University of York

The University of York is a relatively new university, but it has built a great reputation of excellence both in teaching and in academic research. The campus is very well-kept. All the teaching facilities, labs, rooms, library, and student accommodation are conveniently clustered together in a scenery, green space just outside the city of York. There are a range of services available on campus from shops, bank branch, cafes through health centre to careers centre (Staff there were really helpful with job applications, career advice, practising interviews, tailoring your CV). University library is incredibly well-equipped and your student card gives you access to books, textbooks, online journal articles and much, much more. It's open 24/7 364 days in the year, I loved it! My Psychology course was very well-strutured. It covered different strands of Psychology such as social psychology, forensics, neuroscience, statistics, developmental psychology, cognitive and clinical psychology. In the end it gave me a broader understanding and aa bigger picture of the various subfields in Psychology. In my final year I had the opportunity to explore a favourite topic in greater detail and to summarise the findings in a research project report. The academic staff at the Department of Psychology were extremely professional. They were always available for answering questions or if we had any issues. Not only were they inspirational lecturers and passionate scientists, but true mentors who guided and supported us in our own journey through the field of Psychology. I will always be grateful to my supervisors and academic staff at the Department of Psychology.

The course that I study is French and German, and the teachers are all very good at what they do and they are able and willing to help you in any way that they can. The seminars are all interactive and interesting, and the class sizes are quite small so everyone has an opportunity to partake in the conversation. The topics we study are very interesting, such as the French empire, what it means for a society to be democratic, and the GDR. The campus is beautiful with it being close to the city centre and there is a lot of nature on site. However if you are in an old accommodation block there will be a lot of problems that maintenance will need to fix (although they do fix them very quickly).

Compared to most other university language courses in the UK, at the University of York the focus was on real life in other countries, such as politics, social problems, and history, whereas other universities tend to concentrate mainly on literature. Another plus was that the seminars where all held in the target language and not English, so we got lots of practice speaking. However the quality of the teaching could be a mixed bag depending on the tutor, one in particular liked to pick on certain students.

The University of York and its English Department is known as one of the best across the United Kingdom. It is a great place to study with a warm and welcoming atmosphere and the tutors are always available for further feedback. I would highly recommend The University of York as a place to study, whether that is full-time or part-time.

The courses were all related to the course, so they were helpful to improve myself in the field. Lecturers were really professional and friendly, they were ready to answer your questions and help you when you needed. Campus was green and clean, it was nice to live on campus. The facilities were adequate.