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Your main reason for coming to university will obviously be the course you intend to follow. But you will also be deciding where to spend three or four of the most important years of your life. You will only study successfully if you are comfortable and content in your surroundings. So the location of your chosen university is important.
We believe the City of Bradford is an excellent place to study. The campus itself is open, green, and largely self-contained, but it is situated only a few hundred yards from the centre of the seventh biggest city in England.
And there is a great deal going on in the city. Were you aware of Bradford's National Museum of Photography, Film and Television? Of its annual arts and film festivals? Of the top-flight football and rugby action? That over four million people live within half an hour's travel? That there is a thriving pub and club music scene? Bradford has all the buzz and excitement of a big city, but without the usual hassle.
Best of all, Bradford is relatively inexpensive. These days, with no student grant and the need to contribute towards tuition fees, the cost of studying is something you definitely need to consider. Bradford enables you to stretch your budget further, and allows you to take advantage of more of the opportunities that university life offers.
Come and visit! You may be surprised to find Bradford:
Bradford is one of the least expensive student environments in the country. Accommodation, the main student expense, is available at considerably lower rent than in most other cities, and costs less than half what you'd pay in London. Under £30 per week for your own room in a shared house is still easily possible [January 2000] though between £30 and £35 is more common. And a large amount of it is available within a few minutes' walk of the campus, so you don't have to spend money or waste time getting to and from lectures.
Food, drink and admission to events is cheaper too. There are branches of some really low-cost supermarkets close to the Halls of Residence which allow you to cater for yourself cheaply but healthily (see this 'typical' student shopping basket from one of them). Pubs near the campus sometimes sell beer at promotional prices; and you can get a decent pint for about £1.30.
It would be a waste of your student years to find yourself so poor that you could not afford to go to all the gigs and theatre performances and concerts and pubs and tours and discos and films and museums and nearby cities that you would wish. Your money really does go further in Bradford.
A typical 28-item student shopping basket, bought at a single supermarket 200 yards from the Halls of Residence, 4 January 2000
| Cornflakes | 45p |
|---|---|
| Milk, pint | 25p |
| Strawberry yogurt | 9p |
| Large loaf | 17p |
| 500g tub soft spread | 19p |
| Crunchy peanut butter | 49p |
| Cheddar cheese | 72p |
| 6 eggs | 25p |
| 8 pork sausages | 39p |
| Large tin spaghetti | 7p |
| Large tin baked beans | 9p |
| Tinned tomatoes | 9p |
| Tin kidney beans | 12p |
| Tin garden peas | 18p |
| Tin tomato soup | 19p |
| Pepsi 330ml can | 19p |
| Cabbage | 29p |
| Vegetable stewpack | 65p |
| Pasta twists | 23p |
| Pasta sauce jar | 47p |
| 3 x 9-inch pizzas | 1.39p |
| 8 gala apples | 69p |
| Large lemonade | 15p |
| 6-pack crisps | 22p |
| 4 cans bitter (2.2%) | 89p |
| 80 tea bags | 39p |
| Coffee powder | 39p |
| Choc. chip cookies | 26p |
| TOTAL | £9.95 |
Bradford owes its modern existence to the Industrial Revolution and the textile trade, which drew in people from across the world: Germans at the turn of the century, Poles, Ukrainians and other eastern Europeans after the last war, and Asians in the past few decades. Bradford has welcomed and absorbed these influxes much more happily than most industrial cities.
It will extend the same courtesy to you. Relations between town and gown are excellent. University and Students' Union events are generally open to everyone, and much attended by local young people; while most societies and clubs in the city welcome students. You will quickly find Bradford people to be a friendly lot, and you can, if you choose, base much of your social life in the city rather than on campus.
Bradford's mixed ethnic background has many advantages for students. There is scarcely a religion or a nationality not represented in the local population, which allows everyone soon to feel at home. This harmonious ethnic diversity gives rise to a wealth of cultural and culinary choice. There are shops selling all the basic ingredients for Asian, West Indian or Chinese dishes, as well as cheap (and we mean cheap) restaurants serving these plus Greek, Mexican or Italian specialities. Just five miles away is Harry Ramsden's, the biggest fish and chip shop in the world; with many smaller ones close to the campus. And last but by no means least, there are the infamous Bradford curry houses, late-night haunt of many an impecunious Bradford student, where a filling curry with chapattis can still cost about £3.00.
There is a thriving cultural scene. The National Museum of Photography has permanent photographic and television studio displays, visiting exhibitions, and the largest cinema screen (IMAX) in the country. Its Pictureville and Cubby Broccoli Cinemas offer a varied programme of cultural and art-house films, an annual Film Festival, and numerous other events. The Odeon, just 200 yards from the campus, has all the latest film releases. Next to it is the magnificent Alhambra, with an excellent programme of mainstream theatre, opera and a thriving studio.
In the town centre, St George's Hall plays host to classical concerts and gigs by major bands; in fact everything from comedians such as Jim Davidson through events such as Magic (a tribute to Queen), to Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The City Art Gallery, near the Management Centre, is supplemented by a large exhibition of David Hockney's work in a converted mill in Saltaire. The Colour Museum and the Industrial Museum, each in their own way, celebrate Bradford's connection with the textile trade.
And there are any number of pubs and clubs in the 'student quarter' (which includes 30,000 students at Bradford College). Many offer live music; from sound systems to raw young bands, through to The Topic, the longest-established Folk Club in Britain.
Asian Arts are present too. The celebrations of Eid and Deepawali bring colour, light and fireworks to the city, while the Asian Mela (a sort of bazaar-cum-music and dance celebration) has become the grand climax and high spot of the Bradford Festival, attracting up to 100,000 people over its two days.
Bradford is easy to get to! Though usually perceived as a 'northern' city, Bradford is actually very close to the centre of the UK. The motorway network brings you right to the city ring road. Buses and trains link Bradford's Travel Interchange (less than 15 minutes' walk from the University) with destinations from Aberdeen to Truro. Leeds/Bradford International Airport is a short taxi-ride away for those coming by air.
Only three hours from London by train, Bradford is less than an hour from major population centres such as Leeds, York, Sheffield and Manchester. So though at first glance it may seem a long way from home, in practice the journey to Bradford is rarely long or difficult.
And it is surrounded by superb scenery. The Pennines, the Yorkshire Moors and Dales, North Wales, the Peak District and the Lake District are all within surprisingly easy reach. So are the genteel spa towns of Ilkley, Harrogate and Knaresborough; while the villages of Haworth, Holmfirth and Esholt, made famous by the Brontës, and television's Last of the Summer Wine and Emmerdale respectively, are just a bus-ride away.
There is also plenty of opportunity if you just prefer to watch. We currently have two teams in the very top flight. There's Premiership football with Bradford City, whose ground has excellent new facilities, and who at the time of writing are keeping outside the dread 'relegation zone'. And for followers of Rugby Superleague, Bradford Bulls were league champions in 1997, including an unprecedented 20 consecutive league wins, and finished top of the league again in 1999; they play at Odsal, just two miles away. (A lot of Rugby Union is played too!) Then there's Yorkshire County and England Test cricket at Headingley, just 8 miles away in Leeds, and even ice hockey with the Bradford Bulldogs in the city centre rink.
Bradford is essentially a Victorian creation, built on the growth of the textile trade in the latter half of the 19th century. This is reflected not just in superb, self-confident mills and public buildings, but also in housing developments for the rapidly-growing army of mill workers. Solid, stone-built terrace housing (so much more aesthetically pleasing than brick) dominates the city; some of it of great historic interest, as in the delightfully laid out 'model village' of Saltaire.
Famous past names associated with Bradford include the author and playwright J B Priestley, whose centenary was celebrated in 1994. The composer Delius was born just across the road from the University. The contemporary artist David Hockney was born and lived in Bradford for many years. Veteran Labour Party politician Lord (Denis) Healey went to school in Bradford. And the Independent Labour Party was founded in the city, by Keir Hardie and George Bernard Shaw among others, just over 100 years ago.
But Bradford has developed, and kept pace with the times. Textiles was for many years the main industry, but it has now declined. The mill chimneys that used to dominate the skyline have now largely gone, and the once smoke-blackened buildings have all been cleaned. Bradford has now diversified successfully into light engineering, financial services, mail-order distribution, culture and tourism. We Bradfordians are proud of our industrial past, but the city now is lively, interesting, full of character; and possibly quite different to what you've been used to. It is indeed a surprising place.
The city centre has branches of many of the major national chain stores, and has recently acquired two impressive new bookshops (one in the converted Wool Exchange; a magnificent location). There are plenty of music stores, from the new city-centre Virgin Megastore, to the cheap specialist and second-hand record/CD shops dotted around the periphery. Huge shopping centres in Leeds (White Rose), Sheffield (Meadowhall) and Manchester (Trafford) are very close by bus or train.
So whether you want to enjoy the excitement and the facilities of the big city, or escape to the gritstone and tranquillity of the surrounding countryside, Bradford is an excellent place to live.
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Copyright © 1999 University of Bradford
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Recruitment Publications, University of Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP
Content last updated 04 January 2001
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