Amelia

Choosing Newcastle

As soon as I arrived in Newcastle on the Open Day, I loved the atmosphere of the city and the campus. It's full of shops, cafes, museums and art galleries and great university facilities.

The convenience of the campus being right in the city centre makes it the perfect place to study.

All the student ambassadors had jobs lined up with impressive industrial companies and I aspired to be one of them!

Studying at Newcastle

All of our lecturers are heavily involved in research and very passionate about their topics.

Lecturers usually are prepared with study notes to help guide you through each lecture. Some lecturers provide interactive tutorial questions so that you can practise calculations and theory. This gives you opportunities to ask questions and make sure you understand the concepts.

Studying Chemical Engineering

I enjoy the application of transfer processes to design process equipment - for example, a distillation column. I enjoy being able to optimise and think differently to the generic design principle and see how the equations and theory that we've been taught are used.

In my second year, I designed a heat exchanger network to best use the energy of different streams in a process plant. It gave me my first insight into optimising a process which would be typical everyday practice in industry.

Recommending Chemical Engineering

Chemical Engineering has a great community atmosphere. All the students know each other in each year, because of our own Chemical Engineering society. The society organises an annual Ball, social evenings and day trips to places like Tynemouth beach and the Angel of the North.

As the department is relatively small, you get to know lecturers and they get to know you, making it easier to ask them for help and progress in your studies. We also have industrial companies come in to present lectures, which helps to relate the content to industrial applications.

Living in Newcastle

There’s never a dull moment in Newcastle – whatever you want to do, the city will have it covered.

If nightlife is your scene, there's obviously plenty to choose from. But if it isn't, there are endless coffee shops, cinemas, bowling alleys, ice skating rinks, theatres, art galleries. There’s plenty on offer in terms of sport too, with St James’s Park, Gateshead International Stadium and the Great North Run.

Being social

I’m a member of Athletics and Cross Country and Triathlon – Newcastle wouldn’t be the same without them! They've completely opened up my eyes to areas of Newcastle and the country I wouldn’t have seen before.

It’s great to be part of a team, and we have socials every Wednesday night and races at the weekends. The races can be local or even as far away as Brighton for BUCS in my first year!

They also include a variety of abilities with multiple groups for each session, so no one is ever excluded and there are no trials to join.

Accommodation

I lived in a catered block in Castle Leazes Halls of Residence. There were 17 of us, making it a very social community!

I led a very busy lifestyle in my first year. Going to dinner with everyone gave me half an hour to sit down and catch up with my friends as well as saving me the time and stress of cooking.

Leazes was always full of excitement. There was always someone around to talk to and a great social atmosphere. You could go to the bar for a drink, or to the computer cluster to finish off any pressing last minute work.

Managing my money

Look for scholarships and bursaries. The University offers so many and you should always check whether you could be eligible for them.

Buying your lunch on campus every day soon adds up; making your lunch the night before could pay for the new top you've been wanting but feel guilty about buying.

Future plans

I've completed a placement year as a Process Engineer and I'm going to do an internship in Retail Banking over the summer.

Newcastle University has a great careers service with drop-in sessions to look over your CV and lunchtime presentations from industrial companies. Both of these helped secure my placement roles and I intend to use these services again when looking for my graduate role.

Sport support and facilities

I'm on a sports scholarship for cross-country running following my selection to compete in the World University Cross Country Championships last year.

I have unlimited gym and sport massage access as well as a dedicated strength and conditioning coach. I also have a psychologist to help me cope with the demands of competing at a high level and my University course requirements.

These have been a massive benefit to me, and I'm extremely grateful for the support. Even during my placement year, I was able to keep in touch with the sports department and receive help and funding to enable me to continue competing for the University.