STUDENTS JUST LOVE ABERYSTWYTH!

- Welsh university town top place to be a student in UK according to accommodationforstudents.com -

(London, 5/6/07) accommodationforstudents.com, the UKs No 1 student accommodation website, has just released new data identifying the best places to be a student, based on nearly 34,000 student reviews from 81 university towns around the UK.  In their reviews, students rated (out of 10) their university location across five criteria: going out (restaurants, pubs, clubs), shops (supermarkets, corner shops, book shops, video shops), transport links (buses, trams, train, underground), community (safety, student population, surroundings) and facilities (gyms, libraries, parks).

Surprisingly, unsung Aberystwyth comes out top with a score of 64%. The town scored particularly well on the dimensions of community and going out (see full table below).

Equal second, with a score of 62%, are Brighton, Manchester and Exeter in England, and Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee in Scotland. Three other Welsh university towns, Cardiff, Swansea and Bangor joined Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, Plymouth, Oxford and Southampton among the third tier that scored 60%, whilst the Celtic connection is further represented by Belfast.

Surprises in the table include London and Cambridge with scores of just 56%. However, the Welsh dont have it all there own way, as bottom of the league is Pontypridd, along with Salford, Bolton and Hatfield, with a score of 44%.

Simon Thompson, co-founder and director of accommodationforstudents.com, said:“This information, available on our website, represents students real opinions about where they study and is, of course, helpful to students going to university for the first time. It is also useful for existing students who are looking to move as it also provides a breakdown of the best areas within cities. For instance, in the City of Manchester the area of Fallowfield comes out as the top place to live for students. For Brighton, its Bevendean and for Cardiff, Cathays.

Likewise, our student rental analysis provides invaluable data about the average cost and availability of student accommodation in over 80 locations throughout the UK.

Features like these are one reason why accommodationforstudents.com has over 1.8 million registered student users, receives over 475,000 unique visitors in peak months, and has students spending an average of over 7 minutes on the site per visit.”

Total university locations = 81

Total Sample (Number of reviews): 33935