Postgraduate Reviews of Courses at BIMM University

A great place to collaborate and learn with your peers to create a great portfolio for your creative career. The faculty is mostly understanding and accomodating. read full review

Everything taught here is available on youtube, and that's where you learn everything anyway because the tutors just naff off on tour mid-semester so you have to get a replacement tutor that goes back to the first lessons all over again.

1st year was fairly boring and units were all just learning tabs and music business, stuff that's available online really. then around march some kind of disease spread around the globe or something and it was finished entirely online.

2nd year was during a pandemic so everything was online. I wish I could tell you about it but i've honestly forgotten mostly everything that was taught. It was mostly just learning tabs again spruced with music theory that is (yet again) all available online. Also some stuff about music business I guess. I don't even remember what optional units I chose, or what we learned from them.
I can't speak for what that year is like in-person as it could be better than the zoom meetings.

Once 3rd year started we were allowed back on campus and by god did that not change how miserable and jaded I was, because the units became just absolute drivel that was so drivel-y that you'd struggle to find it online, because it was that irrelevant to anything useful you wanted to know.

Overall, the course titled 'professional musicianship' teaches you nothing about actually becoming a musician, neither touring nor session-wise or whatever you want to do as a career. The mental breakdown that ensued in the realisation that i'd wasted 2 and 1/2 years of my life was something to behold. The middle of 3rd year was the time I wanted to withdraw and put studies on hold, but the course i'm doing is going to be rebranded soon from a University of Sussex degree, into a more worthless BIMM degree. This means that withdrawing meant i'd have to en-roll on an entirely new course, which at this point the thought of doing a whole year at this place again felt like a nightmare.
I have been so mentally drained and burnt out with this uni that I completely gave up on attending classes and submitting anything after that.

Like i've said, most of the stuff they teach is readily available online just about anywhere and you don't have to worry about falling asleep in-lesson like I did every week.
I've learned how to make a career out of being a musician just by going out and playing gigs by myself, and that's taught me more than I ever learned in a lesson. So to anyone who wants to make a career out of musicianship I advise you to just get gigging as much as possible and that'll teach you the experience you need.
Don't be fooled by their Alumni either, most of the big names that they mention that went to BIMM more than likely dropped out in first or second year.

Other stuff:
The campus was just a sprawl of rented out buildings in random places in town so everywhere you go is a trek.
The sponsorships that BIMM keeps bringing up from Marshall and Orange etc. doesn't mean anything as you hardly get to use any of it.
There's no dedicated student accommodation either so enjoy getting shafted by estate agents.
Mental health support is non-existent and you're better off talking to a GP. (A self-help leaflet of theirs suggests making tea in response to having anxiety)


Pros:
The best part of uni was meeting other people who hated the place just as much as I did and making a band with them. read full review

As a year group, the graduating class of 2021 was very lucky to experience first-hand the resilience and adaptability of our BIMM Bristol tutors during a global pandemic. Many tutors were dealing with loss, worries around family health, and stress or anxiety related to Covid-19. Yet they never stopped being professional for us. Sparing us the details of their personal struggles, they appeared on their webcams: calm, confident, and always ready to guide and encourage. They are truly inspiring people who pulled us through our studies and supported us holistically from the other side of Zoom to get some pretty amazing academic results (a lot of my colleagues got a 1st or 2.1). Huge amount of respect and love for both tutors and students on the BA (Hons) Professional Musicianship Degree. We made it! read full review

the student support is probably the best aspect of my university. However, the worst is probably the lack of recording/DJing spaces and student societies read full review