This tower block on the corner of The Parade and City Road is the main centre of A-Levels for Coleg…read moreGlan Hafren. Here people aged 16-100 can study English, Film, Media, Languages, Psychology, Hair & Beauty and much more. The reason I've given this campus 4 stars, rather than the 3 stars I gave to the others, is the high standard of teaching. Especially in the English and Media departments, I found some of the best teachers that I've ever had. I took 4 A-Levels (one of which I did both AS and A2 years at the same time) and I don't think I would ever have been able to do it without the encouragement I found here. Situated within easy walking distance from the city centre and Queens Street Railway Station, this is a great choice for anyone not quite sure what to do after finishing GCSEs. Go. Learn about Chaucer.

Coleg Glan Hafren has four sites split over two main campuses - one near the city centre and the…read moreother in Rumney. I did an IT evening class at the Parade city centre site a while back, and a couple of people I know studied A Levels there - and as is the case at most colleges, the learning experience varied depending on the subjects they chose to study and the teachers they ended up with. The college offers about 800 different courses - some full time (e.g. A Levels) and others part time (such as evening IT training programmes). It has some 10,000 students enroled at any one time, ranging in age from 16 right up to about 80. Some courses are academic, such as many of the A Levels they offer, whereas others are vocational, whether it's teaching a trade such as auto engineering, or other skills such as childcare, creative design, business studies and sports. For those finishing their GCSEs, Coleg Glan Hafran actually offers a wider range of A Levels than any other institution in Cardiff (more than 30 different subjects, in fact) - so if you're looking for something less mainstream they may just offer it.

The Cardiff School of Engineering has strong links with industry and its graduates seem to be in…read morehigh demand. It has a reputation for delivering high quality and up-to-date teaching and research, and was ranked among the top ten combined engineering schools in the UK in the Research Assessment Exercise 2008 (an independent, in-depth exercise which analyses the quality of research across UK universities). It's not in the most central of buildings in terms of the university campus, but it's not far away either - and it's extremely close to the pedestrianised Queen Street end of the city centre shopping area. For undergraduates, it offers degree schemes in Architectural Engineering, Civil Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Systems Engineering, Electrical and Electronic, Electronic and Communications, Integrated Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Medical Engineering. If you don't have the right qualification to get onto the undergraduate scheme, you can take a foundation year first to get up to speed. For postgraduate students there's a range of MSc schemes available ranging from obvious courses such as the MSc in Civil Engineering to and MSc in Hydroenvironment Engineering, Geoenvironmental Engineering, Magnetics, Orthopaedic Engineering or Sustainable Energy and Environment (amongst others). The School's website is very comprehensive, offering lots of information about the school, its teaching and research, its involvement with industry, and its staff.

Located right at the heart of the university campus, Cardiff Law School occupies a large building…read moresandwiched between Park Place (home to the Main Building and Students' Union) and Museum Avenue (alongside leafy Cathays park), close to the city's courts and major law firms. It's a big School offering a range of undergraduate (LLB) and postgraduate (LLM) programmes, while the Centre for Professional Legal Studies runs the highly successful Legal Practice Course, and Bar Professional Training Course (formerly the Bar Vocational Course). Apparently, this was ranked 7th Best Law School in the UK in the last Research Assessment Exercise (which analyses the research carried out at UK universities). In terms of teaching, it has 20 Professors, some 60 Lecturers, a well-resourced library close to the building (with over 100,000 volumes and 200 serial publications), and excellent IT facilities offering access to the key legal databases and other top sources of information.

This is the premiere place to study drama or music in Wales with a world wide reputation and…read moregraduates including Sir Antony Hopkins, Rob Byrdon, Ruth Jones, Dougray Scott and many more. I've had the pleasure of working with students from here as well as visiting many of the shows and exhibitions they put on. I can honestly say they are a very talented bunch of people and it must be a great place to learn. Its currently undoing a big of a revamp to make the college look as good as the performances and provide new facilitates. This a real institution that all of Wales should be proud of.

In 2009 I was part of a topical panel show that was broadcast on BBC Radio Wales. The show was…read morepre-recorded on a weekly basis in front of a live audience in The Bute Theatre at The Royal Welsh College of music and drama. It's a fabulous little intimate venue and if you ever get a chance to see a decent production here then its worth going. I am not sure if business is as usual at the moment because it is under going a £22.5 million building re-design. The new buildings are due to open in the Spring of 2011 but the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama is Wales' leading music and drama conservatoire and this new addition to the College's professional training and performance facilities comprises The Richard Burton Theatre. It was recently named at a gala evening at Buckingham Palace, along with the 450-seat Concert Hall, four Acting & Movement Studios and an Exhibition Gallery. So it held in high regard.

Housed in the historic and impressive Glamorgan Building in Cardiff's Civic Centre, the Cardiff…read moreSchool of Social Sciences (known as 'SOCSI' within the University) sits just across the road from attractive Cathays Park and the university's Main Building, and just a few minutes' walk from the Students' Union. It offers undergraduate courses in Education, Criminology, Social Policy, Social Science and Sociology. At postgraduate level, there are taught Masters degree programmes, Research degrees, and Professional Doctorates as well as a PGCE course (part- or full-time) for those who want to qualify as teachers. It's a big, busy School with over 160 staff and a thousand students, and inside the building it's nearly always a hive of activity during term time with many lectures and seminars taking place, plus occasional conferences and workshops.

This academic School (also known just as 'WSA') has a reputation for being one of the best places…read moreto study architecture in the UK, and for the past couple of years it has been voted the UK's top School of Architecture in the Times Higher Educational Supplement league table. For undergraduates, the BSc in Architectural Studies is a three-year undergraduate degree that provides a thorough grounding in architectural design - and satisfies Part 1 of UK professional qualification for architects [validated jointly by the Architects Registration Board (ARB) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)]. As long as students get a suitable Honours standard in the BSc, this leads to the further MArch (Master of Architecture) postgraduate scheme - and eventually qualification for the profession of architecture. It's a demanding course and students often have to work long hours to complete projects to deadline. Of the many students I met during my time at university, all following various degree courses, the architects were amongst the most highly motivated and ambitious of all - and they needed to be, given the demanding nature of the course.

This is one of the university's smaller academic Schools, a friendly place based in four former…read morehouses along Park Place in the centre of Cardiff, just a minute's walk from the university's Main Building and the Students' Union. Within the School there are various departments: French, German, Hispanic Studies, Italian, and Politics. Students at undergraduate level can either study single honours in one subject, or Joint Honours combining a language with politics, law or another Humanities subject. If you're a real linguist, you can also study any two of the languages taught at the School as a Joint Honours programme. There are special bursaries available for certain applicants in German and Italian, but not the other subjects, so if they're your languages the funding opportunities might be worth looking into. There's also a European Union Studies (EUS) degree scheme in which you study European Politics with either one or two languages, and there's a Cardiff-Bordeaux Joint Degree/Diploma which allows you to study for two years in Cardiff and for two years in Bordeaux - and then graduate with a BScEcon degree in Politics from Cardiff AND a Diploma from Bordeaux!

This School has courses in Ancient History, Archaeology & Conservation, History & Welsh History,…read moreand Religious Studies & Theology. It's housed in the Humanities building, which has a really central location just up the road from the Students' Union and the Main Building, so it's handy for those living in Cathays and it's very close to the city centre and lots of shops and parks. When I was at Cardiff University I shared a house with a couple of archaeologists, and made lots of friends with people on the archaeology and ancient history courses. They always seemed a really relaxed, happy and friendly bunch who loved their courses - but also enjoyed their social life to the full! Those doing archaeology also go off in the summer break on a dig somewhere, usually camping or staying in caravans, and they always seem to have a great laugh. The religious studies section seems to be quite a small but very friendly community of students who all know each other, and the staff seem lovely, too.