Manchester University - Student Life

Housing: Halls usually for 1st years. Then use Manchester Student Homes (free accommodation bureau, website www.msh.ac.uk); SU noticeboards; local newsagents, esp Taylors in Fallowfield.

Eats: 90p-£1.30 for sandwiches in SU cafe bar; £2 for hot meal. Curry Half Mile, Rusholme - thousands of brilliant meals under £5. Lots of good vegetarian food (Veg Cafe, The 8th Day Cafe, The Fallen Angel); China Town.

Drink: SU bars (The Solem, The Cellar) very lively and cheap (£1.30+ a pint). Jabez Clegg opposite is handy and old-style. Loads of cheap pubs, cafebars and clubs. Holts is good local real ale (Holts pubs offer it cheap but are not studenty).

Nightlife: Union has many societies, incl strong LGB; constantly changing club scene, comedy; bands most nights (3 venues); club Tropicana for 80s and early 90s music. Frog & Bucket Comedy Club; The Academy - top NW venue (1900 capacity), hundreds of big names. Corner House for arty films; lots of mainstream cinemas.

Locals: Varied. Moss Side best avoided; otherwise common sense (avoid walking alone on quiet streets at night). Insurance very high in Rusholme M13 area and hard to insure cars.

Sports: McDougall Centre, Armitage Centre (uni run) very cheap; also Sugden Centre.

Travel: Hitching good outside city centre. Buses very frequent; metrolink trams; bike lanes.

Financial help: Uni access funds - small amounts for large number of applicants. SU gives short-term loans up to £100.

Jobs: Some work in bars, shops and fast food places, on and off campus; plenty of jobs to go round.

Best features: Large and well-respected university; part of city life.

And worst: Main road bisects campus, so danger and pollution from traffic.

Good news: Student radio station looking for students to get involved; beer garden recently added to SU bar.

More info: Contact Students Union on Tel 0161 275 2930, Fax 0161 275 2936, email umu(at)man.ac.uk

Past students: Mark Carlisle MP, Sir Rhodes Boyson MP, Sir Maurice Oldfield (MI6), Robert Bolt (playwright), Anthony Burgess (novelist), Christabel Pankhurst (suffragette), Peter Maxwell Davies (composer), Sir Frank Worrall (sport), Lord Lever (politician), Alan Gowling (sport), John Tomlinson (music), Anna Ford (broadcaster), C A Lejeune (film critic), Rik Mayall (actor), Francis Thompson (poet), Ian McNaught Davis, Ben Elton. And past UMIST students: Sir John Cockroft, Sir Alan Veale, Gary Bailey, Margaret Beckett MP, Sir William Barlow, David Clark MP, Keith Oates, Sophie Grigson, Terry Leahy.