30,919 discussions, 145 guides
Plymouth University
30,919 discussions, 145 guides
Plymouth University
University of Plymouth
Drake Circus
Plymouth
PL4 8AA
Tel: +44 (0)1752 600600
1970
Rolle-Up
Cunningly titled student mag written and published at the Exmouth Campus. Features standard fare, news, reviews, features. Oh yes, and gossip!
Plyouth is currently in an evolutionary stage. Lots of funding has been invested in the development of the Peninsula Medical School, creating new labs and teaching facilities at Portland Square. A new Student Welcome Centre has also just been finished and provides an organisational meeting point for student activities.
Pat Butcher - Eastenders queen with surprising Devonshire education! Roy might not like her earings but the students at Plymouth are very proud of their most famous daughter and she opened a new beer garden not that long ago. Real name - Pam St. Clement.
There are seven bars situated throughout the four main campuses, one of which is optimistically located outside. These are open until 2am on Friday and Saturday nights and close at the usual 11pm during the rest of the week. The best description of the union is 'small and dingy.' It promises much from the outside with a Louvre-style glass pyramid but fails to deliver on the inside. It shouldn't be slated too much as it gets packed on Friday nights and at other times students generally only use it as a meeting place or somewhere to play pool. It doesn't really try to compete with the local area. There are also bars elsewhere on campus and at the subsidiary sites. Biggest advantage- Bud on draught for the classier route to rapid inebriation. Bands also play st the city campus venues, recent performers include Reef, the Freestylers, and serious rock icons Wheatus!
Food-wise there's a small café which serves hot food all day. It serves as entirely acceptable student nosh. Looks like shit but tastes OK. There are plenty of pool tables and some retro arcade machines dotted around the place to waste those between-lecture hours. In addition you'll always find a few interesting market-type stalls selling cheapie branded clothes and CDs to spend your loan cheque pennies on.
Here's what one student had to say about the offering on the whole: "If you want a Union to show off to your mates, go as far away from Plymouth as possible. If you want a communal Hall, go as far away from Plymouth as possible. However, if you want a reasonably friendly, reasonably crime-free, reasonably-climated, reasonably alcohol-stocked location, with little or no chance to burn off all those calories you worked so hard at putting on....then I'll be waiting for you with open arms at the M5 Plymouth Junction."
Unlike some Universities, Plymouth doesn't seem too fussy about its events nights. Students have enjoyed a Rocky Horror night and are believed to have consumed 600 bottles of tequilla on a Mexican night. I really don't think so. Friday and Saturday nights are usually just your standard 2am club nights (themes include dance music and getting drunk) The rest of the week is - interestingly - bingo! Well, perhaps all the time is a bit of an exaggeration, but bingo is a regular and popular event with prizes reaching large amounts of money when nobody wins for a while. A £600 prize is not unheard of. There are also regular quiz nights and film screenings on Sundays which provide a great opportunity to nurse those hangovers.
The main event of the year is, like many universities, the May ball. Also big are the Christmas ball at Exmouth, the Graduation Ball at Searle and the Valentine's ball- no real surprises there. What seems to be a good feature at Plymouth is the regular occurence of 'booze cruises', which are alcohol saturated (but hopefully organised) boat trips. These are generally undertaken by societies that feel the need, or just the random desire, to celebrate. Balls are based at the four different campuses but can be attended by all.
The societies here encompass a spectrum of interests. Football, Netball.. blah, blah, blah. However where Plymouth really stands out (as it should, being by the seaside and all) is in its watersports clubs. The Dinghy club and The Yacht Club are very popular and successful in recent competition. The Surf and Windsurf clubs are also strong. The big advantage for these clubs is the wealth of natural resources in the locality, such as the sea itself and the Diving and Marine Centre. Whitsands Bay is a favourite local hotspot. SCAP (Student Community Action at Plymouth is one of the university's most exciting societies. It has a large number of members and has organised an aid trip to Romania, a sponsored sleep out to raise money for 'The Big Issue' and the creation of an educational garden for a local primary school. A very busy bunch doing some really good work- definitely one to join if you have a desire to help your fellow man. The ladies rugby team is not that hot, but Musical Theatre Society and the peculiarly named Illuminated Thespians of Searle Hayne get rave reviews.
Jiu Jitsu and Volleyball clubs have had significant success, as has the sailing club.
1% have to share and the number that can be accommodated is a very poor 50%.
The majority of accommodation is located at Plymouth, Exeter and Exmouth, but space is limited and standards not quite de-luxe...
Some dos and don'ts when applying for accommodation. Don't apply to stay in Devonport halls without prior thought, they may be cheap, but they've been described as 'slummy.' This hall is rumoured to be up for destruction when new blocks are built at the Exmouth site. In defence of Devonport they have been described as very sociable. This is often the case with scummy halls of residence so if you're not bothered about aesthetics bear them in mind.
Don't apply to Radnor, this is the worst of both worlds, anti-social and it has no cleaners. Do apply to stay in Gilwell Halls, these are not too expensive and are very sociable and fun for a first year hoping to meet lots of people and have a laugh (which is, lets face it, most).
For anybody hoping to live it up a little, Robins is the 'posh block'. Though cuttingly described as 'where all the snobby people stay', I guess that means it's nice. There is criticism that it isn't that sociable and this is down to the layout. It's not that communal and the stairs for the top rooms are demanding after beer and your late night food of choice. You can get broadband for £25.
The Hoe Centre is located on Notte Street about 1 min from the city centre and is just like a maximum security prison hospital. In fact it actually was once! There's one long corridor making it very sociable.
Pilgrim Halls are newer halls of residence which offer standard and enhanced en-suite rooms (basically, the carpet is fluffier and the walls are plastered as opposed to breeze blocked). A range of rooms are offered to suit all prices, and they're quite sociable too. Flats range from 3-8 rooms with a large kitchen at the end of each flat. Broadband internet access is provided (currently for free) in each room, as well as a phone service, which is charged on a pay-as-you-go basis. Each room is equipped with a large wardrobe, and plenty of shelf and drawer space. The cleaners are really nice (like a second mum, according to some students), and they visit twice a week to clean your kitchen and hallway. One bad thing I would say about living in Pilgrim is that the laundry room is a bit of a trek, and there are nowhere near enough machines for all of the students that wish to use them so be prepared to queue (or you could make friends with someone in Robbins and find out the PIN for their laundry block. Mary Newman is the only on-campus hall and it's as scabby as hell. Think building site, hospital corridor and non-descript headquarters of the world potato marketing board. All halls are within three miles of campus if you're staying at the Plymouth site.
The university used to be called Polytechnic South West, which perhaps goes some way to explaining the difficulties I'm going to have here in describing the local area. Sites are located at Plymouth, Exeter, Exmouth and near Newton Abbot. Plymouth itself, which seems to be the party town whichever campus you're staying in, is a large and diverse place with plenty to amuse even the most picky of students. The Theatre Royal has good productions, there's several cinemas and an arts centre and...the seasideof course! The general atmosphere is heavily influenced by surfers and other watersports enthusiasts. This is heaven for many of Plymouth's students and a welcome escape from the sloanier atmosphere of Exeter or Bath. If that's not your thing, well... at least you can get hold of a cheap wetsuit. The cream of the crop of local bars and clubs are listed below:
Pubs - Boardriders, James Street Vaults, Cuba and Ride. These last two have 2AM licences all week.
Clubs - Millenium, Destiny's, JFK and Le Kepi Blanc.
There is a good late night function every night but here are the best:
Mon - Shag @ Zanzibar (Pop and R&B) - £1 entry before 10PM, £3 after. They usually have some good offers on bottled drinks, but the bars get pretty packed so get plenty in early. Tue - Vodbull @ Destiny's Wed - Sports and Societies night @ JFK's Wed - Jelly Jazz @ The Quay Club Wed - Boogie Nights @C103 - Cheesy Pop and 60's Thu - School Daze @ Destiny's - Pop, 60's and 80's, free entry if in school uniform Fri - Millenium Madness £12 all you can drink @ Millenium. There's a big queue after 10:30 but it doesn't take too long to get served when you're inside.
...and after all that fun: The cheapest taxi company in town seems to be silverline (242424), who offer a 10% student discount on all fares, and the biggest and most reliable is city cabs (222222) - although there are plenty of other firms around too. We would advise all students to obtain a PlymCard (absolutely free for students) from the council as soon as you get down here, as it entitles you to discounts (not fantastic ones, but they're better than a pineapple up the rear) on public transport and taxis, as well as other leisure amenities throughout the city.
Parking is very difficult, so although permits are available, we suggest that you leave your car at home and use the bus. If you are a serious watersports enthusiast then bring a car if you can,you might have to walk a long way to park it but it is almost essential for getting wherever you'll want to go.
The main campus at Plymouth has a branch of HSBC. Other banks are plentiful in town, which is never far away.
Disabled facilities are generally good. The university has made an effort to ensure that most buildings are accessible. The students' union (the most important) is not a problem. There have been some complaints recently regarding disabled access though. A couple of the buildings on campus are listed and so can't be renewed that easily. Nonetheless, complaints of this kind keep the university on its toes and can do nothing but help. There is also a campus based Disability Assist Services, known as DAS.
Plymouth campus contains a small shop and A sandwich bar which comes highly recommended. The sandwiches are also reasonably priced. Easy access to Plymouth and other towns compensates for any lack of shopping on campus, though there are two useful shops just over the road from the Plymouth site one of them being University Wines. They do very well from the student trade.
'University Bookseller' is located just over the road from Plymouth's main campus.
These are improving at the university. There are squash courts and a gym, but the majority of clubs use mini- buses to get to their training grounds. The playing fields are quite a distance from campus. Given that the campus is in the middle of town there really isn't the space for the expanses of green field needed. £800,000 has been spent on the development of a new fitness complex at Plymouth which promises squash courts and general exercise facilties. Water babies are better served with both the sea and the Diving and Marine Centre.
The university campus is a ten minute walk (at most) from the train station. And the local bus services, operated by First Travel and Plymouth CityBus are plentiful and frequent, if a little overpriced. Unfortunately, neither stingy bus company offers discounts to students, although it is possible to purchase discounted term-time season tickets.
Plymouth isn't the greenest of places but the other sites are OK. The area around the city is great though and you should definitely take advantage. Dartmoor is very accesible and a favourite with walkers and fell runners, and the nearby Eden Project is very, very green.
Each of the sites has a dedicated library but book provision (admittedly 5,000 volumes does sound like a lot, but proprtionally is not too hot) isn't fantastic. The library is open between 8am-9pm most days during term time. Campaigns underway for 24 hour library access have so far proved unsuccesful. A useful service provided in the library is the media counter, where students can have their work bound, trimmed, laminated and copied and also purchase floppy/cd/zip disks and other presentation materials at reasonable prices.
A great deal of money has been spent on computer facilities recently, meaning that they are quite swanky. There are about 700 machines overall. All campuses have open-access rooms and keep quite generous hours.
A range of part-time and full-time counsellors are available for consultation and there are 10 doctors and 2 nurses across two surgeries. There's a creche, Freshlings, (oversubscribed so try early) and there is even a family planning clinic. In Devon this means how well you get on with your sister or brother. Sorry, couldn't resist a cheap jibe at the many fingered Devonshire folk.
