Topic: The University of Liverpool

[leivapool]

I did Physics at Uni of Liverpool. It's a great Uni. Physics is really good, the big CTL building was only built 3 years ago so it's all modern and up to date stuff. The labs are great, getting to use liquid nitrogen and re-create famous experiments and work stuff out for yourself. Definitely recommend it. Some great lecturers you'll probably run into like Dr Barry King and Dr Rodi Herzberg, both teach first years still I think. You get a real wide array of topics in pretty much most areas of Physics.

When it comes to Halls, to be honest i'd recommend staying in Carnatic/Greenbank. I'm not sure if Greenbank is closed yet, but they're both a couple miles outside of town in Mossley Hill, but they're really nice and I think you get more of the real "student experience" there. They're mainly catered, and have a bus running into town every 15/20 minutes 7 days a week. Plus a chippy and the asda down the road.

The new ones built in town are very very nice though, but tend to be more expensive and IIRC a lot are self catering too. Vine Court is run totally on renewable energy I think for example, the rooms are really nice. Guess it's all down to personal preference at the end of the day, but I preferred the liveliness of Carnatic. I did tour guides there for a while.

I think UoL is the best of both worlds to be honest, it's a red brick uni (the original) which comes with prestige, and it's also in a really friendly and lively city.

Thanks,  really helpful.  Agree about the physics building,  nice and modern,  which is a change from other Uni's who think Physics needs to be in the crappest 60's hole!!

Interesting so many of you are keen on Greenbank/Carnatic as this for me was a downsides to UofL until we visited,  the halls being off campus,  kind of defeated the point of a city centre location,  and I'd heard they were a bit of a dump and dated?  The new Crown Place Halls which are right by the Guild building were one of the things we liked when we saw them in person,  makes the Uni like a campus but in the city,  so best of both!    Price wise there isn;t much to chose to be honest,  although daughter prefers to self-cater which might rule out carnatic anyway?

Cheers

[Redman0151]

Thanks,  really helpful.  Agree about the physics building,  nice and modern,  which is a change from other Uni's who think Physics needs to be in the crappest 60's hole!!

Interesting so many of you are keen on Greenbank/Carnatic as this for me was a downsides to UofL until we visited,  the halls being off campus,  kind of defeated the point of a city centre location,  and I'd heard they were a bit of a dump and dated?  The new Crown Place Halls which are right by the Guild building were one of the things we liked when we saw them in person,  makes the Uni like a campus but in the city,  so best of both!    Price wise there isn;t much to chose to be honest,  although daughter prefers to self-cater which might rule out carnatic anyway?

Cheers

Ah fair enough, yeah the accommodation in the city centre is much nicer and more modern with much more room. To be honest Carnatic is very basic, 4 walls, a single bed, a wardrobe and an ethernet port. There's a few self catering in carnatic (Dale I believe, and part of 1 more), but it's pretty limited and parts of Dale don't have proper showers, just a bath with an extension to attach to it.

I'm not sure if it's changed but the generalisation when we were there, was Carnatic/Greenbank was more rowdy and loud, whilst the city centre buildings tended to be more chill and laid back. Although I haven't been in that new building so it may have changed!

The Physics is really good at UoL to be honest, in the first few weeks of first year you get to design a fun "Mission to mars" project where you compete against other teams, and the Physics Olympics for team building/getting to know people. Best of luck deciding 

[Brunswickred]

Thanks,  really helpful.  Agree about the physics building,  nice and modern,  which is a change from other Uni's who think Physics needs to be in the crappest 60's hole!!

Interesting so many of you are keen on Greenbank/Carnatic as this for me was a downsides to UofL until we visited,  the halls being off campus,  kind of defeated the point of a city centre location,  and I'd heard they were a bit of a dump and dated?  The new Crown Place Halls which are right by the Guild building were one of the things we liked when we saw them in person,  makes the Uni like a campus but in the city,  so best of both!    Price wise there isn;t much to chose to be honest,  although daughter prefers to self-cater which might rule out carnatic anyway?

Cheers

They're currently in the process of doing up Greenbank as part of a massive redevelopment but doesn't seem like they will have that finished for a little while yet.

Although Greenbank/Carnatic are off campus, the 699 will have you in town in about 15 minutes odd and I'd say it gives you a much nicer experience of the city of Liverpool to be out of the city centre, near 3 or 4 amazing parks for walking/hanging out/sport (Sefton especially) and plenty of nice bars/places to eat/shops. I'd also say it's highly probable that students will be living in that neck of the woods (i.e. in the Smithdown area) from second year onwards so it gives a good chance to get used to it round there and scout out where's good.

[gazzam1963]

Seeing as your talking of physics ...my son is at Sussex doing a masters in physics now in his 3rd year ...do you intend to stay in that field or branch off or did you do something completely different once you graduated .

[Redman0151]

Seeing as your talking of physics ...my son is at Sussex doing a masters in physics now in his 3rd year ...do you intend to stay in that field or branch off or did you do something completely different once you graduated .

I'm gonna go into coding or teaching I think, but Physics leaves a ton of doors open. Let's just hope Brexit doesn't fuck up stuff with CERN etc...

[jackh]

They're currently in the process of doing up Greenbank as part of a massive redevelopment but doesn't seem like they will have that finished for a little while yet.

Although Greenbank/Carnatic are off campus, the 699 will have you in town in about 15 minutes odd and I'd say it gives you a much nicer experience of the city of Liverpool to be out of the city centre, near 3 or 4 amazing parks for walking/hanging out/sport (Sefton especially) and plenty of nice bars/places to eat/shops. I'd also say it's highly probable that students will be living in that neck of the woods (i.e. in the Smithdown area) from second year onwards so it gives a good chance to get used to it round there and scout out where's good.

I lived at Greenbank (R&G) 2006/07, and then moved towards town for 2007/08 and I'd much rather have been back out around Smithdown Road really, particularly given those extra plus points mentioned here.

For 2nd/3rd year, the area immediately south-west of Smithdown Road (around Ullet Road) or a little further on (between Smithdown Road and Penny Lane) are particularly sweet spots and a bit nicer than the area north-east of Smithdown Road (the roads leading to Lawrence Road).

[Kelwell]

I was there 09-13, did French.

Halls was great - was in Roscoe and Gladstone. Enjoyed the communality sort of side. Basically treated it like a hotel.

[CornerFlag]

Seeing as your talking of physics ...my son is at Sussex doing a masters in physics now in his 3rd year ...do you intend to stay in that field or branch off or did you do something completely different once you graduated .

Not to me but I'm in my third year here (BSc Physics with Astronomy) and the main thing I'm looking to do after this is go into teaching with a PGCE year.  So while there are scientific avenues I could go down I'm more thinking of how, for a year's work, I can essentially get the equivalent of a second degree and more career opportunities.  It's different for everyone though, I mean with a masters you can look at more research opportunities than a bachelor can or progress into the doctorate scheme.  Plenty of things to do.

[jackh]

I was there 09-13, did French.

Halls was great - was in Roscoe and Gladstone. Enjoyed the communality sort of side. Basically treated it like a hotel.

They closed the onsite bar down in 2008 didn't they (it was very much a 'pub' in 2006/07 but they renovated it and painted it cream the following year) - did they replace that at all?

[Kelwell]

It was still open for my first year. I thought it was great - we had a group of about 15-20 who had a real good go at keeping it open but in the end it just wasn't worth it for them. Shame really.

Certain occasions loads of people would go in, but students being mingebags meant they'd rather buy from Asda etc. and drink in their rooms rather than be able to sit in comfort and spend a bit more...

Give it a good send off for its last night though !

[jackh]

It was still open for my first year. I thought it was great - we had a group of about 15-20 who had a real good go at keeping it open but in the end it just wasn't worth it for them. Shame really.

Certain occasions loads of people would go in, but students being mingebags meant they'd rather buy from Asda etc. and drink in their rooms rather than be able to sit in comfort and spend a bit more...

Give it a good send off for its last night though !

I'm disappointed we didn't get an honorary invite from some of the Halls supervisors!

The snooker room was always a bit of a hit with our group too.

Which block did you live in?  Top floor D block here,

I'll never free myself of the memory of the deafening shriek of the lady in the canteen: "Dinner cards on your trays please!!"

[Kelwell]

I'm disappointed we didn't get an honorary invite from some of the Halls supervisors!

The snooker room was always a bit of a hit with our group too.

Which block did you live in?  Top floor D block here,

I'll never free myself of the memory of the deafening shriek of the lady in the canteen: "Dinner cards on your trays please!!"

Ian Magedera - what a fella. I had him for my French course as well so I was well in with him ha ha.

Snooker room was good, used to hire that out and get a few drinks on the go in there.

P block in the far corner. Superb location.

Dinner was great - I knew one of the women who served so I was guaranteed extra scran. Happy days.

[Medellin]

The snooker room is still there,the bar is now a 'social space' & the pond got filled in too.

[jackh]

The snooker room is still there,the bar is now a 'social space' & the pond got filled in too.

Once lost my keys in that...

[Willi]

I was there 09-13, did French.

Halls was great - was in Roscoe and Gladstone. Enjoyed the communality sort of side. Basically treated it like a hotel.

I was in R&G in 1972-73. It was good although we wern't allowed back for a second year because we were not very well behaved.

[The Evil One]

Born and bred in the city and continue to live and work here to this very day. However I lost my respect for the University as from my experience they clearly value profit over academic prowess.

During one of my modules the lecturer provided a link to information which he said would be useful for our coursework. What unfolded next completely baffled me as the link was suppose to be reference purposes and coursework was supposed to gauge our understanding of the topic expressed in our own words. During a lecture the said tutor referred to a piece of work from a foreign student which they said was a good example of a high scoring piece of work. The problem was that this student copied and pasted the whole article from the link provided without even changing any words or headings.

I complained about this to the tutor and subject head and did not receive a response. It was clear plagiarism and half the course were dumbstruck. In this instance nothing was done and said student got a first and I believe that this was due to the fees paid by the student being placed above academic integrity. From my interactions with foreign students, it was clear that there were little or very lapse English tests on course acceptance. How they managed to get firsts in coursework baffles me to this day as communicating in English was a problem for them let alone attempting to write whole essays. The whole education system is flawed when it comes to foreign students, with conflict of interest over profits.