 Whatever your postgraduate programme, you will need to spend at least part of your time doing ‘everyday’ things such as shopping, and you will want to spend part of your time on leisure and entertainment. Many of the UK’s major cities are increasingly developing a 24-hour society. Large shops and supermarkets have extended opening hours, in some cases for 24 hours per day, and entertainment venues such as bars and cinemas often have long opening hours too. Smaller towns do not yet have the same 24-hour culture, but this is slowly changing.
Shopping for food usually means that you must choose between the large supermarkets (Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons) or smaller local shops, which will probably be more expensive. Shopping for clothes or other goods offers a similar choice – small local shops may be more convenient, but will not be able to match the range of choice or lower prices that larger shops can offer. Larger shops will be located either in the town or city centre or, increasingly, in shopping centres on the edge of town or on out of town retail parks. Out of town shopping can be a problem, of course, for students who do not have access to their own transport. Larger cities will have many shops with international brand names, and the full range of ‘quality’ from very expensive to very cheap.
Entertainment is often centred on the university itself and the Student Union, which runs everything from sports clubs to bands and music concerts to bars and discos. This is usually at much cheaper prices than those available in the local town or city, which is very helpful for students on a limited budget. However, most students will also use the entertainment in the town or city where they live, ranging from cinemas to restaurants to pubs and night clubs.
What is available varies from university to university – but the prospectus and the university website will give a lot of detail on the entertainment on offer within both the university and the city. All universities, of course, will try to persuade you in their prospectuses that their town or city or campus has the best entertainment of all! If this presents a picture of a 24-hour entertainment world then be aware that for most students life is not like that, as money and the pressures of work and, of course, students’ choices of how to spend their time, mean that it can be as hectic or as quiet as you want it to be. For most students their main entertainment is spending time with friends, whether at home or playing sport or in the bar or in the Student Union.
Many of the handbooks designed to help students choose a university have a lot of information on student life. Although many of these are focused on undergraduates, the picture they paint will be helpful to you. You should certainly find out about social life in the universities you are considering applying to.
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