Study Abroad at University of Sussex, Brighton

After living in the Langford’s Hotel for nearly three months, I can certainly state that students should not be living here. It is simply unacceptable the conditions that we live in. We have worked to try to have our concerns addressed, but nothing has been done. The staff have been rude to us, our rooms are not as described in the housing contract, the heating breaks, items throughout the hotel break all the time, the WiFi doesn’t work in many places, there is mold in many rooms… the list goes on. The following is a list of things that all or many of the residents living here have experienced at the hotel.
Complaints about Langford’s Hotel
· Dishes never get cleaned
· Kitchen is always dirty
· Sinks are always full and gross
· Fridges break/freeze items
· Showers constantly break
· Heating is consistently broken (and “fixed” until it breaks again)
· Staff are rude
o Each time we complain or report a maintenance issue, they are extremely rude and condescending
· Too expensive (especially for a place that constantly has issues
· Rooms not as described in the housing contract
o We were told that every room would have a desk and chair for each person and clothing storage
· Washing machines are too expensive and often break
o Dryer also barely works and clothes come out wet
· Black mold in rooms
o Many in bathrooms/showers and by the windows
I do not believe that this accommodation should be given to students coming abroad. I have enjoyed my time at Sussex and love Brighton, but the housing situation sticks out like a sore thumb. In the future, you should not use Langford’s Hotel as a place to accommodate students. Not only is it unacceptable, but it reflects badly on the university to have students staying in these conditions.

Joining Student Exchange is going to be the best experience ever throughout my Degree studies. I have this golden opportunity and I am so proud of myself that I grab it in the first place. Being someone that has never been staying away from family has definitely enable me to go out from my very comfort zone. Nevertheless, not everyday is rainbow here, some of the modules that I have taken are quite difficult for me and I kind of struggle to arrange time because since I got here, I travel a lot especially in Europe. Despite from that, I love Sussex University especially the environment here. It is very different from my home university that is located in the middle of busy city. I find it calm to study here and the study system is even better. Here in Sussex, I got opportunities to earn some cash while studying by joining research study. I have joined as much study as I could and beyond my expectation, I have earned myself almost £75 which was very worth it. For almost 4 months I have been here, I would say that I really enjoy being here and I would encourage my juniors in my home university to grab this opportunity. This experience has change my perception somehow as it makes me more open minded to travel so that I know what the other side of the world from where I live is like.

I lived off campus with my boyfriend. As an exchange student, it was very difficult for me to make friends with other exchange students because everyone else lived on campus. However, I loved where I lived. I could walk to 2 grocery stores and that made a huge difference. Brighton is a lovely city and I love the people. Coming from America, I have to admit the classes were difficult. I am a straight A student and I got all Cs at Sussex. My degree program is bioinformatics and for some reason I didn’t get accepted into the only class relevant to me, bioinformatics. That was a bit upsetting but I filled some elective credits. I learned a whole lot, but it was frustrating to be in classes of people who were studying that for their degree and I had no prior knowledge.

Over all I'm happy with my experience at the University of Sussex. The modules that I've been taking have all been very interesting and the lecturers engaging. I had some struggles while working on my time table, as many of my lectures clashed. The staff was very helpful in this process and I managed to change some of my modules after arriving on campus. Academically, I feel that this term has been very rewarding.

I found the social scene a bit difficult to get a grip of. I took four modules that were not connected to the same program, which meant that I didn't have any classmates that were in more than one of my classes. This made it more difficult to get to know people, but there are a lot of different societies on campus and that is good for socialising.

What surprised me most is how uni became one of the things I did not have to worry about at all (the coursework was easy and the teachers were nice), but instead I spent all my time worrying about making friends and not being lonely in my very small room. You really need to take the initiative, go out and make friends. My advice: go to as many freshers activities as you can! Go to any club, go discover Brighton with a group, do the campus tour. The people I met that way are the ones I am still in contact with, over a year later! And after freshers week is over try to stay in contact, and of course, JOIN the clubs you tried out in freshers week. What hit me hardest was coming home to an empty room after spending all day with friends or in class, and having to cook for 1, try to enjoy myself, watching another netfilx show. Luckily I ended up making friends with whom I could cook together and who felt the same way!

My exchange has been a great experience! I was quite nervous the first day, but after a few hours I already felt comfortable. I live with 40 other exchange students in a hotel with a big kitchen and living and dining room. It is so much fun, since whenever you want to do something there is always somebody up for it. I can recommend everyone this experience! Even when you've already travelled and met a lot of different people from different countries, this experience will still be new and exciting because you now live with these people in everyday 'normal' circumstances instead of traveling. Brighton is also a very fun city with a huge amount of cute (vegan) cafes, pubs and clubs. There really is something for everybody! You'll love it here!

My experience at the University of Sussex was lots of fun. The university is enormous and there are many facilities. The education level is quite relatable to Dutch universities. Especially for Global Studies, there are various events almost every day. These are interesting talks with professors and professionals which you can attend.
Brighton is a real student city and there are many social opportunities. These are also very much aligned with the Student Union of Sussex. The inhabitants of the city are largely student so there is something going on every night of the week.
I had my own accommodation as I didn't want to share a room with someone and rather lived in a regular house. This is something that is achievable if you spend enough time on it. The Facebook group of the university of very helpful for this and quite reliable as they check if you are a student at the university.

I applied to Sussex because I wanna deepen my research in the field of international development. Through the exchange year, I met a lot of enthusiastic and great professors, tutors and students. Due to the linguistic barrier, sometimes it waa quite hard to catch up the lecture, but tutors are very kind to help me. Also, the location of the uni is perfect... close to the beautiful sea and just an hour away from London. As a student from abroad, I really enjoyed Brit culture. Additionaly, I had a chance to live with British flat mates, so I was able to learn a lot of things from them. Lastly, this is very important one, the staff members of international student support unit are very kind and always helpful. I just wanna thank them, because without there support, I couldn't make my exchange year much better!