The 'Glasney Experience'

This article was written by Film BA(Hons) student Alexandro.

Glasney Student Village. If you're interested in studying at Falmouth University, there is a very strong chance you’ve already heard of it. My name is Alexandro, a Falmouth student going into my second year, who just spent all of first year living in Glasney. I'm writing this blog with the intention and hope to help clarify some details on the ‘Glasney experience’ to any of you who may need it. 

Glasney Student Village is the accommodation option that is directly attached to the Penryn Campus, meaning that for any student studying on said campus, living at this accommodation makes it unbelievably easy to get to class. It’s always a quick walk over where you don't have to worry about things like transport, allowing you more time in the morning to do things such as much needed sleep and getting ready (I’m speaking from experience). This advantage, I hate to admit, unfortunately does not apply to Falmouth Campus students for obvious reasons.

Glasney is organized in two halves, Glasney View and Glasney Park. Within those areas it’s then organised into blocks and within those blocks, flats. Each flat will normally have 7 rooms, these rooms being either single or shared rooms. The rooms are quite straight forward having all the necessities such as bed frames and mattresses, desks, lights, shelves, wardrobes, safes, pinboards, a fully equipped en-suite bathroom and more. The only other space in the flat is the shared kitchen that you’ll be splitting with everyone in your flat. It should have enough space for everybody in terms of fridge, freezer and shelf space, just make sure to chat with your flatmates to figure out how you’ll be divvying things up (also a great time to discuss how things will be organised in terms of cleaning, if you don't discuss this closer to the start it could come and bite you, again unfortunately talking from experience).

The last thing to know about the space itself is laundry. There are no dedicated laundry spots per flat, instead there are laundry rooms spread throughout Glasney, these laundry rooms are equipped with both laundry machines and dryers, but it is important to mention that it costs money to use them. Laundry is obviously unavoidable so you will be spending money to do it if you live in Glasney, but you can save money by doing things such as buying a drying rack and hanging your clothes to dry instead of using the dryers (It’s also worth mentioning that this same laundry system is used in most student accommodations worldwide, so there's not much you can do to avoid it unless you live in a private accommodation that comes with a washing machine). Now, enough about the technicalities of the space, I want to tell you about my actual experience there as a first year student...

I have to say that overall my time at Glasney was great, I honestly think it’ll remain a significant memory of my time at uni. I was lucky with my flatmates, most of them were fantastic people to live with and they became friends I plan on still seeing, even if we won’t be living together anymore. It was great getting to know them during the start of my year when I still didn't really know my course mates, and gave me people to spend time with. Outside of the flat, Glasney itself is a massive social hub, it’s one of the most popular accommodation choices and is filled almost entirely by first year students from both Falmouth Uni and Exeter Uni. This means there's an incredible amount of things going on all the time in various parts of the accommodation village.

In terms of my academic life as I previously mentioned, being in Glasney was incredibly advantageous. Not only was I a quick walk from all my classes, but I was close to all the resources we had such as the library, facilities and more. I was also a quick walk back home from any of these places if I ever forgot anything or felt too tired to stay out. Glasney also has bus stops that go directly into town or if you prefer, it’s a quick walk to a train station that also goes into town or to other stations. Of course not everything was perfect and I still suffered certain maintenance issues like water problems etc., but Glasney has a central office, Glasney Lodge, open 24/7 for any emergencies and maintenance, which made problems easy to manage.