Media Arts – Royal Holloway, University of London

Media Arts - Royal Holloway, University of London Review

by Anonymous

Overall Rating

Course Rating

Facilities

Faculty

Recommendation

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Was Expecting So Much From My Time At Royal Holloway, But Was Sorely Disappointed & Regretted Attending.

Pros:

1. The Founders building is AMAZING / 2. Surrounding area is really nice and serene / 3. Food is good / 4. Good reputation / 5. The theory side of the course is the best thing about the media course / 6. Prides itself on several facts, one fact being that If you don't get into Oxford, Royal Holloway is where you end up / 7. Tutors are friendly / 8. Office staff are friendly / 9. 1st year accommodation is great (if a little noisy at times) / 10. Some really nice students ARE there, if you have the strength to actually find them / 11. Did I say that Founders was nice? ;-)

Cons:

Oh boy, where do I start.... 1. The student clientèle is predominantly of the 'well to do' with lashings of snobbery thrown in for good measure, & BOY do they like to do push that snobbery on you in their attitude. Especially the girls who, for the most part, seem content in sticking their noses up & ignoring you rather than being caught by their friends for making conversation with you (if you're not well to do or upper middle class+ it seemed to me. Or maybe they just hated me?) / 2. The working classes leave a bad smell here; NO, NOT with the staff who are really friendly & cool, but they more or less leave a bad smell with the majority of the 'posh' students it seems by the look on some of their faces. Yes those of you from the lower income backgrounds are few & far between here. As are black students. Both not good in my eyes / 3. It's not a good place for the 'older or mature' students (30+) either, well not on my course anyway. My personal experiences included being generally left out by the younger students (although not all of them, some were VERY nice to me), being made 'subtle' fun out of at times due to my age & lastly getting the feeling they don't want you there (I did make some good friends there though!) / 4. The course lacks serious motivation after year one. I lost interest & became bored with it all. Quite a few complained that they weren't learning what they really needed to & felt the course fees were far to high. Me included / 5. Tutors were using outdated editing applications. We were using FCP 7 & FCP X when everyone else in the industry predominantly use Avid & Premiere Pro / 6. The majority of the practical course you can learn FOR FREE on YouTube / 7. When attending media related interviews since leaving, I realised that I knew about as much of doing the practical side of the job as I did before I went to the university.....meaning very little / 8. You don't have a chance to REALLY get to use any of the equipment properly as the usual students hog it, & if you DO get a chance, they whinge & moan that you're taking too long & 'give it to me & let me have a go!' / 9. The course is NOT worth the £9000+ a YEAR. It's worth £4000, if that. Only the theory course made it worthwhile me continuing to attend RHU / 8. By the mid third year I was really thirsty for knowledge & knew what I need to do to eventually get a job. When I asked for help in learning an application that is actually very important in the film, TV, media industry, I was VERY surprised to be told by my tutor (who taught my major practical choice), 'there's plenty of YouTube videos that can tell you how to use it'. This was NOT what I expected to hear from a £9000+ a year, high class, reputable establishment like Royal Holloway!!! I left this university totally deflated, with a HUGE amount of debt & as confused as to my career direction as when I left senior school when I was a kid. NOT GOOD.

Suggestions:

1. Lower the fees to represent what you ACTUALLY learn / 2. Update the equipment (especially the editing applications), to what the industry ACTUALLY uses / 3. Make the effort to make older students feel more welcome & part of the whole experience, because as a 30+ student, I felt secluded for the majority of my time there & if it wasn't for the small handful of friends I made there who ignored my age & treated me like one of them, I would have been on my own throughout the three years / 4. The practical part of the course really falls short of expectations, & does little to prepare you for any roles in the professional media/entertainment business / 5. There is no effort to teach the students the value of team work in the industry, nor making connections with your fellow students to better your chances of gaining employment. The industry is built on the efforts of a TEAM, & NOT the individual. This learning curve should be pushed & pushed throughout the full 3 years. But was was never mention. Not even ONCE / I was SO looking forward to going to Royal Holloway, but MY personal experience was like saving up to buy an expensive Rolex watch, buying it & then finding out it was a fake :-(((