North East Wales Institute - Student View

College accommodation spread round the town, within walking distance but also bus services. Many students are local but others come from the length and breadth of the UK and significant numbers are international (Europe and Africa particularly) with a great diversity of age groups.

NEW! accommodation offered to freshers, international and final year students (first come, first served); all self-catering hostels, on and off campus. Comfortable, warm and not too expensive; facilities are decent and social gatherings frequently occur in the kitchens. Private sector, generally adequate.

Courses increasingly modular; high level of student input; workload sporadic and time-consuming but not too mind-blowing. Coursework important in assessment but exams still dominate. Many vocational courses eg education and youth/community work. Easy to change course in first term - just complete a form. Library and computer network (with access to email and internet).

College facilities good, particularly sports; athletic union. Student services provide confidential counselling and a friendly information service; also SU/college student guidance service. Union/college liaison is good.

Small but active union is apolitical, centred around students and their needs; variety of clubs and societies and easy to start your own. Wrexham has sporting facilities, good pubs and a cinema but a bit of a cultural desert - Chester and Mold nearest theatres.

SU provides a variety of entertainments - discos, bands, famous comedians, as well as home-grown talent - always something going on. Size of union, and whole college, makes for a close-knit community where making friends is no worry. In fact many ex-students finding the pull of the bar just too much, feel impelled to return once in a while to meet old friends.