Our eldest son has so far got offers from Leeds and Liverpool uni to study English & Music. He may get an offer from Newcastle and Sunderland soon. Strange choice, but apparently they were the only unis that did the combination he wanted.

When all the offers are in, he has to choose two. A 'firm' choice and a back-up uni that asks for lower grades.

Since we don't have time to travel to the UK and visit, does anyone have any views on how they compare for facilities, location, airports, campus, transport, having fun etc?

Many thanks,

Steve


..my first post in over a year!

Newcastle and Sunderland are both served by the Tyne and Wear Metro which goes to Newcastle Airport. Newcastle also has a very good rail service to London (Kings Cross) and Edinburgh and there are connections from Newcastle Central Station to Sunderland.

Newcastle and Sunderland unis both have campuses in the centre of the respective cities. Newcastle has a single campus and Sunderland has two (one right in the city centre and another across the river at St Peter's). Newcastle is a much larger city than Sunderland if that's something which matters to your son, but Sunderland students still have a perfectly decent social life. Sunderland has more local students compared to Newcastle but does still have international students.

It might be worth a PM to heslop who is studying performing arts (including music) at one of the unis you mention.

I can't comment on the actual course, but I have been at Leeds Uni for a number of years - I did my BSc here and then stayed on for a PhD. I love it
Leeds Uni is located near the town centre, it's easy enough to walk but there are lots of buses too. Students can get cheaper bus travel than other people (I think, check out www.firstgroup.com for info on this) .

The airport is a bit further out, but there is a bus service to the airport from town. Otherwise there is a good train connection from Manchester Airport to Leeds.

It's a pretty normal campus, with some nice red brick buildings and lots of horrible modern buildings
Halls are located all over the city, some are on campus, some near the river, some a bit further out. There will be good transport links to the university from any of them.

As for having fun - there are lots of societies and stuff, so I'm sure your son would find something he wanted to do The town centre is great for shopping, and there's lots of pubs and clubs there too

Well I am fairly qualified to comment as I live near Liverpool, regulalry go there and worked there for some years. Now I work half the week in Leeds (near to where I come from originally).
This might surprise you but I think for General Musical Activity , Liverpool is best. (RLPO and other Phiharmonic Hall activities sways it). I also think (some may disagree) Liverpool may have the edge in general social activity and leisure events. With the new shopping area (Liverpool One) it has the edge here also. But I cant comment on the Uni's themselves or the courses offered.
I used to consider Liverpool an absolute dump when I regularly visited in the 70's and 80's in the course for my job. Now I regard it as the most improved of the larger cities in England. (I hear some of you saying 'Traitor' as I am a patriotic Yorkshireman, but this is what I believe just now)

I can't offer any real information on the unis or their music departments. Is it Liverpool Uni or Liverpool Hope Uni? I have visited Liverpool Hope Uni a few times for concerts and there seems to be a fair bit going on in the department. They have ties with the RLPO and I think I'm right in saying they have visiting staff from RNCM in Manchester. They also boast Vasily Petrenko and Joana McGregor as profs!! They have a super new concert hall which I am yet to see. As fsharpminor says Liverpool is quite a smart city now (well if you ignore the bits that all inner cities suffer from). Oh and that's coming from another Yorkshireman.

For anyone with an interest in the outdoors, Liverpool is well located for Wales, Lake District, Lancashire and North Yorkshire. Similarly Leeds is good in that respect and is also quite a nice place now.

If your son has any interest in folk music, then Newcastle may be the place to be. The university has a folk music degree course and there is loads going on at the Sage in Gateshead (which also hosts the excellent Northern Chamber Orchestra). He could learn rapper dancing and Northumbrian Smallpipes My big sis lives just north of Newcastle and I like the area a lot. The people are very friendly if a bit mad. You will need a phrase book and it is expected that you go out on a New Year's Eve in your vest (and that's just the girls).

I can't add anything useful about the course or universities, but this website is definitely worth a look: www.thestudentroom.com Absolutely packed full of discussions and articles about every aspect of university life. I found it really helpful

One of mine - the Party Animal - is at Leeds and loves it (unfortunately her bank balance loves it rather less ). Her course has a lot of contact hours but I know that some of her friends on arts courses have surprisingly little contact time with lecturers and tutors and have had to learn to work very independently very quickly.

Might be worthwhile finding out more about how the courses are taught and what options might be available. Good luck to your son!

Sunderland Uni is a good university! The music department is really good! You get a lot of your own choices, but there is obviously some key modules.

There is a module for music which is called "live project" - that is where basically you can do something like songwriting or composing.

Scouse is much easier to understand.

I know which I find easier.

Thanks for all the helpful advice everyone!

It looks like we may be going for a visit sometime in March. I don't know the area but maybe we can fit in Livepool and Leeds during the same day. Fairly small places aren't they, and not much traffic?




Oh yes, I remember the joke:

What's the difference between a Kangaroo and a Kangaroot?

One's an Australian marsupial.

The other's a Geordie stuck in a lift!


Thanks again.

Steve

I think you can probably fit Leeds, Newcastle and Sunderland into a day if you're prepared for it to be a long day, although Leeds has a horrible one-way system which is ideal for getting lost and driving round in circles. I'm not sure about Leeds and Liverpool - I've never been as far west as Merseyside.

I think Liverpool is probably as far away from Leeds as Leeds is from Newcastle

I suspect that you'd struggle to see enough of either if you tried to do Leeds and Liverpool in a day and get a genuine feel for the campus, course, accomodation and town. They are not small cities and just getting in and out of either is time consumming - never mind finding somewhere to park. You also need to allow time to walk/catch buses/drive to the different parts, especially if you want to get a proper feel for what student accomodation is like as only a very small proportion in either city is within 5 or 10 minutes of the 'campus'.
Choosing the right place to live and study for the next three or four years is a very important and personal decision. Don't be tempted to try to fit in too much at once, as a rushed decision may not necessarily be the best decision for the long term.

Yes, I guess you're right. Maybe we'll spend one day on each. At the moment, he only has offers from Liverpool and Leeds. Sunderland and Newcastle haven't replied yet.




Yes, I worked there for 6 months in the early eighties and found it terrifying! I think it soon after the riots and all the shops had heavy grills over the windows. I rented a room just next to the famous Penny Lane. I'm looking forward to seeing how much it's changed.


Liverpool Uni.



He likes sports, especially football, cricket and tennis, but not really an outdoors person. More a 'Play football and call Dad to take me home' type person!!


He's mainly into Ska, general pop and a bit of classical.



He'd love something like that. He's written songs and plays trumpet with two bands - a Ska band and a reggae one.


Hmm, not sure I agree. I can usually understand geordie but a woman in Liverpool once tried to talk to me and I didn't understand a word!

Steve

My dad's from Leeds and my mum's from Liverpool. I grew up in Liverpool but we travelled to Leeds quite regularly to visit grandparents. It used to take about 1.5 hours in the car, although it's probably a bit longer from central Liverpool, and very dependent on the state of the traffic on the M62.

It takes me 2 hrs minimum from mid Wirral to Headingley in the rush hour. Out of peak , and hour an a half from central Liverpool to Leeds is about right.

whilst this is a very useful site, you can't rely on everything people say...for example, I was told that the college I'm in at uni was basically a hovel, and that the springs pop out of the beds, stains everywhere and the water tasted like sick....made me very apprehensive!!! However, having been here for nearly 5 months, it turned out to be nothing like that.

I applied to Leeds, but I turned it down...it's supposedly got a very good music department, but I got the impression it was quite Jazz orientated...I'm sure there must have been more to the course though!

I think it is quite jazz oriented. I know a very good saxophonist (DipABRSM at age 17) who went there, and I remember his last music centre concert, where he played a very virtuosic modern classical piece. Afterwards, he was telling everyone how glad he was that that was the last time he would have to play classical sax, because at Leeds all he would be doing was jazz (his favourite genre)!

I am getting very confused here. Are we talking about the music department of Leeds university or Leeds College of Music?

That's an interesting question! I applied to Leeds University, based on their prospectus...however when I sent off for that one they also sent one for the college of music.
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/ug/
http://www.lcm.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/

however, looking at both the above to refresh my memory, I do wonder if the Jazz preconception was from the college of music prospectus...either way they're both very good music departments

At the risk of being told I am biased. I believe from what people have said to me, that you can do jazz at other higher profile colleges. I believe also that a degree from Leeds University music department is considered to be better than a degree from the college of music.

Statistics will back up your statements

I can only give my view as a resident in the "the pool of life" and a Liverpool hackney cab driver, Liverpool has transformed itself over the last 10 years, the resurgence the city has seen, started before we won the bid to hold European Capital of culture way back in 2003 (we pipped the favourites Newcastle) as a cab driver i could feel the vibe around the city and winning the bid just increased the feel good factor.

The hard work began and we had a very successful Capital of culture in 2008 which carried on into 2009, the recession/credit crunch seemed to bypass Liverpool and we didn't start feeling it until late 2009.

Anyhow, Liverpool as a city has fantastic facilities to offer many a student, as said in previous posts we have Lipa, RLPO, and of course Mathew st birthplace of the Beatles if you are going to study music why go anywhere else ?

Liverpool has it all and a smile to greet you

http://www.visitliverpool.com/site/music

I would also like to say a big thanks to all who have given Liverpool positive feedback in this thread, it's pleasing to hear and shows the hard work is paying off, we have had a chequed past which is hard to lose a bad tag, but the last 10 years have been a pleasure to work and live in Liverpool.

Hi Steve

When visit Liverpool pm me, you and your son will be made most welcome