 Hi everyone and welcome back if you don't know who I am, my name is Claire Carmichael and I'm a final year adult nursing student at Birmingham City University. So today's video is going to be all about trying to choose your university which is actually a tough video to do because I can't tell you which university to choose, you have to make that decision yourself but hopefully I can give you some tips that might help you decide which university is best for you. So first priority for me is placements, whichever university you choose you're going to need to know where your placements are going to be based, how you're going to get there, if you can get there, how long it's going to take you so look at the local area around the university. If this is a university that's maybe an hour away from you and you're planning to commute please just bear in mind how you're going to get there for 7 a.m. starts if you're out on placement or if you're on a night shift and coming back from a night shift that is the main thing and the main concern I think. Also if you are moving towns maybe for your university look at the placements there, the hospitals there, if you're going to live in halls, if you're going to live out of halls just work around your placements and university and the location of those just it's going to help you decide I think a lot more better than anything else and that's the most important thing is getting to university and making sure you can get to university placements because it is a requirement and in each university they'll have their own requirements for placements and where they send you and it'll be a wide area it won't just be a selective hospital that you go to it'll be a whole wide area so just bear that in mind when looking at your university. Second tip would be if you go on to like Facebook groups for nursing, Twitter, all of those places and get feedback from students that have been to different universities just ask the question have you been to this university have you been to that university and gauge sort of what their opinion are of the university how much help they get what the sort of timetablings like so that you can gauge a sort of response on each different university to make a choice and that will sort of help you make the decision as well so this is good for if you are planning to move to university so if you're planning to move to a different city or town for university but it's also good for people that just are trying to decide between universities in one town as well like West Midlands we've got Wolverhampton we've got Aston we've got Birmingham City we've got University of Birmingham we've got quite a lot so you're gonna probably be tearing your hair out trying to decide which one but if you just have a look around ask students that's gonna help you make a decision as well. My third tip would be go to the open days this will really really help you decide because you can go to the open days you'll meet students you'll meet the lecturers you'll sort of see what the university is like you'll get a feel for it you'll see what the atmosphere is like what the buzz is like and also look at the university's social media as well for the open days keep an eye on the social media because they'll be tweeting they'll be Facebooking and they'll be doing live feeds and things like that so you can sort of gauge how they are with social media use and how student friendly they are things like that just make a massive difference I think and that's going to be one of your biggest deciders I think is going to open days and see how you feel on the day. Tip number four would be all about support so ring each university or have a look online sometimes they put the information online at what sort of services they do for your mental health for counselling services any extra support if you've got disabilities health needs anything like that because nursing can be tough it's not an easy ride and sometimes you do need help you do need support and you want to make sure that you're going to be supported as a student at the university so it's not about them choosing you as a student it's about you choosing them as a university you are paying for this course and you want to make sure that everything is put into place to help you through that course and make sure your mental health and well-being is supported as well as your academic side and my final tip is have a Google of the university have a look at the sort of about pass rates as well and employability rates usually they post these online I know my university is Birmingham City University I know they post like 98% eligibility employment eligibility after people have graduated and things like that they always put the stats so you can see them in the public and people that do well with things like that they usually make them public so have a look but most of all just on a very last note most of all you have to like the university you have to like the people you're going to be spending the next three years with you're gonna have to feel comfortable you're gonna have to make sure it's accessible good support network all of that before anything else so just make sure this university is right for you don't go by what your parents are telling you don't go by what your friends are saying this is better than this do your own work do your own investigations and whichever one is right for you just go for that because at the end of the day this is your life your decision your amazing journey into nursing and you want it to be perfect so that's it from me for this time I shall see you again soon and have an amazing day