Bloody universities – Page 3 – Chat Forum – Singletrack World Magazine Forum

matt_outandabout · 2024-09-07T21:31:16Z

After eldest has 'issues' with non existent and poor teaching for the last four years, I've just dropped off youngest and feel rather annoyed at another university. Halls. Poorly maintained, feels unloved and cheaply run. Filthy carpet in his room and strongly smells of damp. Kitchen with cupboards barely hanging on and multiple repairs. Bathroom with all sorts of dodgy MDF repairs instead of properly tiled. Grey carpet, pink walls, grey woodwork and wood chip everywhere. So '1970' hospital' vibe. Peeling paint on all the outside woodwork. The storage room promised is locked - and they think it's a mistake to have it on the listing as no one uses it but the maintenance people. 'Bike storage' is four Sheffield stands for over 100 students. Not a picture or mirror in the building. And you can't put your own up. WiFi and ethernet cable not working today. Small amount of gravelly outdoor space full of weeds and nowhere to sit. Collect the keys elsewhere in town. No one at the halls. No maps to find your way around the halls. No recycling information or how your heater works. One phone number on a small bit of paper with phone number for an 'RA'(?) who works evenings only. No 'welcome to your home, we hope you like it, why not come to the common room to meet some new people' effort at all - and we only found the common room by accident searching for the storage, his flatmates didn't even know there was one! At least the common room had been refurbished and felt lovely, really nicely done. Oh, and a local charity group left a plant for each flat to share and look after. But seriously. They're clearing £600k across 89 rooms in one 1980/90's built hall, £6750 each a year. And they can't even clean the room properly. FFS Edinburgh Uni. The teaching better be top notch.

ahsat

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@andy4d Looks like UCC have a similar student hub, though with UCC being relatively small it’s all in one location. If he is feeling lost, this is the best place to start. They don’t have all the answers but they know the people who do. https://www.ucc.ie/en/thehub/insidehub/

For any parents of ‘lost’ first years, almost all Unis have something like this now (exceptions will be college based Uni’s). Get your kid to google ‘xxx Uni student hub/services’ and it will get them at least on the right direction. The big advantage is they are linked up with all the support units, in a way that individual academics like myself can’t.

Good news on the bike storage Matt.

For anyone due to arrive at Leeds this weekend, you’ll be pleased to hear I’ve just seen a load of new mattresses being delivered on campus.

Posted : 17/09/2024 6:57 pm

andy4d, winston, matt_outandabout and 3 people reacted

andy4d

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Thanks for the link ahsat I will pass it on to him.

Posted : 17/09/2024 7:04 pm

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jkomo

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A very handy thread this, my youngest goes to Bangor in a couple of days. He's 20 and went to Bournemouth a couple of years ago and hated it and dropped out. He never reached out to anyone- organised everything himself and really blocked us out. Now he's a bit more self aware, aware of his ADHD, got a councilor, and talks more. Hopefully he will fully immerse himself into uni life, and enjoy himself, as well as seek out all the support the uni has when and if he needs it. Bangor looks ace, I'll be annoying him when i start visiting CYB again but still.

Posted : 18/09/2024 2:09 pm

andy4d, matt_outandabout, andy4d and 1 people reacted

matt_outandabout

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Hope it goes well @jkomo

Posted : 18/09/2024 2:17 pm

andy4d

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Just wanted to reiterate my thanks to you all. Things seem to be going OK now for my son. He seems to of been busy the last couple of days, met his cousin for a few hours who went over various things with him, was at the student hub and has found the gym and thinking of taking up rowing! Met a couple of lads on his course who seemed to have had the same struggles he had (which helped him see he was not the only one struggling) and has met another lad on the train in the mornings. He seems more settled and 'thinks' he has his timetable sorted (made it to 3 lectures today) and was excited telling me one of his lecturers has been on TV and he has read his book too.

So a big thanks again to STW.

Posted : 18/09/2024 10:24 pm

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MoreCashThanDash

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Great to hear

Posted : 18/09/2024 10:29 pm