The Course & Campus

The University of Surrey campus is located a mere 10 minutes walk from Guildford train station. The town centre is only 15 minutes walk away and there is a Tesco 5 minutes in the other direction. But, if your not keen on walking, the campus as a fair few tricks of its own. There is a students union (called Rubix) along with a number of restaurants, cafés and bars. The gym on campus is going to be one of my favourite places to be because of its HUGE climbing wall surrounding the basketball court. The gym also has all the usual facilities you can expect such as weights, courts, machines and courses. The university are currently building a new gym and other sports facilities in a brand new complex just off campus that will include, amongst other things, a new climbing wall and full-sized olympic swimming pool. You can find out more about this project at http://www.surreycentreforsport.org.uk. I will hopefully find out more about the clubs and such on offer at the gym during the next week or so.

As for the course, I am studying Digital Media Engineering MEng, which is essentially Electronic Engineering with modules on Audio and Visual Media. The media part of the course is focused on how to utilise modern technology to create digital media that can entertain, engage and educate an audience. The term 'digital media' can be used to describe animation, broadcasts, film, online video, special effects, websites, games and motion capture. However, the media side of the course is less apparent in the first year of study where the focus is learning the basics of electronic and signal engineering and mathematical engineering concepts.

In total, the couse is 5 years long. That breaks down as 3 years for the core course, a year out in industry and a final year for the masters course. The way they work it is that the year in industry happens in my 3rd year, essentially splitting up the couse into:

Year 1  --  Year 2  --  Year In Industry  --  Year 3  --  Masters Year

For me, the course and the campus were the two key features of Surrey that stood it apart from anywhere else. The course is only in its 4th year, but it was created to meet the demands of companies who had been asking for a course like it for years. And the campus is very self-contained, and where is doesn't provide, local facilities are only a stone's throw away.