University of Sussex

Made one of the biggest mistakes of my life attending this school and paying it money. Will be advising everyone else not to attend. The experience has been terrible at every step along the way, from housing and housing administration to academic rigor and strength of the other students.

Housing is a rip off and not worth it, and academics are highly inadequate for a school that touts itself as #1 in the world for my field. DO NOT ATTEND.

Students Union is highly ineffective in advancing the interests of students.

During the two strikes that happened this year. The Student Union was only able to extract a GDP 100 compensation for students affected by the strike. For the second strike, no form of compensation was received. Very ineffective.

Societies are minimal and many charge money for you to take part.

Absolutely terrible accommodation experience. They charge us GBP 640/month. For that, the internet is ghastly slow and keeps cutting off. There is construction all day, and for about 50% of the time, there is no hot water. Housing cut off the heat prematurely, so a bunch of students including myself were left to freeze.

The rooms are inconveniently small and many of the fittings and furniture are of such low quality that you'd think you'd maybe think you're in a shelter. The images on the website are made to look fancy and modern, but in reality these dorms are terrible. Moreover, the housing administration are abhorrent.

During the covid crisis, many students have been going through financial difficulties and therefore have had to put off paying rent. Instead of cancelling rent for the students on campus who are stuck and have nowhere else to do, they send us threatening emails saying if you don't pay you do not graduate. Absolutely ghastly behavior from these people, especially towards international students. For many international students who could not travel home or leave campus, there was no option but to stay. But the university still kept sending threatening emails. DO NOT LIVE ON CAMPUS.

University's facilities are inadequate. Food facilities are supremely lacking, as the school has only ONE dining hall, and a small pub which provides pub food.

Gym facilities are underwhelming and they charge an arm and leg for membership at the gym.

Most: some teachers ensured we had some interactive discussion instead of a teacher talking to the students.

Least: the curricula of the classes are extremely simplistic. The classes are glorified undergraduate political science courses. The classes only scrape the surface of the subjects and topics. The academic curriculum is also badly structured and managed.

University is not in a good location. They market the university saying it is in Brighton, but actually it is a ways out in Falmer. Not at all centrally located, and amenities on campus are quite inadequate.

There are no career fairs for my department/school. Besides a few CV and cover letter workshops, there is no real effort made by the university. No work placements/arrangements for internships, no classes on how to use relevant software. Compared to other school with reputation (LSE/Oxford), Sussex provides almost nothing.

Personal support here is absolutely nonexistent. The university touts its counseling services as highly accessible, however the waiting list for counseling services stretches for WEEKS (even during Covid) and it is basically impossible to see anyone in a timely manner.

Other token signs of support include a (not so) subsidized breakfast which is not that nutritious. Support for international students is even less.

Academically, the feedback we receive from assignments is absolutely minimal and not useful. It takes more than a month for a 2500 word paper to be corrected.