Sarah Tiernan, in her 3rd year studying Human Psychology says studying in the UK's second city has lots of opportunities for work and play - and Aston's high employability rating comes from being one of the few universities that offers students a placement year

Being a student in Birmingham

Birmingham is a huge city with plenty to offer to everyone. In terms of shopping, it has the popular Bullring Shopping Centre with all the high street shops with the Palisades Shopping Centre attached to it and a wide variety of shops around the city centre.

The transport around Birmingham is fantastic, with excellent buses and rail links all over the UK. Buses frequently run between Erdington and Edgbaston – which are the most popular places to live in second and third year - most first years live on campus.A pass for three months which will last a term costs around £104, but with single fares coming in at £1.50 it is money well spent. As Birmingham is geographically in the middle of the UK, transport links make it easy to travel to almost anywhere else in Britain.

The cost of living in Birmingham is fairly low. There are plenty of bargain clothes shops such as Primark and Peacocks, as well as the famous ‘Rag Market’. This is a cheap place where you can buy fresh produce, and it also has everything for those fancy dress nights!

Drinks are also fairly priced on nights out, with a typical pint in the Students Guild costing around £2.50, and only £1 on special “pounded” nights. Heading to one of the four Wetherspoons in Birmingham, one of the UK’s cheapest pub chains, you will also find cocktail pitchers at the bargain price of £5.95. Weekends tend to be the most expensive night out as a student. Some of the most popular places for students to visit on a weekend are Ramshackle and Panic as the drinks prices are still very cheap. Entry fees into clubs vary greatly, but on student nights the average tickets are £3 - £4.

There are four cinemas in Birmingham (Odean, UGC, AMC and Electric), which won’t cost you more than £4 for a student priced ticket. Also if you join the student site www.studentbeans.com, you will receive buy one get one free offers. Restaurants in Birmingham can vary greatly in price, but popular student destinations such as Manzils or Big Wok are great value for money. Big Wok is an all you can eat Chinese buffet costing only £6 during the day, and slightly more at night.

As a female living in Birmingham I can honestly say I feel safe, but of course you should still be very careful when walking on your own at night. Aston’s location is very convenient, being situated centrally in the city near to a police station. The campus also has 24 hour security, so help is always at hand in an emergency.

Study time

Aston's resources are of good standard and the campus has a large library on site. The first floor contains computers which can be used for work or play, however these are in high demand so you have to go early to get one. Also on the first floor is a group study area and a Learning and Skills Centre which offers additional help to students. The second floor is the quiet study area, which I found very useful during the exam period.

When it comes to reading journals, Aston is part of the Athens group. Students are given a username and password so that they can download journals from the internet if they are not on campus, as well as a floor in the library dedicated to hard copies of some journals.

In terms of the balance between coursework and exams here at Aston, my experiences have been very good. Psychology is evenly distributed in terms of coursework and exams, with some modules focusing more on coursework and others solely focussing on exams. Most the exams so far have been in the summer time and have been a mixture of multiple choice questions, detailed essays and short answer questions.

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