Pretty towns with universities

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loobylou
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Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 5:04 pm

Pretty towns with universities

Post by loobylou »

If you were picking a university purely on location and not on course (I know this is not realistic but humour me) and your criteria were that you didn't want to go to a big city and preferred smaller (ideally attractive) towns/cities - where would you think of?
I have come up with York, Bath, Warwick, Southampton, Cambridge, Durham, Oxford, Exeter and maybe Bristol and Nottingham (I don't even really know how big they are!) but I'm sure I'm missing loads. Where am I forgetting?
Guest55
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Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: Pretty towns with universities

Post by Guest55 »

I would not describe Southampton as pretty nor Warwick [the uni is not in the town] nor Bristol ...

What about UEA, Chichester, Kent [Canterbury], ..

It depends on what you mean by 'big' and 'pretty'.
ToadMum
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Re: Pretty towns with universities

Post by ToadMum »

Looks-wise:

- Norwich / UEA
- Canterbury / Kent
- The campus at Birmingham is quite attractive and there are nice places to visit nearby, but obviously 'Birmingham' as a whole hardly qualifies as small.
- York
- the campus at Keele
- Royal Holloway
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loobylou
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Re: Pretty towns with universities

Post by loobylou »

Thank you. I guess by "big" I mean London, Liverpool, Birmingham etc.
I agree Southampton isn't very pretty but it's near the new forest and the sea so I think that sort of counts.
I'm discovering my knowledge of the UK is embarrassingly limited to large cities and the area between London and Devon with not much knowledge of anywhere else.

(Context of question: dd and friend were coming home after a party last night. Friend has been chosen to go to some maths events at a London university at weekends and has decided - admittedly prematurely - that she wants to go there. Dd was saying that the worst thing she could imagine would be to go to a uni in a "big city" but between the the of us we couldn't get beyond my previous list).
Guest55
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Re: Pretty towns with universities

Post by Guest55 »

I think you have to go a long way to beat the campus at Exeter ..
ToadMum
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Location: Essex

Re: Pretty towns with universities

Post by ToadMum »

loobylou wrote:Thank you. I guess by "big" I mean London, Liverpool, Birmingham etc.
I agree Southampton isn't very pretty but it's near the new forest and the sea so I think that sort of counts.
I'm discovering my knowledge of the UK is embarrassingly limited to large cities and the area between London and Devon with not much knowledge of anywhere else.

(Context of question: dd and friend were coming home after a party last night. Friend has been chosen to go to some maths events at a London university at weekends and has decided - admittedly prematurely - that she wants to go there. Dd was saying that the worst thing she could imagine would be to go to a uni in a "big city" but between the the of us we couldn't get beyond my previous list).
Bumped into a friend earlier who currently has offspring at Nottingham and Bristol. Each of whom is the second of her four DC to have gone to that university. They describe Bristol as 'lovely'. I know how attractive the main campus is at Nottingham; not sure how keen I am on the city as a whole, though.

I actually rather like Sheffield, having had to visit the university in connection with work.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx
doodles
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Re: Pretty towns with universities

Post by doodles »

Winchester is very pretty as is Canterbury and Gloucester - though where the uni is in comparison to the city I don't know,
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad !
kenyancowgirl
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Re: Pretty towns with universities

Post by kenyancowgirl »

Vote for Canterbury, as I was there! Bournemouth is pretty. York, Keele, Durham, Exeter. Even Cardiff is a pretty small city - but not as small as Worcester which is gorgeous. Warwick is an odd one - I'm there today and my sister used to go there. The campus is huge and very modern now - lots of new buildings - and parts of it are very spread out (they ahve taken over various institutions way outside the campus too) but it was built in the middle of nowhere so if you are off campus (which you are Y2/3) then you end up in Cov/Leam etc and travelling in. I wouldn't class it as beautiful although better than some of the big cities in that it is a campus mainly.
scary mum
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Re: Pretty towns with universities

Post by scary mum »

Ooh, interesting. I think Bristol is a nice city to live in, with some attractive buildings, but unfortunately I think of it as mainly traffic jams & roadworks at the moment! Many are nice because of the things that they are near, rather than a pretty town - Swansea, Bournemouth, Plymouth. York & Exeter probably get my vote. Not Nottingham or Southampton. Norwich is a pretty town but the University is quite ugly! Not Warwick, it's not in a town. Cambridge is prettier than Oxford. There are many university towns that I haven't been to, of course!
scary mum
KB
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Re: Pretty towns with universities

Post by KB »

It's also about where the campus is in relation to the town/city. Agree that Nottingham campus is lovely but it's a fair distance from the city - which isn't particularly attractive in the most part- and the local area isn't that great.
York is also out of town but just about walkable / easy bus and very attractive. Also easy to get out to the countryside and one side of campus is an attractive village. York St John is in the city centre more.
Bath campus is pretty ugly imo and the hill makes the town seem even more distant!
So maybe it also depends if you are looking for a campus University or to actually be in an attractive town?
Also, the 'newer' universities ( upgrades from colleges/ polys) are often closer in to towns & smaller cities.
Edinburgh isn't exactly 'small' but I think it's attractive. My recollection is that some departments are on the campus and others on the city?
Essex campus is ruined by the 60s concrete but it's an easy walk to Wivenhoe which is pretty and has lovely river walks and Colchester has its historic attractions.
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