I chose University of Leeds upon numerous recommendations from friends both within Australia and abroad, and in particular the United Kingdom. It holds a reputation as a fine academic institution whilst also being fun and is located in a small but vibrant city in Northern England. My first impressions upon arrival were restricted to how grey and miserable the weather is. Leeds is also very student focused and as the semester had not yet started the city was relatively quiet. Leeds and England in general is generally very cold, windy and wet weather wise but this does not stop you from having a good time. University of Leeds has a mix of new and old facilities with some buildings being absolute nightmare mazes and some newer facilities such as the Laidlaw library being very well designed. The gym on campus was excellent and I highly recommend taking advantage of the free membership as part of the student accommodation contract. I lived in one of the more expensive student halls and it was fine. The room was quite small, with just a bed and tiny ensuite but had a shared kitchen and living room. It was quite like a hotel in some respects with a corridor with rooms which resulted in it lacking some sociability but it all depends on the people you share with.
I studied the following law electives whilst on exchange: Introduction to the law of obligations, Contemporary Imprisonment, Foundations of International Law, Principles of British Constitutional Law and Law and Society. The academic intensity was very similar to QUT in terms of workload and expectations. I felt (and the teachers sometimes inferred) that exchange students would be marked a little easier than English students to accommodate for the variances in teaching styles and environment. The assessment was also delivered mostly in one big research essay due at the end of semester rather than split over multiple smaller items which I found to have both positives and negatives, especially as I spent the last two weeks doing nothing but writing essays. They also didn’t release the essay questions until late in the semester so if you did find the motivation you still couldn’t get a head start on them.
University of Leeds is in an excellent location as it is practically in the Leeds city centre. Leeds is also an excellent small town which offers a great nightlife and is only a couple of hours train ride from London. It has excellent sporting and extracurricular programs and there is always something to do on every night. It is also close to Manchester and Liverpool and is a good base for travelling within the UK and Europe.
