Bradford University

On Tuesday 15th December 2009 we voyaged to Bradford University. The campus is a ten-minute walk from the city center of Bradford, it looked like a mix of an urban London housing estate blended with a modern architectural structure. Once we were shown the main attractions and exterior of the building we were introduced to the animation tutor.
The course itself relies on GCSE Maths grade C (or equivalent) and GCSE English grade C (or equivalent), the interview process is equally as relaxed as there is no need to even show up as it operates on giving you a conditional placement based on UCAS points and GCSE's alone. This method seems strange to me because I think if a University were to offer me a place without at least viewing the work I produce I would be slightly confused to say the least.
A PowerPoint presentation was shown to us within the 'lecture theatre' (basically a large room full of cameras and thousands of pounds worth of equipment), this outlined the course, modules and history of Bradford and its University. When we had sat through the 40-minute presentation, a DVD enlightened us to the technological advantages that Bradford possesses as well as allowing us to experience a piece of animation work entitled 'Fisherman'. The animation subsequently had nothing to do with a man fishing, the short was cute but the message it conveyed was difficult to determine.
Afterwards, the animation tutor guided us around the building; there were computers in every single room - each room was equally as generic as the last one we went in. Every room I walked into I recieved the impression that if a powercut happened, chaos would descend. All the tutor could show us was the "state of the art" computers thus creating an even more defunct environment than what was already constructed.
A room that piqued my curiosity was the life drawing room, it contained about seven easels, one skeleton, ten chairs and harboured a look of a GP's surgery. Overall, I felt that the University lacked the variation, personality and tone needed for a comfortable and unique learning experience. What annoyed me the most about the open day was that the tutor was too focused on talking about the advantages of computer technology and advertising his course rather than giving the other courses a fair voice. At one point he said being a photographer was a pointless job, after that he went even further downhill in my opinion.