Undergraduate life at Warwick Business School

In this student ambassador blog, Henry Fong discusses what he loves about university life and studying BSc Accounting & Finance at Warwick Business School.

Choosing which university to go to is a one of the biggest decisions you have to make in your life. Looking online at all the league tables and university prospectuses but still can’t make up your mind? You’ve come to the right place! There’s nothing more helpful than listening from current students and seeing the university for yourself! To let you know more about Warwick and the Business School, I’ve compiled five things I love about the life here so far which I hope you’ll find useful.

Warwick is a campus university, about 20 minutes away from Coventry city centre. Personally, I quite like the location. The campus is like a small town, with banks, restaurants, coffee shops, pubs, a cinema, a hair dressing salon, a grocery store, a pharmacy and a health clinic. There’s also Boots, Wilko and a giant Tesco in a shopping centre nearby (a 10 min walk from central campus). Lucky for Business School students, WBS was refurbished in 2015 with a new extension featuring state of the art lecture halls and seminar rooms. There’s also an undergraduate learning space (with a kitchen and presentation rooms) in the Business School where students can meet up with others to discuss projects or do revision. Apart from the modern side of the university, there’s a country side to it as well. Lakes, ponds, woods and a lot of greenery can be found in different parts of the campus. You could also see geese and ducks crossing the roads, and rabbits and squirrels running around the bushes.

Number two - The Career and Academic Support

I can’t speak for other academic departments but WBS staff are extremely helpful when it comes to student support! The Business School has a dedicated Careers Team WBS CareersPlus with experienced career advisors whom students can book appointments with to discuss their career plans, applications or any queries concerning their future career paths. The Careers Team also regularly run CV, interview, assessment centre workshops to help students through each and every step of their applications to various top-notch firms in the industry.

You can hear more about the WBS CareersPlus team in the film below.

When it comes to academic support, there are multiple channels through which you can get advice: (1) you can always send your lecturer or seminar tutor an email and they’ll get back to you in no time; (2) you can post questions on the forum on my.wbs where other students can also chip in if they know the answer; or (3) drop by your lecturer’s or tutor’s office during their office hours and have your queries solved straight away.

Number three - The flexibility of the course

The first-year modules for BSc Accounting and Finance are compulsory and cover a wide range of areas, from introductory accounting to financial management and contract law to business economics and statistics – they are intended to lay a foundation for your studies in later years. The flexibility of the course greatly increases in your second and third year of study where you can choose the majority of modules. You may even do optional modules that are unrelated to your course, such as programming, economics, languages and sociology!

There is a food market at the Piazza once a month where you can try different types of cuisines from around the world at affordable prices, ranging from American to Chinese, from Mexican to Italian, from Indian to Persian. Burgers, dumplings, pizzas, fried rice, pasta, tortilla wraps, crepes, cakes, you name it! Don’t worry - there are also vegetarian and vegan options available. It’s usually open from noon to around 3-4 in the afternoon. Sometimes you could also find an ice cream van going around the campus and a kebab truck parked near Piazza that serves great late-night snack!

Number five - 24/7 Library (and PAT dogs!)

Yes, you read it right! The library opens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (opening times might be slightly shorter on school holidays). There are plenty of study spaces on each floor and lots of computers that you can use. If you are a night owl like me who tends to work more effectively at night, you’ll certainly find the library a lovely place to be in! For those dog lovers out there, you would definitely enjoy the therapy dog visit in the library, which takes place throughout the year!

You can find out about all of the WBS Undergraduate Programmes here.