Rate My Placement

A 10 minute drive across the city brought us to Newcastle University. We had another really positive meeting with the Careers department and hopefully we can work closely alongside another traditionally research focused uni to assist them raise the awareness of work experience.

After our quiet couple of beers in Leeds we were fully ready for a big night out on the Toon! We stayed with one of Ollie’s sisters friends who’s at uni in Newcastle and she was keen to show two strapping older men the delights of Newcastle! She took us to some quality bars, some impressively smelly and dingy student bars and we ended up in the Blu Bambu nightclub til the early hours… A really good night!

The RateMyPlacement rating for Newcastle University:

- Weather = 7 / 10 – Warmly overcast
- Grounds = 9 / 10 – Some lovely old architecture, but some building works prevented the full 10 / 10
- Beer = 10 / 10 – Top notch, good prices and a great night out!
- Bird watching = 8 / 10 – Newcastle definitely did not disappoint, and lived up to it’s reputation for some top bird watching!
- The “pot-noodle test” = 3 / 10 – we forgot to check but the pub next door had a lovely bit of gammon

- Newcastle University Grand Total = 37 / 50

Bookmark It

After Durham we ploughed on further north into the land of the toon and we were greeted by the new state-of-the-art city campus east buildings. Really impressive facilities with free parking right next door, cheers.

Northumbria has a really good focus on the year-long placements and we’ve previously already met a couple of people from the University through the network of placement officers PlaceNet. Both of them were on holiday so we popped in to see more of the team and had another great meeting.

- Weather = 8 / 10 – It was again sunny during the meeting, and cloudy once we had finished!
- Grounds = 10 / 10 – Awesome new space age buildings, really good facilities!
- Beer = 10 / 10 – Read the Newcastle Uni review to find out why!
- Bird watching = 7 / 10 – Not too bad considering we’re out of term time…
- The “pot-noodle test” = 6 / 10 – no pot noodles in the business school but some good cakes in the cafe

- Northumbria University Grand Total = 41 / 50

Bookmark It

After an early start in Leeds and a couple of wrong turns (we were relying on one of Ollie’s hand drawn maps!) we came to our first meeting, and it was not exactly as we expected. We thought we were presenting in front of 10 members of the careers service and spent the majority of yesterday evening putting together a presentation… fortunately for all involved we were only greeted by one member of staff!

Durham are heavily internship focused but like many of the research intensive uni’s have a growing focus on employability and work placements. Hopefully we can assist them achieve this for their students, as well as driving more internship reviews to the site.

The RateMyPlacement rating of Durham Uni is as follows:

- Weather = 7 / 10 – Perfect while we were sitting inside for our meeting, as soon as we went out, the sun went in. Cheers.
- Grounds = 10 / 10 – Our first experience of Durham and we were very impressed, great cathedral, some cobbled streets and a river, what more could you want?
- Beer = 8 / 10 – Couldn’t find the SU but the Varsity always does a job.
- Bird watching = 3 / 10 – Maybe it was because we are out of term time - there were a lot of grey hairs around!
- The “pot-noodle test” = 6 / 10 – Couldn’t find anywhere that sold them, but Greggs did a great meal deal for £2.99.

The Durham Uni Grand Total = 32 / 50

Bookmark It

We ruddy love Leeds we do! Visit number 5 to the city since we launched RateMyPlacement. This time we were in Leeds to see the work experience co-ordinator in the careers service, and what a quality careers service it is. Big leather couches, the Olympics on the flat screen TVs; we could have probably stayed there all day!

While we in Leeds we also managed to have a couple of drinks in Headingley, which was pretty busy, even out of season. Unfortunately our timing could have been better, we were a day early to see England vs SA in the one dayer. Next time we will check the fixtures before we book our visit.

The University of Leeds ratings:

- Weather = 5 / 10 – That fine rain, the sort that soaks you through…
- Grounds = 8 / 10 – Leeds is great!
- Beer = 6 / 10 – Pretty pricy for a student focused area and on a Tuesday night during the summer! Newcastle prices were far for forgiving!
- Bird watching = 8 / 10 – I think all the students have begun to flock back
- The “pot-noodle test” = 10 / 10 – The price hasn’t changed, its still 2 for £1.20.

- The Leeds Uni Grand Total = 39 / 50

Bookmark It

Another week, another tour. The only problem was this time we didn’t have the sat nav, instead all we had Ollie’s geography degree and my less than adequate map reading skills.

Much to our suprise we managed to arrive early to every meeting and everything went as swimmingly as Michael Phelps’ month in China! Here’s the vital stats.

Universities met with: 4

Number of meetings: 5

Nights out on the Toon: 1

Total miles: 602.3

Total time in car: 12 hours 26 minutes

Wrong turnings: 7

Bookmark It

A short 20 minute drive on the M32 took us into the heart of Bristol and to Bristol University’s Careers Centre. Similar to Cardiff University the day before, Bristol traditionally haven’t had a huge placements focus but we aim to have a decent presence there this year to focus on students looking to do summer internships and maybe persuade a few more to undertake the year long experience!

Whereas Ali had been on an open day at Bristol, I had never actually been to the city so we had a little walk around afterwards and as you can see I bullied Ali into posing in front of the union! Yeah, I think he looks stupid too…

The University of Bristol rates as follows:
Weather – 4 / 10 – bizarre sunshine mixed with spells of heavy rain!
Greenery – 3 / 10 – a city university so not huge amounts of grass
Beer – 8 / 10 – We managed to try out the taps in Bristol with a quick Coors light in a wetherspoons whilst we ‘waitied for the rain to stop’.
Bird watching– 8 / 10 – not a huge amount of students but some top standards
The Pot Noodle test – 2 / 10 – the union shop was closed but we have been reliably informed that it’s around £1.20

The University of Bristol’s overall rating = 25/50

Bookmark It

A simple drive back on the M4 to Bristol took us to UWE. We arrived slightly early and decided to get the laptop out for an hour, however the lady in the canteen wasn’t keen on us ‘using her electricity’ so we had to find a computer lab! Bizarre start but highly amusing watching Ali’s bewildered face try and understand her reasoning …

We had one of our longest meetings – almost an hour and a half – chatting with UWE about their students and how we can work with them this year, so again, another good meeting with a university very keen on placements.

The University of the West of England rates as follows:
Weather – 4 / 10 – well, at least it wasn’t raining.
Greenery – 10/ 10 – top standards and a very well kept roundabout
Beer – 2 / 10 – A cup of tea and a water was the only options available…
Bird watching– 3 / 10 – Again, very quiet due to lack of people!
The Pot Noodle test – 2 / 10 – Again, none to be seen, however a good selection of snacks in the vending machine
The University of the West of England’s overall rating = 21/50

Bookmark It

An hour and a half’s drive south westwards took us over the (expensive!) Severn Bridge to Cardiff. It was still pretty sunny and we had another really positive meeting with Cardiff, a university traditionally with a focus on summer internships however we aim to really raise the awareness of the benefits of the full 12 month placements this upcoming year.

Neither Ali or I had been out in Cardiff before but sadly we couldn’t give it a go, we certainly hope to try the delights of Wales’ biggest city when we return for the upcoming placement’s fair!

Cardiff University rates as follows:

Weather – 7 / 10 – still lovely and sunny but it decided to chuck it down as soon as we got in the car to leave!
Greenery – 10/ 10 – not as green as campus uni but it made up for it with the flowers
Beer – 6 / 10 – Couldn’t stay but we shall be reporting back in the upcoming semester!
Bird watching – 7 / 10 – much better than expected seeing as though there were no students around
The Pot Noodle test – 2 / 10 – None to be seen…

Cardiff University overall rating = 32/50

Bookmark It