|
|
|
Canterbury Christ Church University
From The Student RoomTSR Wiki > University > Choosing a University > University Guides > Canterbury Christ Church
 Canterbury Christ Church University is based in Canterbury in Kent. The main Campus is very close to the city centre, but there are several other campuses across Kent in places like Tunbridge Wells, Chatham and Broadstairs. The uni still quite new having been made a uni 2005, but it's origins started only back in the 60s as a Church of England teacher training college - Christ Church College. FacilitiesLibrariesThe university has 5 branches of the library. There is the Canterbury Campus Library and the St Augustine's Library in Canterbury, the Broadstairs Learning Centre and at Salomons there is the Hayloft and the Mansion Libraries. There is also the Medway Drill Hall Library which is run for students at the Universities of Kent and Greenwich.
This library has usually library resources of photocopiers, 50 networked PCs, scanner access, but also CD and DVD players. There is a curriculum resource too too, for education students, providing teaching resources and materials.
This is the theology library and is spread across several sites. Any students can borrow books from here, though those not in Canterbury can ask for them to be sent to their respective campus libraries.
Small library mainly for students of careers, education, public health, business and management. It also houses a specialist careers library offering info on a range of careers, work and jobs topics.
Houses various dissertations, reports and projects published by people on the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology course. These items cannot be taken away from the library. IT and ComputingSportsThere are a number of sports clubs in Canterbury Christ Church. These include:
Many of these clubs have teams entered in the league, but also you can play the sports for fun. A big annual event is the Varsity competition where rival teams from Canterbury Christ Church and Kent Universities compete in a range of sports to decide who is the best. In January 2008 Kent won overall, but CCCU have the rest of the year to prepare to win the title in 2009.
WelfareHealthcareShopsNothing on campus, but Canterbury down has everything you could need.
RestaurantsLots of places to choose from, just head into town and you'll have no problem finding somewhere to suit you. They range from the likes of Ask and Zizi's, Prezzo and a recently opened restaurant by Michael Caine, serving award winning meals, to everyday places; McDonalds, Burger King and Subway. Jaspers is a must for after-clubbing food, open until late; many takeaway places dont close until 3am, and there will be lots of menus/leaflets pushed through your door and around campus. There is a food court type place on campus, though not a highly popular place for dinner, it does get crowded around breakfast and lunch, where a very nice English fry-up, and the best chicken and mayo baguettes can be found! BanksThere are various cashpoints scattered around town, as well as a couple on campus TransportYou will rarely need to use public transport when living in halls, or around campus; everything is very close and well within walking distance. However, there are buses available to go out of town, or up to Kent University (which is useful for the library and night life). There are also two train stations in Canterbury; Canterbury East and Canterbury West. East is closest to the university, about a fifteen minute walk, or around £5 in a taxi. West is on the other side of town, and instead of heading to London Victoria as a final destination, it heads into Charing Cross. A National Express coach service to London Victoria runs on a regular basis from the bus station in town, it takes two hours and if you are lucky, you can purchase a ticket on the internet for around £5 one way - a lot cheaper than getting the train! Careers servicePart-time jobsReligious facilitiesThe uni Chaplaincy is active across most of the unis sites. It's there for you to use for support, somewhere to talk to people and somewhere to find out information on religions in the areas (for example if you want to find a local group with who you can practice your religion). The service also runs a chapel (The Chapel of Christ in Majesty) which is located in the centre of the campus in Canterbury. You can go to one of the services there, go for prayer or join it's choir. The Chaplaincy also organises social events such as trips to the seaside or meals followed by talks or discussions. SocialBars, Pubs and clubsCanterbury holds many, many pubs and bars, some of which are very student friendly. The student union is a very good place to start, very chilled with a variety of different nights and cheap bar prices. During the day the student radio station can be heard throughout, and a range of food and lunchtime snacks can be purchased; along with cheap alcohol for the hardcore student. The resident "Scream" bar in Canterbury is a short walk off campus, and very close to the self catering halls of residence, "Lan Franc" and "Parham". Purchase (or be given as a fresher) a yellow scream card, and you can receive drinks at a discounted price! It is a friendly atmosphere, jam packed with students on Wednesday's and Friday's, and does a nice bit of food too! Throughout town there are a range of different pubs and bars; wetherspoons is a popular attraction for a cheap night out, as are the random pubs holding student nights - of which there are many! The main club in town is BaaBars. Ah, the joy!! Though it may look a dump, some of the best nights of your university life can be had there!! Wednesday night is by far the most popular, drawing in many of the Christchurch crowd to its three floors of great music and cheap drinks! It is the resident Christchurch night, and well worth a visit... or 10!! Open until 3am, or thereabouts, you can sample the delights of the well stocked bar... ahem. Vodka and Redbull, Fosters and selected shots at £1, nice! Friday night is also a great night, as the top floor is students only, again playing great tunes and serving cheap drinks. Monday nights can be spent in the other club, Chicagos. Though not as big as BaaBars, thus liable to get filled up easier, it is again a great Christchurch night, with many "celebrity" guest appearances and freebies. The Venue is the on campus club at Kent Uni, a short taxi ride away. Though it can be a pain to scrape together the taxi fare, its a great change of scenery, and they often have great music acts playing. You can check their website every now and again for more info! EventsThe Student Building on the main Canterbury Campus and the Horizon Bar at Broadstairs host most of the student events. While lots of things are organised by the SU in put is welcome for other ideas. Regular events tend to be themed nights, quizzes, pool competitions, film nights and variety nights. But these events are just your usually 'every day' happenings. Each year the Uni plays host to two events which are much bigger - the Graduation Ball and the Summer Ball. The Grad Ball is usually held in the Autumn after you summer you graduated in and is a great last chance to get together with your old uni friends before you're all off to the working world. Summer Ball is held right at the end of the summer term and usually has space for 1800 students. Both Balls take place on Canterbury Campus and generally have a huge mix of entertainment and big name live acts performing. Clubs and societiesThere do not seem to be many societies at CCC even though it's as easy as anywhere else to set one up - get 10 members, sort out a constitution (which you can get a basic form stating what it will be) then pick a committee and you're off. So maybe it just needs more people there to taker the initiative and start one...anyway the current societies include:
AccommodationThere is student accommodation on campuses in Canterbury, Medway and at Broadstairs. It's a mix of both catered and self-catered too. If you can't get student accommodation then there is a great choice of privately rented houses and rooms to choose from too - in Folkestone this is pretty much the only option.
Accommodation policyThe university says they try to give accommodation to all first years who choose CCC as their first choice. So basically, while you're likely to get a place if you choose CCC as your first choice there is still a small chance you won't get a place and a much smaller chance of getting a place should you find a place at CCC through clearing or even if you put CCC as your insurance choice. Beyond your first year there is also pretty much no chance of getting uni accommodation either.
ResidencesCanterburyCatered There are several catered halls in Canterbury, all close to the university. Davidson, Temple and Lang are all en-suite catered halls, while Fynden and Thorne are catered accommodation with shared bathrooms. You get a certain number of credits for your food each week. So this doesn't mean you'll certainly get all your meals in a week if you eat a lot on certain days, though you can top you your credits if you need to. You also cannot stay in catered rooms over Christmas holidays. It's a pain that you have to move out, but you can leave things in your room and if you are unable to go 'home' over this period you should be able to get alternative accommodation during this period. The kitchens in catered accommodation are generally a decent size, but the you'll hardly need them as all they have is a sink, a fridge and a hot water boiler for cups of tea - they provide you with no cooking facilities at all in catered rooms.
Self-catered halls are all within Canterbury and you can easily walk to the uni from them. Depending on which you choose you could have between 3 and 7 people sharing your flat. You rent the room for 39 weeks a year and in the rent you get the use of a great kitchen with all the cooking facilities you'd want - microwave, cooker, fridge etc. In some of the flats you also get a communal lounge area too. The self-catered halls are Parham Road Student Village, College Court, Holmes Court, Oaten Hill, Lanfranc and Pin Hill.
BroadstairsThe flats will be shared with 4 or 5 other people, but you'll have your own en-suite bedroom. You also get a good kitchen with facilities for cooking such as a cooker and microwave. You'll have free internet access in your room while laundry facilities are on site, but may be a short walk from some rooms.
MedwayCherry Tree Lodge has a small number of rooms about half an hours walk from the Medway Campus. You'll be sharing a flat for about 6 people (though one flat is for just three people). The rooms are en-suite, but each flat will share kitchen facilities. There is also an internet connection in each room. The whole lodge has a large lounge area for use of all residents and there is a very small amount of parking for people with cars.
Private sectorFor later years, for those who don't get a uni place in their first year and for those who choose to, there is a large amount of private accommodation to rent - mostly in shared houses/flats. The uni is also good at helping you find a place. You can look at the approved landlords list which is regularly updated - it will give you all the houses/rooms which meet the uni's requirements of things like good security and relevant safety documentation. There is also a 'Housemates List' where people with an spare room in their shared house or people looking for a room can add to it. You can get this list from the uni or if you need a room before moving the CCC you can phone the accommodation office (on 01227 782286) to ask for the most recent list emailing to you. Student unionThe SU has an active group of Sabbatical and Non-Sabbatical officers to do their best for students. They run a popular bar in the Student Building on Canterbury Campus (recently renovated) and the Horizon Bar at Broadstairs. They also have a shop and publish a monthly newspaper. There is also a TV station (I think) and a new radio station was set up in 2006 as a partnership between CCCU and Kent Uni Student Unions - you can listen to the radio right across Canterbury or online and its website can be found Here. EnvironmentArchitectureLocal areaThe campuses are all located in Kent which is generally a very nice county and though getting more and more developed still has some lovely countryside. Canterbury itself is a nice, old city and has some wonderful buildings - most notably churches and Canterbury Cathedral. From many of the campuses too, London is only a short journey away - probably about an hour by train if not less. Teaching qualityThe Nation Student Survey in 2006 gave 4.1 out 5 for CCCU's teaching rating. Aspects of the primary and secondary teaching courses have been graded a top score at level 1 too. The entry requirements are quite low with most courses needing 160 to 240 UCAS points and the league tables tend to rank CCCU towards the bottom end, recent tables tend to put the uni somewhere in the mid 70s to 80s range. The Uni also has a 91% student satisfaction rating. Other stats can be found Here. Applying to Canterbury Christ ChurchThinking of applying to Canterbury Christ Church University? Why not read some Personal Statements which were used for applying here? Other Canterbury Christ Church ArticlesWhy not read these other Canterbury Christ Church Articles? Links | 
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
