Wednesday 2 November 2011

University Talk-Falmouth University

Hallo there, sorry about lack of posts yesterday, I stayed round Jacks and he cooked me a meal (pasta and sauce, forever my fave). I’m back today with my ‘review’ I guess on Falmouth University.

Despite it being like a gazillion miles away from where I live, the journey was quite pleasant, and didn’t seem to be the six hours that it actually was. The countryside is always lovely to look at, and it’s a nice change from the motorway. 
Our open day talk didn’t start until the afternoon, so we spent the morning looking around the town center. It’s a really nice little town, and considering the smallness of it, there was quite a large selection of shops, both mainstream and little self owned places. The town also seems to be very supportive of the arts, with multiple galleries, museums and exhibitions available. The high street itself is located right next to the sea, and it’s a really nice area (minus the hills, I’m a big fan of flat land, especially on a bike, which is my main mode of transport). Once we’d had a look around we got back in the car and headed to Tremough Campus. Unfortunately, I’m not too keen on the location of this campus. Part of the University is located on Woodlane Campus, which is pretty much in the center of the town, however Tremough Campus is located in between Falmouth and Penryn, and from what I could tell, it was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I’ve read that they have more accessible routes into the town, but it’s still quite a distance from it, but thats based only on what I saw.
Apart from this, the University itself was pretty impressive. The buildings are very modern, and look very nice in terms of aesthetics. The welcome talk was long, but interesting, and I learnt that even though Falmouth don’t have a particularly high Employability rate, they do have a high rate of graduates who go on to start their own businesses. The Head of Design came across as very friendly, and was happy to answer any questions with a full, informative reply. The course talk was the most informative yet, as the Textile tutor talked for over an hour before asking if anyone had any questions, and showing us around the workspace. The course content sounded very good, and, I’m not sure if it’s because she went into so much detail about what the course entails, or if it’s the best course, but I was definitely interested. 
Workspace was good, each student got their own table with a locker, and the facilities included industrial sewing machines, screen printing, laser printing, a jacquard loom, and a dying room. 
We didn’t get a chance to look at the accommodation, but after watching a 360 room tour online, it was easily the biggest room I’d seen, but also came with a more expensive price tag. 
Overall I was really impressed with the course part offered at Falmouth, but my concern lies with the location, and as I only tend to travel by bus or public transport, I’m not sure how easy it would be for me to get around town. Also, both the accommodation costs and the course cost were higher, making this the most expensive University I looked at, and there is the six hour drive to and from Falmouth, which would only be made longer by the fact I’d have to travel by train if I needed to get home, so if anything were to go wrong I’d be pretty stuck.
A lot of people say that if the course is good then you should go for that, but I’m looking for an all round good mix, being happy with location, accommodation, course content, etc. 
I think I’d be happy to attend Falmouth, but I think my heart is still set on Bournemouth, but we’ll just have to see.