Ever since my literary agent sister Debbi Michiko Florence posted pictures from her experience at…read morethe inaugural Harlaxton Kidlit Retreat hosted by our friend best-selling young adult author Kristy Boyce, I was very eager to take part in a retreat at Harlaxton College! For 6 days, I got to stay at Harlaxton Manor. There's a whole Wikipedia page for anyone interested in going down the rabbit hole of the manor's history. To make a long story short, it was built by a nobleman named Gregory Gregory (yes, that is really his name!), and is currently owned by University of Evansville. I loved exploring the manor, admiring the architecture, and getting good laughs over seeing my boyfriend's name everywhere I go. It was such a joy to write in such gorgeous surroundings every day, and switch up my location. I could write in the haunted library, the gardens, conservatory, ballrooms, wherever I wanted! I felt like I was in the castle from Beauty and the Beast. All my novels feature a castle in some shape or form, so it was a treat to be able to immerse myself in the experiencing of staying in one for a writing retreat. I liked pretending this was my home for nearly a week. Every day, on top of our writing time, we had optional activities and excursions that we could take part in. The staff was amazing and went above and beyond to ensure that we had such memorable and wonderful experiences! These included: Afternoon Tea Playing croquet Garden tour Pub tour (we visited 3 pubs and had dinner in one called Chequers Inn), Visiting Belvoir Castle (pronounced "Beaver," because the British hate the French lol) Attending Kristy's reading and signing of her book Hot British Boyfriend. Fun fact, the fictional school Emberton in her book is inspired by Harlaxton! Banquet to end the retreat I completed revising an updated outline for a new novel, and sent it back to my agent before the end of the retreat. Mission accomplished! Harlaxton felt so magical. I'm honestly a city girl, but I loved living in the manor in the English countryside so much, it actually felt jarring once I was back in a city like York and London. Not complaining. Kristy did such a phenomenal job creating a memorable writing retreat experience! It's going to be hard to top a retreat where I get to write in a fairytale castle!

Amazing study abroad experience. Went to harlaxton with my school as a summer study abroad program…read moreand was so grateful to get to stay at this beautiful manor. The dorm rooms were really nice. There were rec rooms, vending machines, a pay phone for local calls (like takeout or a cab). There's a laundry room, gym, and bike rental. The town close to it is small, friendly and charming. If you want to stay close to the manor there are beautiful gardens on the ground and trails next to it. The bluebell trail is only open a few weeks out of the summer and is just breathtaking. The living facilities are amazing and the staff is great. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are provided everyday and a bistro (aka a bar) is open at night mon-Friday. There is also a gift shop. Besides being used as a university you can also have your wedding at this manor. I hear the bridal suite is beautiful. Tours are also given.

I loved every minute of my time at Hull University. World class academics and teaching, small…read moreclasses, beautiful campus, fantastic library, vibrant student's union all set in an extremely affordable city...I, for one, couldn't have asked for more.

I spent 6 happy years here (a BSc followed by a PhD). Hull is a really friendly University and also…read morehas a good academic reputation. It is a great place to study and I would recommend it to anyone. I made loads of friends who I still see regularly some 10 years later. It is not a huge university which makes it al the more friendly and is set on a lovely campus. The student Union is a great place with plenty of things going on and there is a big library, sports centre etc etc.

I went to this college 13 years ago and loved it. I studied…read morecatering and hsopitality, at the time they had a great set up with 2 public restaurants that the students would work in. It was a great way to get real hands on experience. They offer many different courses.

To Sum Up: Friendly & Supportive Learning Enviroment…read more The sheffield college is the main college network within sheffield with 5 sites throughout the city. The students are all friendly with and allways make you feelwelcome and the staff are some of the best in the college networks available in sheffield. The staff are all supportive and do as much as they can to support there students through there course no matter what difficulties they may be facing, the college also has specialised counsilors that students can go and speak to should they feel that they need to. The college offers a vast range of courses at different a range of different levels which means that there is something for everyone.

I completed my undergrad degree at Greenwich in London and was totally underwhelmed by the…read moreuniversity experience. I wasn't sure what to do next until my friend (and future housemate) asked me to drive him up to Staffordshire University so he could have a look around for his degree. We popped along for an open day and from that point on I never looked back. The reception I got on the open day from the student ambassadors was great. They were very talkative, very friendly and spoke highly of the university. Already, Staffs was one up on Greenwich. Campus wise I was impressed with the student union facilities. The LRV (main nightclub venue) was huge and the Ember Lounge (bar) was also very cozy and atmospheric. Once enrolled on my course I spent many a great night in these venues watching stand up comedy, music and even things like alternative jazz & poetry nights. Facility wise I was bowled over too! At Greenwich I had to put up with inferior media facilities but Staffs had the lot. Industry standard cameras and plenty of them, loads of edit suites so you would have no problem actually getting to use the equipment. If I was to progress in the industry I knew I had to study somewhere like this! I was able to use the equipment whenever I wanted and as a result I now have a really great attention grabbing show reel which has helped me get into the industry. Social wise there was a lot on offer too with nearly 70 different clubs to join. Everything from football/rugby to things like L.A.R.Ping and Ultimate Frisbee. As a result of this I made so many friends that even after my MA I stayed in Stoke to be around the university environment. What is remarkable is that before I came to Staffs I really lacked confidence but I found meeting new people so easy here. Other impressive attributes are the university's own cinema, a 24 hour library, a forensics crime scene house, a smoothie bar and a broadcast studio with TV cameras and radio broadcast rooms. Since finishing my MA here I have taken part in a university based scheme which gives graduates the chance to start thier own business and as of September I will be running my own production company. Living wise Stoke is one of the cheapest places in the country. You get far more for your money here and rent is very cheap. To get ahead in your chosen industry I would highly reccommend Staffs.

I live in Pelsall and when I decided to go to Staffordshire University but the Stoke-on-Trent…read morecampus I couldn't drive and with the commute on the train over an hour, the best choice was for me to go and live at university. Now to get onto the biology course I wanted to do I had to do a two week bridging course so lived at the university for the duration. I lived in the universities housing residence which I loved. There was room enough for five people and the people who I met were fantastic. We all got along apart from with one person who kept themselves to themselves and it was nice being only a few of us as we managed to bond quickly. When I applied to go to university the year later I wanted to stay in these houses as I loved the fact there would only be a few people and the bedrooms were quite big and the living area was lovely. Now I was shocked when I was told a week before I was due to start that I was going to be put in halls because they had made a mistake with my account and all of the houses were full. Like every person about to move into halls I was excited but terrified at the same time and asked myself all the familiar questions. What if they are all horrible? What if I don't get on with them at all? Will my food get stolen? Are they secure? Will it be with all girls or mixed? What floor will I be on? How many toilets will there be? How many showers will there be? Now I will tell all prospective students now just what the halls are like and exactly what to expect from your stay from my personal experiences. - What are they like? The halls of residence at Staffordshire University are pretty much like the majority of universities. They are split into floors and on each floor there is room for around twelve people to live. Everybody has their individual rooms and then there is a shared kitchen and bathroom. Some halls will have a separate living area but for us we just had the kitchen. The rooms on a floor are linked by a corridor and then doors to get outside. The halls that I stayed in had three floors and were colour coded. I stayed in the Royal Doulton halls yellow which was the middle floor. You had to have a key to get into the doors leading into the halls from the outside and then another key to get onto your floor. You then had an individual key to get into your own room. The halls I stayed at were extremely clean and the same goes for other halls I have visited. Remember before the new year of university starts and all of the freshers start, the cleaners will have been in the halls and tidied making sure everything is spick and span for when you move in so you don't have to worry about the cleanliness of the place. Now the one thing you do have to expect is that the rooms are sometimes very small. My room literally had enough room for a single bed, a very small desk and a small wardrobe and not much more room to move. Nevertheless don't worry as although it looks like you can't swing a cat in there, it is extremely liveable and we still managed to get about 6 people in there to watch a film, not exactly comfortably but we coped. The bathrooms were fine and were cleaned by the university cleaner every day. We had four toilets, three showers and a bath and every one of them had locks on the door so you didn't have to worry about anybody walking in on you. The kitchen area was where we spent the majority of our time. There were two ovens, a microwave, fridge, 2 fridge/freezers, a kettle, a toaster and then enough cupboards for everybody to have one each. The cupboards were made with the ability to padlock them so you could keep your food safe. In the middle of the kitchen was a large circular table with seats around it so that everybody could sit down and socialise. The kitchen was also cleaned daily by the cleaner but you do have to do your own washing up. - What is it like living with all of these people? Honestly it is scary at first but I can tell you that after a couple of days you will feel much better. I am not ashamed to say that I cried when my parents and sister left me at university and I had to go and meet all of these people but a few hours later and I was fine. When you first move into the halls it is freshers week so basically there are hundreds of people feeling just like you do and just want to make friends. Within my halls we had a warden for every coloured hall and luckily enough ours was living on our floor with us. It is there job as a warden to make sure everybody gets settled in as well as possible and usually they will have something organised for the first night when everybody gets there. We were there and we were told that for our first night at university we were going to be taken to the student union for the evening. Now going out drinking and dancing is the one of the best ways to loosen up and get to know people. We went there had a few drinks and by the time we had got back that evening we were all chatting and

I studied at Sheffield Hallam University (or SHU as it' referred to) between 1997 and 2001. I was…read morebased at the city campus and really enjoyed my time there. The addsetts centre (Library) is huge and had a full offering of every book you were likely to need on your course. As well as computers you could use to do your assignments and research. There are some lovely places to eat on campus and their instore blackwells bookstore is really well stocked too (could get busy at the start of each term). The lecture theatres were all good too. The university is often seen as the less stuffy of the two universities based in Sheffield. I enjoyed my student days there and would definitely recommend it to others.

Sheffield Hallam University (or SHU as it refers to itself) was formed from the old Polytechnic…read moreUniversity in Sheffield and covers a number of campuses. It likes to think of itself as the cheeky younger sibling of the high brow Sheffield University while offering good facilities for students. Some of the halls of residence have seen better days as have some of the tutorial rooms on the Ecclesall Road campus but there's plenty to get involved in for students and most people enjoy their time here.

I was a student at Norton College over ten years ago... I was a naïve young man and wasn't…read moreexperienced in life so I was unable to comprehend or put into words what I felt and experienced until many years later... When I first encountered 'odd' behaviour from female staff members and social workers. (i.e. Passive Aggressiveness) I being a naïve young man automatically interpreted this passive aggressive behaviour as being my fault. That I perhaps bothered them with my question while they was busy? or was I not polite enough when asking them? For example. When me and my friend Gavin had filled in EMA forms so many times to apply for financial aid in order to continue learning. Only to chase the matter up with the staff some weeks later when we had no response. Furthermore, we would be told by Jessica Simpson and her secretary that they had NOT received our forms? We did this process of filling in our EMA application forms over and over again. Once more the secretary was so extremely passive aggressive that looking back and knowing what I know now. I realise just how utterly pathological she was. Once she filled in as a career guidance counsellor, while I was explaining to her my previous courses and what I've done outside of college in the area of learning I was interested in... She kept staring at my crotch, but she did it in such a way, that the moment I had stopped talking to ask her why she was looking at me down there? She'd return her eyes to looking straight at me... Years later I'd read a book related to psychology and apparently this is a technique interrogators use to make the subjects feel nervous. (mission accomplished, madam) ...I can't remember her name. But I recall she also taught Norton College's self defence class and she was the reason I never showed up for a class once I learned she ran it. One time (Which has burned a hole in my mind to this day) when I and Gavin one day decided we had enough and was going to get to the bottom of why the countless forms would go missing; We saw with our own two eyes this secretary be polite and nice to both female students and minority students... We both decided to hang around the doorway and observe this change in her behaviour... we thought "Maybe she's in a better mood today?" So we approached this nice polite secretary... only for the moment we try to speak to her does the aggressive behaviour start again... We was at a loss for words. Did WE do something to upset her? So confused by this paradoxical treatment we had been given we began asking around other students... Apparently it was just "men" she had issues with? Not girls, not minorities. Just us British looking "men" ?! But it wasn't just that staff member. It was even the "social worker" called Cheryl... She (Cheryl) would literally IGNORE a young 'MAN' asking for help with something, she socialised with gay male students, girls. But seemingly not "men" ?? (except for other employees) When my courses at Norton ended I was informed that they "lost" all the coursework I did before it was marked... Unable to re-do all my work in the time I had left, I failed College... I fell into manic depression and was in a dark place for many years. I wouldn't try higher learning again until some 15 years later. My mind would always drift back to these experiences at Norton whenever I thought of doing higher learning and while I eventually cured myself of manic depression. For the longest time I hated myself and believed "I" was responsible for the treatment I received in some way... It wasn't until 2012 when I'd come to learn about 'Radical Feminism' and most especially study the subject of 'Narcissistic Abuse' was I finally able to fully understand and emotionally process the experiences I had. How many young men encounter this treatment and then after some time of blaming themselves eventually take their own lives?? ...Living alone during lockdown left me with lots of time to dwell on things past and so I decided to say something about it and hopefully save lives. If you are confused and hurting. It's not your fault. Look into "Narcissistic Abuse" It'll help you process and eventually heal. But it takes time and effort. You'll get there eventually. Don't lose hope no matter what. Take care.

York Uni is a combination of several colleges on one campus…read more It is set in beautiful grounds with lakes and has a pub and a bar, bookshop and library. I have stayed here as an academic but it really is the cheapest place to stay if you want a holiday or have business in York. Out of term time they do very cheap B & B and also self catering apartments for 6 or more. It is all under £100 each for the week. I think a twin room is around the £80 mark and that includes breakfast. It is an easy stroll into York. I remember one student saying he had gone for a walk to the kebab shop and seen some pseudo walls like a film set. NO The Barbican and medieval walls! Off the campus in the other direction is the village of Hesslington which has a couple of decent pubs that do food but of course there is all that York can offer in the way of food and entertainment the other way. Heslington makes a nice, quite change one evening though. The reason for the 4 stars. Well student accomodation is very basic but it is the b*y ducks! You cannot easily sit on the grass and you trail in duck pup. They started with 2 (think they are Canadian geese) and now they have hundreds! Anyway all of you wanting to visit York here is the cheap B & B! Giving away my secrets now it will be full when I want to go :)

The University of York campus is sandwiched between the city walls and the pretty village of…read moreHeslington. Its sixties concrete building were considered quite innovative at the time, I believe, but they take a bit of getting used to. Luckily, there's a very pleasant campus to help on that front, though the geese are far less welcoming. York is the only university in the country without a central student venue so don't expect a packed SU bar; the majority of the college bars are pretty dead, when they're open. The closest thing to a student bar you'll find is the King Charles XII pub in Heslington village; their cheap booze ensures they're rammed to the rafters with students in term-time. Otherwise it's but a twenty-minute walk to the centre of town and its plethora of bars, pubs and restaurants.

If I had to describe this college into three words, it would be: Full of crap. I went to this…read morecollege with high hopes, thinking that it would be better than my old secondary school. It was worse. The first experience I had with the college was a few interviews, they showed me round the college and understood my mental health issues (or so I thought). They had promised me that they don't condone bullying and it will be handled immediately. I had previously been badly bullied in my secondary so when they promised me this I was quite relieved. My first day at this college was overwhelming. Which I understand first days can be stressful, the timetable was simple and it was easy to get around (at first). As the week progressed however people started talking about me behind my back. Something I didn't learn till one of my friends mentioned that someone had tried talking bad about me to them. I learned who this person was and immediately reported it to my tutor who said that it would be handled with. Over the span of the winter period things had not changed. As a matter of fact things got worse, I was starting to get harassed by a few students in the hallway and in classrooms. This lead me to report it and again they said "it would be handled with". In the meantime I swapped over to a new group for my course to be away from these few people that were harassing me. However this just made things worse as the group that I had joined was ahead of me in the course so I was really really far behind and I struggled really bad catching up. Cause I was so far behind on the course I noticed a change in my teachers behaviour which left a bad taste in my mouth. He started talking to me in a horrible and nasty tone and would give me really really bad looks. This really made me begin to hate the course. Time passed and the teachers just got worse with their attitude and their looks towards me. I no longer felt I could talk to them nor report any negative things from people. My mental health started to take an even bigger toll on me and I began not turning up to the college. I tried explaining to the teachers that my mental health was making it really hard for me to turn up but they just swiped it off their shoulders. I tried signing up for mental health sessions in the college but ultimately never heard back from them. Eventually I just gave up and stopped going to the college for weeks on end, my attendance went down and I just really didn't want to be there anymore. This lead me to my final straw and I just decided that I would not be going back there again. I signed up for a new college and said to myself that I would not be going back there ever again. This is just my experience there. I know some peoples experiences will be different, but if you care about your mental state then DO NOT GO HERE!

I left here in 2019 after my first year finished. I didn't come back for the second year. The…read morecollege was terrible and the college is just overrated. In 2019 their vice principal at time Kelly Rinaldi was growling at me when I was walking past her in the corridor. I remember when they refused to let me do Level 3 and A Level courses I wanted to do there and yet they were people who were resitting English and Maths GCSE courses which they failed at secondary school doing Level 3 and A Levels courses. There were people who weren't eligible doing Level 3 courses or A Levels courses there. Yet Leon Riley has the audacity to say in his meetings that everyone in the college doing A Level or Level 3 courses have English and Maths. When staff members spit facts at him he tells them off when he is lying about it. Leon Riley and Kelly Rinaldi were both stooges. Leon Riley, Kelly Rinaldi and higher ups all harass teachers while the teachers are teaching their students in lessons when they are doing teaching inspecting. Tons of staff members have left the college due to bad management and new rules in the college because of this the college barely has staff members now. The only reason why they get good results is because they kick students off courses if they don't do well. There were some people in my classes from Lincolnshire areas who had no qualifications or had barely any qualifications who got into this college. They let in everybody from the catchment areas for the college. So don't listen to the false advertisements or PR about this college. Their secondary school Leggott Academy which was running for a few years got shut down because they got the worst GCSE results in England. For the year 2018 to 2019 when I was there the college barely got any students in the college due to losing tons of students to different colleges. Also I was at the enrollment day event in 2018 there were loads of students there yet most of them didn't go to college. There was this teacher Julie Huntington who had a stroke in class and the ambulance came to college. She had a stroke because of stress from Leon Riley, Kelly Rinaldi and higher ups. In my Level 3 Art BTEC class there were a large number of students in my class but near the end of the course there were five people in the class because everyone else either dropped out of the college or got kicked out of the college for attendance and low grades results. Just a heads up the creative arts department in John Leggott College is the only good department in the college and they get the best results every year. I was doing these courses Level 3 Games Development and Level 3 BTEC Computing at the college for a few months when I first started the college. The college kicked me off both of the courses halfway through the courses and I also did a bunch of work for those courses. I even wrote a 1000 word essay during my summer holidays for the Level 3 Games Development summer task what a waste of time. The college kicked me off these courses and yet there were people who weren't eligible for the courses due to their qualifications that were allowed to do these courses and they kicked me off. Steph and Gren are both plonkers and the media department is the worst department in the college. Gren was growling at me when I walked past him in 2018. Gren messed a lot of people around and myself due to making promises which he didn't deliver. I remember when I was in Hungerhill in 2018 he said I was accepted for Level 3 Games Development but then he and his media department changed their minds last minute while I was doing the course in a span of a few months. The funny part is now I have a HND in Games Development and a Degree in Games Development. I was in this GCSE Maths resit class here for a year which had a bunch of chavy teenagers in class being cringe, disruptive, problematic and acting like they were in secondary school. Half of a year of the GCSE Maths course I was doing the teacher Celia didn't show up to the lessons. She didn't want to do the lessons because her excuses was she was too busy doing A-Levels lessons and A Levels Maths students are more important. So the college brought in a bunch of cover teachers from schools and other colleges. The cover teachers didn't know what they were doing because nobody informed them what they were supposed to do. Due to Celia, Jamie and other staff members in the Maths department being so bad and teaching me all the wrong stuff which wasn't in the Maths GCSE exam papers. I ended up teaching myself and revising the topics the teachers didn't cover in lessons which were in Maths GCSE exam papers in my own time. I ended up dropping out of the college after my first year there when I was 17 due to the college messing me around several times and the college was atrocious.