Nathan Dean

Lincoln is amazing, and if you want to get somewhere in Media, I would most definitely come here first.

6:00: the earliest I believe I have ever woken up in my entire life. Even the birds were in their trees going, “We’ll tweet later. A few more minutes mum!”

I was awake at this time because Lincoln University had an open day; my UCAS had gone through, conditional offer smiling back at me, so I leapt onto the 7:22 train, ready to meet my lecturers of the future (if all goes to plan).

The University is spectacular, and the moment I arrived in Lincoln City I felt at home. It felt right to be there. This is most likely due to where I live now, a quaint little village, where the top news was when broadband arrived and the main landmark is a nice tree. After spending some time in Stokes (a lovely cafe, you should go) I headed into the Media Department, ready to be directed to the right rooms, the right people and the right lectures.

I learnt much from David Sleight in the first speaking. Apparently Lincoln could have been Oxford and vice versa if things had gone differently in the past. Strange how things turn out. I met David later on, as Adam Smith showed us around. A lovely man who has enthusiasm for his faculty flowing all around him. In fact, every faculty member – every member of staff – had enough enthusiasm to fill an Olympic swimming pool. Adam Smith began our tour at the Media Production Suites, where Neil Kendall teaches from. After being shown some fantastic pieces of hardware (knobs, dials, buttons and levers to play with) and a group of students working on their film project (which looked spectacular, and the plot was thoroughly well-scripted) my eyes lit up; my college had already set up my love for Media, and I could sense this University would merely be petrol to my creative flames. Neil showed us a new spotlight the studios had recently purchased; Lincoln University is constantly developing its standards, hence why it is the best University for Media Production still. It created the course to begin with, and even after countless other Universities have copied the format, Lincoln prevails with its advanced technology and passionate lecturers.

After prying myself away from the equipment (which I so desperately wanted to start messing around on, I’ll wait till I get in) we went upstairs to see the Radio Suite before meeting Marcella Forster of Script-Writing. Once I had met all of these lecturers, each with as interesting out-of-University lives as within them, the opportunities that sparked off in my head were endless. David Sleight had already told me of the chance to set up your own business through the Uni’, with one such company now raising a six figure sum. Combine that with all the technology present, the American Exchange opportunity in the second year and the imagination of all these new faces, the sky is not the limit. Oh no. Something beyond the sky becomes the limit.

But it was not just the enthusiasm that clinched the ‘deal’ – so to speak – for me to go to Lincoln. The friendliness of the Staff is insurmountable. Neil explained when he went to Cambridge to look around that the lecturers there have fixed slots when you can go see them, like doctor’s appointments. At Lincoln, as long as you plan in advance, you can see your lecturers whenever they can. With support like that, it isn’t surprising so many students leave the University with a plethora of opportunities: acting in The Bill, running departments at the BBC, the list goes on. What I suppose really shows how committed and wonderful Lincoln can be, is what you are reading now. No, I don’t mean my writing skills, I do have some modesty. What I mean to say is that I came in to have a look around, get a feel for the place, and came away with the ‘opportunity’ (there’s that word again) to write a post for the newly developing blog.

The blog is fantastic, showing you all the projects, side-projects, developments, choices, options, life-stories of the students and much more all with a click of the mouse. Usually these things are anecdotal, spoken by one lecturer mid-conversation to prove a point, but at Lincoln it’s all there, spoken directly from the students who have lived through the system and have come out the other-side with job prospects and jobs. So, after reading this, have a click around. [Thanks! Ed.]

I leave this post now with a just a few words: Lincoln is amazing. I know, many many people have described their Universities in the same way, usually with more flair of language. I don’t want to sound pompous and grandiose however, I just want to say the truth, without elaboration. Lincoln is amazing, and if you want to get somewhere in Media, I would most definitely come here first.