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This week Lara King, a third-year English student, gives us her lowdown on Bristol University

Being a student in Bristol

Welcome to Bristol, the hilly patch of the West Country described by John Betjeman as 'The most beautiful, interesting and distinguished city in England'. As the ninth most populous city in the UK, Bristol is both big enough to cater for the most idiosyncratic of student interests, and small enough to offer a sense of student community (and to bump into your Freshers’ Week fancy when you pop out for a pint of milk in your pyjamas). With more than one third of graduates choosing to stay in the area after completing their degrees, it's certainly doing something right for its students.

Bristol is not a campus-based university; instead, with the iconic Wills Memorial Building (preserve of lawyers and graduation ceremonies) dominating the city skyline, and halls of residence overlooking the spacious green Downs, it feels more like the whole city is your campus. The majority of university buildings are dotted around the leafy streets of Clifton, where trendy coffee shops, eclectic gift boutiques and upmarket charity shops abound.

In the student zone from Whiteladies Road and the Triangle Down to Park Street, shops range from college cool (Jack Wills, Sweaty Betty) to urban chic (BS8, DNA), along with plenty of book shops and branches of the major banks to suit your more practical needs. Continue down Park Street to the concrete jungle of Broadmead and you'll find every chain store you could dream of, from Primark to House of Fraser.

Even without the temptation of shopping until you drop, Bristol isn't the cheapest city to set up home in: a pint in your local will usually set you back upwards of £2.50, whilst catching a film at the city centre Odeon will leave your pocket £4.50 lighter. On Saturday nights, the cost of partying in the city centre rockets as local professionals let their hair down, so most Bristol students while away these nights at hall bars or house parties. During the week, however, Bristol opens its arms wide to embrace the student body, with clubs charging as little as £3 entry and outstanding drinks deals that conspire to make you miss your 9am lectures.

Bristol is compact enough to walk just about anywhere, which is fortunate since public transport isn't the city's strongest point. In 2006, the Student Link bus service, which ran from the Students' Union to the Stoke Bishop halls in the evening, was abolished. This is a highly contentious issue and remains under review, and in the meantime, commercial buses are pricy and often unreliable. Although walking from the Stoke Bishop halls of residence to the university takes around thirty minutes, congestion on morning bus routes and the difficulty of parking around the university mean that it is often a lot quicker to travel on foot than on four wheels. If you're fit enough to handle the hills, cycling is also a popular alternative.

Whilst Bristol is generally a safe city, both males and females should avoid crossing the Downs alone at night. Licensed Hackney carriages are in abundance throughout the city after dark and the fare to Stoke Bishop is around £6-7, so pile in with a few friends and staying safe won't even make a dent in your loan.

Study time

There are thirteen libraries of various sizes dotted across the university, but their quality varies depending on your subject. Despite being the largest, the Arts and Social Sciences Library has been criticised for failing to invest enough money in new books, and in many subjects it struggles to meet demand for key texts.

The Short Loan Collection, on the ground floor, attempts to resolve this by allowing you to reserve certain books for slots of one hour, three hours or overnight. This usually gives enough time to make notes or photocopy the relevant pages, but set an alarm clock for your due time as being just a few minutes late will land you a hefty fine. If the book you need isn't in the Short Loan Collection, reserve it online and an e-mail will alert you as soon as it's returned, but the length of the waiting lists around essay deadlines and exams means that your critical tome is often about as useful as a coaster by the time it reaches you.

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