the country, and it really lives up to that, with so many societies, experiences, and so much to do all the time. Do you have any specific hobbies or interests?

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With the great location, friendly uni, and excellent su there is a really great student community, which is one of my favourite things about being at Cardiff uni.

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Its a pretty affordable city, with many opportunities to pick up work that is flexible around your studies.

1.

Yes I think the people are quite sociable, they have a society, an end of year ball! To be honest though, I think Cardiff in general is quite a sociable uni, because of what I was saying about how close everything is, and how active our students union is it all adds up to a big community, which is really nice.

2.

Yes there is a very diverse range, my housemate (studying architecture) is from Romania, and I think she would agree there is a lot of diversity on the course. As well as diversity in the uni and city in general. Most of my friends here come from varying international backgrounds! In a course like architecture as well I think its super beneficial to hear about how other places work, other cultures, especially in a creative field that can be so personal.

3.

Yeah Cardiff offer a follow on masters course (which you can apply for now as a kind of integrated pathway almost), where in 4th year you would do work placement all year. Yes they do multiple trips a year, that to the best of my knowledge are almost all paid for. My housemate went to London for a couple nights, and they even transferred them money so they could buy food at no expense. I also would say that Bath and Cardiff are not too dissimilar in price, if anything even maybe Cardiff cheaper from when i've visted Bath, which in Cardiff is maybe motivated by the large prominent population.

4.

So you don't get allocated a seat no, but I feel like people naturally "choose" a seat and will often go toward there. But also i've seen lots of people leave their stuff on their tables, especially if they are only back the next day. But also there are sometimes lockers u can put stuff in to keep safe.

5.

No the bute building is not 24/7, it is open everyday, but the library inside closes at 21:30 on weekdays, and I think thats around the time they'd lock up the whole building. There is another big library nearby which is 24/7 called the arts and social sciences library.