Central Saint Martins – day tour

 

Central Saint Martins – day tour

My thoughts throughout the day:

On arrival to the university the area around the university is loud and busy with all sorts of people as it is open and it’s just the uni building in the middle of London. Although the university is in a busy area it is well connected to railway lines and public transport as it in the middle of London. The building on the outside of the front of the university is stunning and very architecturally inspiring to me as it is a history-rich building nestled in a large group of new modern buildings and skyscrapers. The uni is surrounded by a mix of independent and large chain shops and restaurants which definitely met the expectations of London’s prices. On entering the uni we walked through the main office into the large open centre space of the uni which was bright and inviting on first look. We found our tour and were given a tour guide, we were on a small tour of about 6 people who had all come to view the fashion course however our guide was an international student who took graphics so she couldn’t answer any of our questions about the fashion course or what was involved in it. We did come to the uni before the end-of-year fashion show because it allowed us to see the students working and interacting with the university environment. We first walked to the 3D design and woodwork area that we were told we could use in our second year we took a course on how to use them which seemed very reasonable, but as we walked through the corridors and our guide explained to us about the use of each room like the print studio, photography studio and fashion studio we would have t take a course to be taught each of them in our own time which was disappointing as there wasn’t much we were actually being taught to do as a part of our course like at Brighton where they spent time teaching us how to do things as a part of our course. This also meant there was a long waiting list to be taught how to use the equipment as only small groups or one person could be taught at a time. Another disappointing part of this university was that we weren’t allowed to see the fashion studios, as apparently, the fashion students get funny about people walking through their space which gave a cold and disconnected environment to the uni as it felt very much split between courses. We were able to see a lot of the fashion students working as they were all spread in the corridors working, which slightly confused us as to why they weren’t using the empty studios, which is where we found out the fashion students don’t/aren’t allowed to use the studio outside of there lesson time. The liberty did have a community feel to it but then we learnt each course has its own designated space which made sense as to why it felt how it did. The library space was small and also the only real space outside of classrooms to where students could sit and work or be social. When looking into the accommodation we found out it would cost around £12,000 a year for accommodation and the halls of residence in London. Although my maintenance loan would be larger as I’m in London it doesn’t just mean I have more debt at the end of university which is not what I want at all. The accommodations are mixed between all the universities in London unless you can pay more to be in a hall of residents that is just central Saint Martin’s students, which means people struggle a lot more to find people to house with in the second year, it also makes gives the feeling of disconnect between people. All 6 accommodations is all a minimum of a 20-minute tube ride away from the uni as the uni is so central and the accommodations are shared between all the uni. I don’t like this as I don’t want to pay so much money on the accommodation and travel to and from the unis.

 Very disappointing was the best way to describe this tour. We arrived to central saint martins and was greeted with a really lovely area around the uni, it is very much in the centre of all the city which I really like and the area around the building has some beautiful shops and architecture. But when entering the building it just went down hill from there. The building at the front of the university is stunning and filled with a history but once’s you walk through it into the building it is much less appealing. The center hall which showed all 4 levels was rich with light but as we began to look around it became more and more clear it was unloved. Everyone who had booked onto the tour was interested in the fashion and had come to look at the fashion however our tour guide didn’t do fashion so couldn’t really answer any course questions, she also didn’t have access to a lot of the rooms and space. So we mostly just walked around the corridors for an hour. We did discuss the accommodation which is about double what you’d pay for accommodation else where. There is about 6 accommodation around with about a minimum of a 20 minute train ride away which I didn’t really like as I would already be paying double so I would also have to pay for travel too. Also the accommodation are all shared with all the other UAL universities unless you pay more and our guide told us she couldn’t find a single other person in her accommodation who went to CSM which I also didn’t like. I did like there livery system as there a book sharing program where you can order books from other universities in the group to use but then that did mean book from your library could be out at another university and not as convenient to you. The overall library space was small with low ceiling, cramped for space and rather loud as it’s used more as a common space then library. We didn’t not get to actually look into the studio spaces as our tour guide didn’t have access so we couldn’t see them. Overall I am just disappointed by the university space and features and it’s not really what I’m looking for.