Bloody universities

Dropped the eldest off at Herriot Watt last weekend for fresher’s week and his accommodation looked to be pretty good.

Think the onsite halls are about 650 a month for the ones he’s in. See how he feels about it after a month or 2

Eldest was in Heriot Watt cheaper halls through pandemic. They were clean & maintained well, welcomed by staff who showed him his room, good lounge and separate common room. Through lock downs the management ordered in treats like hot chocolate and a few biscuits, a pizza etc to be delivered to every room.

But this week’s offering from Edinburgh Uni is poor…

Heriot Watt dozered the shit blocks to make way for the Robotarium.

According to the Bank of England, my £38 p/w hall accommodation in 1996 should cost £73.90 today. I’ve just checked and it actually costs £139.

That old favourite – official inflation, what we have to actually pay for things and the widening gulf between them*.

* does not apply to earnings

Sorry but I am also on the side of this all sounds like par the the uni halls course. Part of the experience? Character building? Not sure, but definitely a rip off and scandalous conditions but it always has been anywhere I have seen.

I thought it would end once I was out of halls but the private accommodation was way worse. I had a 0.5m x 0.5m hole in the bathroom floor through to the kitchen in my first place which was promised to be fixed before moving in and of course never was. When you are a student with little money and everywhere else is taken, you get stuck with all kinds of sh1t.

A combination of very high demand, no incentive to actually make the conditions safe let alone great, and no better options doesn’t exactly drive up quality and reduce costs :(

In fairness to the university by the end of the first semester the other people I was stuck with had had 2 or 3 fire extinguisher fights, attracted rodents with their kitchen hygiene and thought it was funny to p1ss on each others doors when then came in after a night out… every night, so the extra investment would have been wasted with how the majority of kids away from home for the first time seem to treat places.

edit: what @ThePinkstr said

Also OP, “secure bike locations” are optimistic in any city let alone uni. If in halls, on a old rug or in a bike bag under the bed assuming a bike of value rather than a cheapy commuter.

Dropped Miss OTS at St Andrews over the weekend. Her room is night and day compared to Master OTS who went to Glasgow (Murano). Really welcoming at St Andrews, loads of info, free burgers and bar over the weekend. Nice decor and storage – looks really nice.
Only issue, and this is about as 1st world problem as it gets, was having to queue for 2 hours to buy her gown. If we’d been more organised, we could have ordered it for collection. I did get some great photos for one of my lean/queue value stream mapping courses though :-)

having to queue for 2 hours to buy her gown

Isn’t that not really required for another 3 years though??

You would hope somewhere like St. Andrews could be better than average!

^ @doris5000 posh unis do things different and like to dress up

Isn’t that not really required for another 3 years though??

Try 4 or realistically 5 years in reality.

Or just Sunday morning

^ @doris5000 posh unis do things different and like to dress up

Indeed – it’s all a bit too Harry Potter TBH

Or just Sunday morning

Is that just so that they can easily find anyone who wanders off?

@onehundredthidiot Cheers for the reply, hopefully the school will keep him informed as to what help is available. As an aside I see my mate is on the BBC Scotland website/scottish news today talking about John, his cancer and the difficulties of getting treatment.

It’s some horrific posturing/singaling to the great unwashed in St Andrews.
Quite distasteful IMHO dressed up as tradition.

They should abolish gowns from a greening perspective if nothing else.

posh unis do things different and like to dress up

It’s some horrific posturing/singaling to the great unwashed in St Andrews.
Quite distasteful IMHO dressed up as tradition.

They should abolish gowns from a greening perspective if nothing else.

One of my colleagues son’s is in that photo…..but yes, it is ridiculous.

Go with The OU and you won’t have these problems (or just have yourself to blame! :0P )

Are the gowns not optional? Or are they optional in the sense you will be looked down upon if you don’t get on board?

They are optional, but my daughter feared she would stand out if she didn’t have one.
We planned to buy a second hand one, but they sold out in the time we were in the queue.

Mate of mine is a landlord to students*. The houses are clean when the students move in, they are meant to be clean when they move out. Last years highlight was when one lad demanded his deposit back after skipping off early leaving many bin bags full of bottles in his room and the cellar. Lots of them. Bottles of urine.

So many tales of disgusting hygiene.

*For the simple reason that the parents are signed up as guarantors, which comes in handy when the little scamp  skips off and leaves his bottle collection behind.

@oldtennisshoes

From

On the 3rd January 1800 John Honey, a student of the University, rescued members of the crew of the Janet of Macduff which had run aground off the East Sands of St Andrews.

In the absence of a lifeboat, he had fellow students tie a rope to his torso and swam out to the troubled vessel 5 times, bringing a man with him each time he returned. On his final trip, the ship’s mast broke and fell heavily upon his chest. Despite this, he made it the beach where he collapsed in exhaustion. Honey died at the age of 32 in Perthshire, whilst serving as a Church of Scotland minister: his death was attributed to unresolved health issues following the accident on board Janet.

Is that really “quite distasteful”?

Is that really “quite distasteful”?

No.
But having watched the pier walk and asked a couple of the students ‘why?’ neither could tell me that history. So they were taking part because of peer & organisational pressure.

So they were taking part because of peer & organisational pressure.

Or because it was a fun communal thing to do, we used to troop off to listen to a hymn and a madrigal being sung from the top of a tower at dawn on May day, I doubt many knew why or indeed what a madrigal was, but it was good fun

@somafunk – no yr1 accommodation is *usually* organised by the uni but not included in the fees.  It will be difficult with money – to be honest that’s one of the useful learning points of uni, which many upper middle class kids don’t get now.   There is some support available for exactly the sort of scenario your friends son is likely to be in – both to get the place and to fund it.

Heriot Watt dozered the shit blocks to make way for the Robotarium.

they actually weren’t shit – they were basic but more affordable!  By the sounds of things even 30 yrs on they would have been in a better state than MOABs latest experience.  But my recollection is the style of construction may have contained what everyone now knows is RAAC… I was always surprised they demolished those until RAAC became big news.

@moab – I do look in on the StAndrews stuff and think it’s all very weird BUT a lot of what they do is the precise opposite of your Edinburgh complaint – they don’t just chuck a bunch of students in a building and assume it will all work out fine, they have structure, process and pomp.   I don’t want to worry you – but I’ve heard some fairly critical stories about post covid teaching standards at Edinburgh. At least HW knows it’s in the real estate game and gets that bit right!

So they were taking part because of peer & organisational pressure.

‘Pier Pressure’ was right there for the taking.

‘Pier Pressure’ was right there for the taking.

Bad day yesterday. Well done.

Is that really “quite distasteful”?

I was referring to the wearing of gowns, not the Pier Walk, although I understand how what I wrote could be interpreted as that. Apologies.

One of my kids has just gone to Salford. Nice accomodation on campus and well run so far.

Indeed – it’s all a bit too Harry Potter TBH

We always compared Jnrs time at Cambridge to Hogwarts,  till his graduation when it became more like Unseen University.

None of his mates felt that wearing gowns was a sign of superiority.  It makes them a tourist attraction if anything.

joshvegas Free Member
Heriot Watt dozered the shit blocks to make way for the Robotarium.

If you’re referring to Caddon, Ettrick and Yarrow then it’s the GRID that’s on their site. The Robotarium (a building surely named by fans of Futurama) is out by the research park.

I spend my 1st year at Heriot-Watt in Midlothian. It, Linlithgow and Pentland got demolished a few years before Caddon, Ettrick and Yarrow. I found them a bit basic and cramped in the ’90s but clean, warm and reasonably well maintained. However apparently by the time they were taken down apparently only their ground floors were useable, and it sounds in retrospect that they may well have had RAAC issues.

Nothing’s been built on the site of the Linlithgow, Midlothian and Pentland halls, it’s all been left as a fairly nice green.

I was referring to the wearing of gowns, not the Pier Walk, although I understand how what I wrote could be interpreted as that. Apologies.

I’m not sure that it is distasteful.  Weird certainly, but the Uni has been there longer than almost anyone else in the area can trace their lineage to the area, so if it has odd traditions then so be it.  I’m sure some go there for the oddness, some despite it.  What I am sure is that only a tiny fraction of population of St Andrews would live there if it were not for the university.  Their property values would certainly be lower if they were just another slightly difficult to get to village on the Fife coast, with a good golf course.

daviek
Full Member

Dropped the eldest off at Herriot Watt last weekend for fresher’s week and his accommodation looked to be pretty good.

HW’s a bit of a special case what with being outside the city, so partly they really have no choice but to offer good halls, but also they have the space for them with the size of the campus. Some planning constraints obviously but not too bad. And because they own it all they’re incentivised to look after them for the long term. All usually works out pretty well for everyone.

Only downside is they’ve lost the cheaper options- like others mentioned the oldest halls got demolished and now they don’t offer the next-oldest and cheapest to undergrads. And all the new stuff is built for higher end, higher rent for obvious reasons. But it’s still a decent offering overall. (I don’t like the new halls, Ferguson Spark and Macleod, they’re too civilised and “apartmenty” and not “hallsy” enough but they are really nice buildings. Robert Bryson party hall ftw)

Durham does something similar. Most colleges have UG gowns for formal dinners and you get woken up by senior students by the fire alarm, walk all the way through town wearing your gown (much further from a hill college) with older students banging pots and pans, to the Cathedral where they read some Latin and a person from each colleague has to sign the Matriculation book. Everyone is hungover and has no idea what is going on.

Weird, we just had an annual boat race against the ‘other’ university.

… boat race as in standing in a line downing pints.

Did you get a choice of hall? From recollection I got offered:

Adult daycare style including all meals and cleaning.

Premium including en-suite bathroom, cleaning / big shared area and kitchen.

Mid with shared toilet, no cleaning.

Skid row style for the Young Ones experience.

Totally average Uni. Looking up these days it looks similar with the addition of super premium hotel style for overseas students paying £££.

Everyone outside of adult daycare seemed to have a good time. All options under £330 a month where a beer cost a £1.

Not sure what to think of it these days. Seems like a giant rental / real estate play.

And so the fun continues.

First proper lecture cancelled without notice.

First meeting with a tutor/advisor – turned up 20 mins late and gave them 10 mins.

No explanation why the ‘mandatory’ lecture was cancelled or the first lecture. Didn’t know that there was a clash of optional modules.

And they are in the 60% of unis who will make profit this year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czxdd7qglp6o

Their property values would certainly be lower if they were just another slightly difficult to get to village on the Fife coast, with a good golf course.

Because, of course, what every resident of a small country town dreams of is property prices rocketing so their kids can no longer afford a home and have to move away…..

My son really struggled with his first day yesterday. Had difficulty finding his way around the campus, found one lecture but no one was there, found another but it was wrong year group. Went to find someone to help him/talk to but their office was closed (sent them email). Gave up and came home at lunchtime. I tried to help but it’s over 30 years since I was at uni and it’s very different/digital now. Looks like he has down loaded some wrong timetable info, some lectures haven’t actually started yet etc. He is a bit of a lost sheep right now. He is meeting his cousin, who is doing a Masters at the uni, tomorrow for some help/pointers. My son took a year out last year so doesn’t know any other first years yet (and hasn’t found any to meet) and none of his mates went to uni last year so no one else he can ask for pointers and the orientation day he did last week was geared more toward how to study etc rather that practicalities. I am hoping it gets better for him.
any advice how I can help him settle in?

Dropped my daughter off at Exeter on Sunday for first time. Her on campus studio was very clean and lots of help on hand from both private company running the accommodation and from student body. Couldn’t have gone smoother which is good as she’s autistic and we are all obviously worried as to how she will cope. Let’s hope the lecturing is as well organised as drop off weekend.

anecdotally her mate has just gone into halls in Edinburgh and parents had to go straight out to ikea an buy a new mattress as the one in her room was wet and mouldy.

Their property values would certainly be lower if they were just another slightly difficult to get to village on the Fife coast, with a good golf course.

@poly Lack of a university doesn’t seem to to have adversely affected property prices in the @rse end of nowhere that is the East Neuk of Fife.

I missed out on the whole halls thing at uni, they forgot to send the papers with my registration pack and by the time i called they were full. Same as most of my course (useless coordinators!).

On the plus side, the halls i would have been offered were quite literally falling down, the whole complex (16 or 18 blocks of 32 rooms each) had been condemned a couple of years before i arrived, and everyone was told that they didn’t need to worry about the place as they would be torn down the following summer. Damp, broken windows, some of the buildings had (literally) no front doors, gaps in the walls so you could see into the next room, and so on.

One of them fell down during the xmas break. And was demolished by easter. (Unoccupied at the time of partial collapse, and during demolition)

The rest of the blocks everyone went to town on at the end of term, totally trashed the place.
Then there was a new bunch of first years moved in the following year…

A mate went to Uni in edinburgh, long time ago now, he’s in his 50s. But he walked into his uni arranged digs, turned round and walked out. Ended up in a shared house (which was a bit rough round the edges, but no fungus in the kitchen.

any advice how I can help him settle in?

@andy4d alert course tutors/student support now, same for @winston, there should be student advisors to make sure student needs are met, there certainly are where I work, and we have personal tutorial groups who meet with us, academic staff, to provide that connection, especially for those students who have difficulties adjusting.