Otto

Review of Westminster Univesity

I'm currently doing my second year at Westminster....

I'm currently doing my second year at Westminster. The facilities are excellent, even at my campus (regent street, which is the smallest and oldest). I am never without the resources I need to complete assignments, and the lecturers are also very knowledgeable. For my subject in particularly (History), the resident lecturers are all experienced and well established in the field of study, and the University would also often bring in accomplished international lecturers to conduct lectures on specific modules. Academically the University is great.

Where the University lacks however is on the social aspect of Uni life. Granted this is a London Uni, so many students live at home and are thus more predisposed simply to do their lectures and then return home, in contrast to those universities where students live in accommodation and their lives therefore revolve around Campus. It therefore becomes even more important for the University to assist the students at Westminster with organising social events and societies, as stay at home students living in london dont have the advantage of getting to know people as you would living on campus at universities outside of London. Unfortunately the Uni does not grasp this problem.

The student union seems much more like just another department of the University rather than a student body. Their regular announcements seem so artificial and non relevant to anything going on with the students themselves.

Many of the Societies themselves are inactive all year, leaving students with few options to meet people other than people in their lecturers. For me personally, even socialising with people in my lectures was a stretch as no one was interested in talking to each other (the situation remains the same now even in second year). To an extent I do understand this mentality, as I do not personally enjoy going to clubs or similar activities usually conducted at Uni, however this is why the the inactivity of the societies is so frustrating, as they would ease this problem by allowing you to meet and speak with like minded people.

However, the societies possess an even greater disadvantage at Westminster. Obviously it is great that in this day and age we are interconnected enough to form communities for all kinds of religions, races, and sexual orientations as well as political views, sports and other interests. Such a principle is no more apparent at Universities, where people of all different backgrounds come together to and form groups where they can enjoy their faiths, views and hobbies. At the University of Westminster, however, many of the societies are created for things so specific that they inevitably lead the society to inactivity for the rest of of the year as no one attends them.

This is especially frustrating for me as I do not fall in to the majority of these overly specific societies or indeed some of the larger ones. They lack societies that everyone is able to attend no matter their race, religion or orientation. When I joined the Uni I was expecting to find Societies such as a gaming society or a movie society or societies for different types of music. Instead I found things like the nutrition society.

This spills over into the the standalone events that the University organises, For example a couple of weeks ago they organised a Gaming night, however it was organised for a specific Faith. They can't stop Physically stop me from going, but why would I when the notice specifically said the event was to play video games whilst discussing the religion in question (which I wont specify out of respect). Why was it organised like this? Couldn't they have made it inclusive so that anybody could attend? They already have societies for all the religions which organise their own events. This is a common trend at The Uni of Westminster, and for students like myself who don't really concern themselves with Religion or politics, its frustrating that there is an almost complete absence of events and societies which anyone can join.