“Don’t panic about buying all the books in the first week – the library has
most of the books you will ever need!”
Kayleigh Cradock
Course: MEng Civil Engineering (third year)
“I was attracted to Nottingham because of its reputation for being a well-established and respected university. The fact that it was a nice campus with green open spaces yet was still within minutes of a buzzing city was an added bonus. The strong links the University has with industry were another reason to come here.
The structure of this course means you get a broad experience of different fields within engineering. Hydraulics is my favourite lecture as we go through the derivation of important flow equations and I really enjoy understanding why things happen the way they do. I also liked a module called Engineering Communication as it involved drawing classes and doing a small-group design project which allowed us to be creative with what we had learnt.
In my spare time, I row for Nottingham University Boat Club and this is my second year as Women’s Captain. I enjoy rowing as it is a competitive team sport and it gives me time away from my studies. Having to fit in all my rowing training makes me manage my time a lot more effectively – this is useful when it comes to coursework as I plan when to do it so it gets done on time.
In my first year I was in Derby Hall, on University Park. I loved hall life as there was a great social atmosphere but you also had your own space if you needed a bit of peace and quiet occasionally. Meal times were a great way of catching up with people and you didn’t have to cook for yourself – bonus! The meal card at lunchtimes was useful as you had access to food anywhere on campus, wherever you were.
I’m currently sponsored by an engineering consultancy called WSP, so if everything goes to plan I’m hoping to go and work for them as a graduate engineer, possibly in building engineering.”