Gemma Davies, the editor of Newcastle University's newspaper The Courier, details what Tyneside has to offer students.

Studying in Newcastle

The City of Newcastle has the ideal balance between work and play for university life. The location of the campus means you are never more than ten minutes walk away from anything in the city centre and yet, despite there being two universities in close proximity to each other, it does not feel like the students take over.

Despite its popularity with weekend visitors, Newcastle is a cheap city to be a student in. As long as you buy your food from supermarkets as opposed to corner shops, and choose to go out on student nights instead of at the weekend, then the cost of living is among the best in the country.

Owing to the vast student population of the city, it’s difficult to find somewhere that does not offer a student discount. Most Italian restaurants offer a pizza or pasta for £4 during happy hour and many pubs and bars have a happy hour game which means you could even drink for free! During the week the most you should have to pay to get into a nightclub is £5 although if you get there early and have your student card at hand this can be as little as £1.

In the four years I’ve been a student here I’ve never felt intimidated or felt unsafe at night. The city has plenty of taxi ranks and when I travel by Metro (the light railway system) I make sure I’m not on my own after 8pm or so. For late nights at the Students’ Union or the library, the Union runs a nightbus which takes you to your door for just 50p.

Public transport is not an issue for getting from campus into the city as it’s right on its doorstep but for travelling in from the halls which are further out and the city's out-lying student areas, the Metro and local buses serve the area well. The main train station has frequent services to most areas of the UK, with regular trains to London, Edinburgh and Yorkshire in particular. The only drawback is the cost of trains if you live further away or you’re visiting friends at different universities, but most train companies offer cheap advance tickets if you book weeks ahead and a Young Persons Railcard is a student must.

Study time

The main University library has recently extended its opening hours, and is now open until midnight during the week and 9pm at the weekends. Library opening hours had been a long-running complaint of students. There is also a 24 hour computer cluster, so there really is no excuse for work not being done on time!

The balance between exams and coursework varies between subjects so you should visit www.ncl.ac.uk for further information. The same goes for interaction with tutors – in English for example, you might only have 6 hours of lectures a week but then in a science or engineering subject this could be more like 30.

Play time

As clichéd as it sounds, there really is something for everyone in Newcastle. Whether you are an undergrad or postgrad, home or international, there is far more to this city than its party reputation. Of course, it does live up to the hype of being the party capital of the north but what struck me when I first became a student here was how cultured the city is, too. I’m now in my fourth year and haven’t been to every bar, club and art gallery. The music scene is also second to none. The music venues and clubs cater for everything from electro to cheese to r‘n’b to rock.

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