International Student Experience in the University of Nottingham United Kingdom

Having a hard time deciding which university suits you best? Well, in this blog post I will be sharing my three years student experience in the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. But of course, everything that I will be sharing are just purely personal experience and thoughts 😉 Enjoy~

Nottingham City

“Hey, do you know where the batman mansion is?” Oh well, that might be one of the most popular question people (or maybe students) in Nottingham will have to answer. Yes, we do have a batman mansion, with a huge garden by the name- Wollaton and Deer Park. It is a great place for evening jog, stroll with your dog or perhaps a date with your love one 💗 To be honest with you, besides this, there is nothing much to visit in Nottingham. We do have a castle and a gallery of justice where you could enter for a fee, however, I am not a fan of history, so I don’t find those interesting.

Wollaton Hall- aka Batman Mansion

About the city, it is not as vibrant and busy as London or Manchester, but it consists of everything that you need. Grocery shopping, variety of food outlets, old market square, entertainment (cinemas and karaoke), night life, basically everything but perhaps in a smaller ratio. ‘The night life in Nottingham is one of the best’- well, this was what I heard throughout the years but I believe I am not the right person to testify this as I don’t go to pubs or clubs often. To add on, old market square is a festive and lively place, which will be transformed into one of the UK’s largest Christmas market in winter and into a manmade beach, swimming pool and funfair during the summer. Lastly, is the Goose Fair that takes place once a year around October or November. This fair will be hosted in ‘The Forest Recreation Ground’ and would attract people from all over UK, causing a huge crowd and lots of queues! Everyone loves the goose fair, including me 😉 trust me, it’s just loads of fun and food!!

The crowd in Goose Fair every year!

Despite Nottingham being a city with almost nothing, we do have an AIRPORT! (not exactly in Nottingham, just about 1 hour via bus) East Midlands airport is a small airport but as students, we could travel to other Europe countries during term breaks as the tickets might be cheaper than London sometimes. You just have to take Skylink from either the city or uni, and it will lead you straight to the airport. Or alternatively, take an uber or taxi. There are many buses connecting the university and the city (indigo, Y5, 34 and 36 just to name a few). You could get a student rate of just £1 with your student card (if the rate remains the same). Besides, there are trams that could also get you to the city with the same price if you have a tram card or a mango card. And of course, not forgetting the Nottingham Train Station, it is not as fancy as Kings Cross but I believe most of you will be arriving in Nottingham via train. Some of you might be arriving via National Express or Megabus, and the bus will stop just next to the train station.

Campuses

Alright, enough on the city, let me take you to the campus. As you probably know, we have Nottingham UK campus, Malaysia campus and Ningbo campus in China. I have only been to the one in UK and let me give you a verbal tour around my beautiful campus. Firstly, for your information, we have 4 campuses in UK, namely University park, Jubilee, King’s Meadow and Sutton Bonnington campus.

University Park campus is the main campus and also the largest one, where most people will get lost without a map on the first day. Most courses are based here such as Law, Maths, Engineering, Pharmacy, Psychology, Physics etc. We have lectures in lecture halls all over the campus and sometimes we only have 10 minutes to travel from one to the other (exercise time!). In your first year, you will be allocated to a tutor and he/ she will be your mentor and the person to approach if you face any difficulties in any aspect. He/ She will be your parent (or mentor) for your entire university degree, no matter you like it or not. Also, most courses will have tutorials aside from lectures so your timetable will be packed and it will just get more flexible in your second and third year with the increasing optional modules. “Help will always be given at ‘Nottingham’ to those who ask for it”- quote by Prof Dumbledore but it applies to Nottingham too! Tutors and lecturers are always happy to help when you have any questions. Just approach them, email or book an appointment with them and help will be provided.

Portland building-  the heart of the campus. Student Union, Boots, ePARS, Mooch (student bar), food outlets, financial and accommodation support office, careers and employment office are all located in this building.

Portland building

Trent building- a historical and magnificent building with a clock tower that will constantly remind you of the time hourly.

Trent building

Nottingham Lake- great place for evening walks, photos, feeding the ducks and swans, or just stare blankly into the lake and greenery when exam stresses you out. During the summer, you could even do boating in the lake! Nice experience and great way to work out your biceps.

Lakeside view

Speaking about exams, we have mainly 3 libraries in University Park campus- Hallward, George Green and Greenfield Medical Library. Hallward library is the main library where students will camp during study periods before exams. It will be oven hot in the library and be sure to arrive early to grab a seat (especially those with plugs). The crowd will normally die down during the evening where most students call it a day and return home for dinner. The library will open 24/7 around finals and that is one of the thing I liked about it. My brain somehow functions better at night; hence, I will normally stay in the library until about midnight to study. I have also tried working on a coursework with my coursemates in the library until sunrise!! Depending on where you stay, you might prefer camping in other libraries that is nearer to your accommodation. George Green library was just newly renovated this year, with more computers, study spaces and plugs for students. If the libraries are too cramp and you can’t concentrate in your room either, fear not, there are many study areas all around campus available for you such as in the Trent building, study rooms in academic schools and mini library in accommodation halls.

Hallward Library

George Green Library

Interested in sports? Lucky for you we have our new sports centre newly refurbished. David Ross Sports Village provides basketball, badminton, tennis courts, pool tables, swimming pool, gym, running tracks and even climbing walls for those of you with a Spiderman spirit. You can either pay an annual fee to get access to all facilities or pay as you visit if you are not a frequent user. There are also classes available such as Zumba, Body Attack and Yoga for you to keep fit and release stress.

Exterior of David Ross Sports Village

Let’s take a look at the other campuses. Jubilee campus- the modern one. The architecture of the buildings in this campus are more modern and courses such as business, management, computer science and Chinese studies are based here. It is a smaller campus but there is a floating library on the lake in this campus- Djanogly Learning Resource Centre.

The library on the lake

When I first visited this library, I followed the pathway and dizzily turned my way to the top. Later did I notice that there is a lift and staircase in the middle, behind those doors (LOL 😆). There is also a business library available for mostly business and management students.

There are also cafes and food outlets in Jubilee too. A smaller size sports centre is also available there. Therefore, if you have the annual sports membership, you will have access to any sports centre across campuses so playing basketball with friends over in Jubilee campus will not be a problem.

King’s Meadow Campus is a very small campus which I will only visit when I have exams in the studio hall or I have student part time jobs located there. Sutton Bonnington Campus is located quite a distance from the others and courses such as nutrition are based there. I do have friends there but I don’t meet them as often. I have only visited this campus once throughout my 3 years during the farmers market (the first Wednesday of every month). There are cows and horses there but to my luck, I only saw cows. ☹

There are free hopper buses operating during term time. These buses connect every campus to the main campus. For instance, it is every 15 minutes for the Jubilee hopper bus (903) during the day and the frequency decreases at night.

Accommodation

University do provide catered and self-catered student accommodations in all campuses. Personally, I stayed in Lenton and Wortley hall during my first year. It was a catered hall, which means we have 19 meals covered for us. 3 meals every weekday, brunch and dinner during weekends. I stayed in a single room, with a twin-shared bathroom, where I shared the bathroom with only one other person. My neighbours were friendly souls and we were of different courses. There is a dining hall (that look 60% like the great hall in Harry Potter) where we have our breakfast, brunch and dinner. It is a great place to catch up with your friends after a day of lectures. The good thing is you don’t have to worry about what to cook during meal times, just head over to the dining hall and dig in. There is a variety of food every meal but the menu will get repetitive. It tasted not bad, but soon you will start to get bored of it (to be really honest). For lunch, there will be credit in your student card where you could purchase food from almost every food outlets in uni. There are washing machines and dryers provided but you will have to pay to get it functioning (keep coins for laundry!). If you are expecting a mail, sorry to disappoint you but there is no owl to drop mail from the sky for you, you just have to check your mail at the pigeon holes or collect them from the porter’s office. There is a bar besides the dining hall where some students will chill and drink during the night. As for me, I will head to the piano in the common area and jam to my heart’s content (great way to release stress sometimes). As my hall is located in University Park Campus, it was just 5-10 minutes’ walk away from lecture.

Lenton hall covered in snow (beautiful isn't it?) 

In my second year, where I had more friends, we decided to move out and rent a house with a private landlord as it will be cheaper (about 15-20 minutes’ walk to lecture halls). We signed a contract and moved into a 6-man house (alongside 3 other seniors that were tenants of the previous year). It was cosy and I did not regret the decision of staying with my housemates as our friendship grew stronger and it is just a miracle I survived staying with them because they are famous for their sarcasms (I guess I just got used to it). Our rent was £69 per week excluding bills, and the bills were about £10-15 per month (a very good deal I would say). One of the plus point is that our landlord is just AWESOME! He responded to our problems fairly quickly. He visited us every Tuesday, changed our lightbulbs, microwave and even got us a new refrigerator! We have a lovely backyard shared with our neighbour where we hosted bbq parties during autumn and summer. Oh, and did I mention although I love my campus very much, but I hate it at times if I am late for class, it is just too huge and I must either speed walk or run to class, not to mention it is an uphill track! (cardio session!😤) I stayed in the same house during my third year as well.

My house from the outside

Our backyard for bbq parties!!

Societies

Our student union is massive and there are more than hundreds of societies for you to choose from. If you couldn’t find one that suits you, you could even be the founder of a new society! Just to list a few, we have sky-diving, massage, gliding, lego, board games, magic, dance, law, mooting and maths societies. As I am a Malaysian, I joined Nottingham Malaysian Society for 3 years. The society will organise an annual Nottingham Malaysian Games where all the University across UK will send representatives to Nottingham to compete. It is one of the largest game in the UK and also provides a reunion platform for all Malaysian students. I was part of the organising team for my first 2 years and it was a great learning experience for myself and the team. Besides the games, the society also organises a Malaysian Festival, aiming to promote Malaysian culture to the locals and other students. With a passion in dancing, I took part as a dancer and choreographer for both traditional and modern dance and enjoyed myself while I performed to the crowd. Those are the memories that I would treasure forever.

Year 1 dance crew

Year 2 dance crew

Part of year 3 dance crew

Besides Malaysian Society, I joined a society where there were no Malaysians at all. I would like to mix with the locals and students from other countries. I chose to join Magic Society because of a fire trick that caught my attention during the fresher’s fair. Initially, I joined with the hope to play with the fire paper, but in the end, I learnt many different tricks too! I was the treasurer for Magic society in my second year and I would say working with a team of locals felt truly different. We planned meetings, agenda and organised events together. They guided me through a lot, especially in magic tricks.

During freshers fair~~

Picture taken during the societies ball (one of the photo I love most!)

Part time jobs and career support

As a student, you could apply for part time jobs through Unitemps. I have earned quite some pocket money by working as a student ambassador, promoting the university during events and open days. My job is generally to answer any query of the students or parents and to share my experience with them (which is what I’m doing in this blog too). I took visitors on tours around campus and gave them a brief summary of the uni life. Of course, you could also apply for a part time job in restaurants or food outlets if you have more time to spare.

Student ambassadors 

The university provides sufficient support for career hunting and application. You could book a CV appointment where the staff will guide and help you tailor made your CV. Besides that, there will be career fairs hosted a few times annually that provide students the opportunity to meet their potential employers and vice versa.

Friendship

I built countless friendships throughout the 3 years, locally and internationally. My coursemates that hung in there with me throughout the exams stress and courseworks; my housemates that accepted my flaws and slight temper; different batches of dancers for Malaysian festival; cool magicians from the Magic society; basketball and badminton friends; the Lenton gang; and last but not least, the special one, that went further than just friendship 💗 

This journey wasn’t easy and I wouldn’t have made it without my friends. Deep down, I am ultimately grateful to have the opportunity to study overseas. It gave me the chance to experience a different culture and weather. There were hard times but also sweet moments. As the saying goes “there will be no rainbow, without a little bit of rain”. Now that I know I might not be returning or it might be a forever goodbye to some of my friends, how I wish I could turn back time. I miss them and I wonder when will we ever cross paths again. Nottingham, a place full with memories, a place I once called…...HOME away from home.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it. I sincerely apologise if any statement I made offended you. 

Former Nottingham Student (current Nottingham Alumni),
kyt