Heriot-Watt University

[essexhibee]

Hello chaps and lassies....was wondering if anyone could help me help a friend out!

He's applying for univerities at the end of this year, and has looked at the possiblity of going to HW. However he cannot go to the open day, and living daan saaf its harder to get up there.

Would anyone have any thoughts about the uni I could pass on? What is the campus like? Are the facilities ok? And maybe a long shot but is the accomodation any good?

Cheers for any replies (if any) in advance. I've told him that if he does go he needs to "accidently" drop a dumbell on rudi skacels foot!! :greengrin:

[frazeHFC]

I don't go to the Uni but i went for a tour during my application process last year.

The campus accomodation is nice, small rooms (but all Uni's have this) and are better than some other Uni's i checked out. The sports facilities looked very good. Obviously THEY train there so there is a decent football pitch indoor and outdoor with squash/badminton courts etc, and a nice gym. I couldn't believe the price for students either. Can't remember it now but it was well under £100 for a year and you could use all facilities. The lecture rooms are good and modern with good 'machinery' rooms for construction etc. The park and ride is right outside the Uni so perfect for getting into town, and there is offices and a supermarket within the area so good job opportunities.

Hope that helps. :wink:

[GlesgaeHibby]

Spent a year at Heriot Watt as a postgrad and enjoyed it. I was lucky enough to start just after completion of the brand new postgrad centre which is an excellent facility. The sports facilities at Heriot Watt are excellent, and you get to laugh at Hearts training as you run on the treadmill. Pretty sure the library was in the process of being renovated as I left so that should be looking good now. You don't get the gorgeous architecture that you do at an ancient uni like Glasgow/St Andrews etc but depending on subject HW is a very good place to go. I found that the quality of teaching varied greatly between excellent and woeful but the overall course quality in terms of content and structure was excellent. If it's for Engineering or Business I'd recommend HW.

[magpie1892]

Ex of mine stayed in 'Robert Bryson Hall' and it was superb (this is late 90s though). Small but comfy room with intranet, TV socket and en-suite. Was dirt cheap then but I doubt that is still the case. The student union was superb (and cheap).

PM me if you want her email address. I assume she'd be happy to answer questions about the facilities.

[Speedy]

I'm on my mobile just now so I'll update later but I went there and enjoyed it.

[hibby19]

I'm currently a 3rd year Mech Eng student at Heriot Watt and would recommend the place. The campus is like a small village, has virtually everything you could need on site and that includes a shop, hairdresser, bank, doctors and a dentist. Excellent sport facilities if you make use of them and the main lecture theatres are pretty modern.

I stayed at home so can't comment much about the on campus accomadation but have heard only minor complaints about them.

[J-C]

I'm currently a 3rd year Mech Eng student at Heriot Watt and would recommend the place. The campus is like a small village, has virtually everything you could need on site and that includes a shop, hairdresser, bank, doctors and a dentist. Excellent sport facilities if you make use of them and the main lecture theatres are pretty modern.

I stayed at home so can't comment much about the on campus accomadation but have heard only minor complaints about them.

The only downside of the sports facilities is the **** from Tynecastle train there :greengrin

[Speedy]

As promised, here is my contribution

I graduated in 2010 so some of this may be slightly out of date.

The sports facilities are very good.
- There's about 12/13 Squash courts, a few outdoor football pitches and a couple of 5-a-side indoor pitches (unfortunately in the Hearts academy). You can also book the halls for other stuff but they aren't quite as flexible because the sports halls are used for various classes(keep fit etc.), which of course is good if you are interested in the classes.
- The Gym membership is available for a term, for the 'Student Year' i.e. 9 months, a full year or pay as you play at £1.50 a time or something. I think it's around £65 for the student year, you can double check this on the website.
- The football isn't included in the Gym membership as it isn't university owned but it's only £20-£25 for an hour for the 5-7 side-a-side pitches(if there are at least 3 students present) so it's cheap and they are much better condition that World of Football which charges at least twice as much.

I was in Midlothian 'The Ghetto' catered halls.
- Halls are(or at least were) available for every student for the 1st year and then everyone moved in to shared flats elsewhere after 1st year. I'd say the majority stay around Dalry/Polwarth and you'd be looking at around £300 per person for rent.
- The halls were decent enough, they are basic and have shared toilets/showers and kitchen and there is a TV room and internet is available in every room. The floors were single sex, so my halls was guys on the ground and 1st floors and girls on the 2nd I think.
- The self-catered en-suite halls were nicer as were the self-catered with the shared toilets. The catered halls had a compulsary budget linked into the price of accomodation which is put on a card and you spend that in the Canteen and sandwich shop thing. You couldn't spend your money in the union cafe's when I was there. The union has been done up and moved so I can't confirm if this is still the case.
- They are happy enough with you having 'guests' staying over, officially for fire safety purposes you're supposed to tell your warden person(I can't remember what they're called) and for my halls there was a notice board on her door for stuff like this but there was never a problem.

The Union
- As I said, this has changed this I was there as the uni main building was done-up and the Union was built into there, previously it was in a separate building.
- Before I left there was a 'big' night on a Friday and there were other weekly like a poker night, quiz night, comedy night.
- The union also serves food, had a couple of pool tables, and a couple of arcade machines. They also had sky sports.
- Hopefully someone can confirm this as the union is something I am not sure about now.

The Library
- The Library service was very good imo
- It is open 7/8am- 10am 7 days a week and is open 24 hours for about 4 weeks around exam times
- There is a 3 hour loan system for the most popular books in addition to copies available for 1 week or 1 month loan(the longer ones are rare and are only available on unpopular books)
- You can reserve and renew your books online and you can renew the loan 3 times before you have to take it in to get stamped again. If someone reserves a book then you can't renew it. You can take out one copy of a book and reserve another. If you know how to work the library system then you don't really need to buy books.
- You also get access to a number of eJournals etc. through the library, you can also arrange for this to be available from home.

Computer Labs
- Depending on what course you do you may have access to more computers than others.
- There are computer labs dotted around campus which are available to all students. There are a decent amount of PCs but it can be a struggle in the library computer labs in busy periods
- If you are on a course in the Maths and Computer Science school (and probably others as well) you have access to their labs as well
- There is wifi available in most of the buildings so you can use your laptop in the library etc. as well
- For most students you get around £10/£15 free printing per term and I think a lot of people go over this. The MACS school has free printing which is a bonus if you are in that school. The Management school doesn't have access to additional free printing.

The Campus
- As someone mentioned it's basically a small village on the edge of town - It's about half an hour into town on the bus and the buses are at least every 10 minutes during the day.
- There's an RBS branch, a hairdresser, dentist, doctor, Waterstones book shop, general shop.
- The scenary is very nice, there's woodland areas with short walks. A loch with ducks, very aggresive swans, geese and a variety of other wildlife kicking about.
- There's a bit of a community feel and you always see people you know around campus. I really enjoyed this but it is a personally preference whether you prefer this to having bits of a campus dotted around more central areas of town like Edinburgh Uni and Napier.

The teaching/lecture theatres
- The lecture theatres and classrooms have mostly all been renovated recently and are a good standard but I personally don't have anything to compare it to as I haven't been to another uni
- The quality of lecturer varies, some are brilliant, some aren't very good and particularly in the computing modules some seem uncomfortable talking to large audiences but there is no doubt they know their stuff. I'd say 95% of lecturers are happy to help if you knock on their door with a question but there is the odd exception.

Parking
- I can't remember the exact details with parking but you can apply for a permit in certain areas which are handier for the buildings you need to use or you can use the general car parks which are a bit further away. I haven't heard of a time when someone couldn't get parked at all

If there's anything else you want to know let me know

[essexhibee]

Wow.

Thank you very much to all the replies recieved to this thread, im amazed at the depth of info people came back with. Its much appreciated and most importantly very useful!

I have sent a few messages to those thanking them, great info on here which will defo help make a decision. Special mention goes to deano88 , very helpful reply that obviously took a bit of time to write.

Refreshing to see just how good a community we have here on .net.:aok::aok:

[RoslinInstHibby]

I work at the Uni, have done for the past 11 years

What is the campus like? campus life is pretty good, the place is totally self sustained but getting into town is easy enough, foos shopping etc all pretty close by

Are the facilities ok? improving all the time, the uni is going through some big changes at the moment all of which will improve the student experience

And maybe a long shot but is the accomodation any good? accomodation is decent, also improving with new halls being built as we speak.

anything else you need to know?

[Speedy]

Wow.

Thank you very much to all the replies recieved to this thread, im amazed at the depth of info people came back with. Its much appreciated and most importantly very useful!

I have sent a few messages to those thanking them, great info on here which will defo help make a decision. Special mention goes to deano88 , very helpful reply that obviously took a bit of time to write.

Refreshing to see just how good a community we have here on .net.:aok::aok:

No problem mate.

Good luck making your choice, must be a hard decision choosing where to go if you are not limiting yourself to a specific city.