So I thought it would be a good idea to put down my thoughts as to what I thought of Sheffield uni after the open day yesterday.

We got the train to sheffield in the morning as mum didn’t feel like driving and didn’t want to be tired in the evening driving home. The train left warrington central at 8:13 and pulled into sheffield around 9:35, got off the train and went to the main entrance knowing that we needed to get the tram to sheffield uni and that was where we hit a problem, there were no students at the station telling people that they need to go the the tram stop on the other side of the station and also what side platform to be on so we follow the signs to the tram stop and I work out what side we need to be on and then get on a tram to sheffield uni. The tram system is actually pretty decent and seems to connect quite a few places and doesn’t seem to be as big as manchester. In Manc you can feel when a tram is coming cos they are so big but the trams in sheffield were quite quiet and smooth. Once we get to the Uni tram stop (Yes the uni has it’s own tram stop), there are plenty of people pointing the way and someone points us towards all the talks in firth Hall.

First up was the accomodation talk which we decided to go to as we missed the welcome to sheffield talk. (From what my friend said that it was a good uni/city just not put across well (Read His blog >> Florx Blog) ) Got in there and the woman delivering it was just boring, the accomodation looks really good just not put across in an engaging and lively way. I was stood up as there was no room but mum was sat down and I think at one point she fell asleep . Then there was the student life presentation which was slightly better. But there is a rule in presenting to never read from the sheet which it seemed that they did quite a bit. But even so it was an ok talk. We came out of that and went back under the road to outside the SU. From there we booked on a tour of the campus which we did. It is very impressive with a massive modern library and a really good SU. From the atmosphere in the couple of bars in the SU, it just feels a bit more mature than the nightclub in Cardiff’s SU.

In the afternoon we then wandered down to the civil engineering talk and tour which was really impressive. Firstly there was a talk by one of the lecturers which I suppose could have and was give at any uni that we have been to but even so I listened and then we had a tour of the research labs. Firstly there was an erasmus student called andrea who was studying flooding and how stuff can be done to contain floodwaters and the lecturer also showed a drain that another postgrad student had designed that separates out the liquid floodwater from solid matter that would have risen out of sewers. It was actually quite interesting. The lecture then showed us to the concrete lab where there was this big machine that cost £900k used to compress concrete on all 3 axis simultaneously. It was sponsored by the nuclear industry and was used to test concrete used in nuclear reactor containment vessels. Again it was actually quite interesting.

Then from there we got the train back home and overall it was a very good day and I like the look and feel of the uni as a whole and the department and also the research focus