University of Bradford Stadium

A lot of students tend to go to a Uni in a place they might put down roots in the future,
No one on the up moves to Bradford, only desperate people who can't afford anywhere else.

 

I don't agree with that. People go to universities that have the course they want to do available. Out of those it is then a combination of the offers they get and the A level results they are predicted/achieve that decides where they end up. Finances come into play too as to whether they want to live at home or stay away.
Nobody I knew chose their university because that was where they wanted to settle down. I went to Liverpool. It was a great city to be a student in, but at that time not a city I would have chosen to stay in permanently. My children didn't base their decision on where they wanted to live afterwards either. One went to Bradford because he wanted to live at home for the duration and they offered a course he liked. The other went to Keele but doesn't live in that area now.

 

Cant say that's the case at all from my own experience mate. I've just graduated (as a mature student mind), and a big reason I went where I did to Bristol was to broaden my horizons and for it's excellent music scene (I did a music degree), where I would live afterwards wasn't really a factor for me or any of my cohort that I spoke to about this sort of stuff. Fortunately in my 3 years here, I fell in love with the place and do plan on sticking down here for a few years at least.

As it stands though it's a fantastic point on nobody on the up moves to Bradford. Anyone with anything about them gets out as soon as they can in my experience.

 

My lad is doing this very thing in September. It's gonna kill me watching him go but I know it will make him as a person. Part of me doesn't see him coming back home, my brother in law didn't and I'll be honest I envy him for it.

 

Dennis I spent 4 years in Dundee....And played Sunday footy up there. Away game at Abroath i heard the lucid Braveheart cries of ..........get the X./////...... Englishmen........

 

Best of luck to your young un mate, as much as the university experience has changed over the years I would still highly recommend it. He'll be a more confident, well rounded and worldly person for it all and will have opportunities to access things that are just pipe dreams outside of university.

I suppose this is the upshot of blair's push to get so many working class kids in university, it's given me the opportunity to end up living and working down here that I never would have had in a million years otherwise, and I'm eternally grateful for it. Bradford is massively on the decline in many ways sadly.

 

Quite the journey indeed that is Dennis!

Yes it's changed a lot now in that respect. due to a mistake and subsequent cover up by SFC in my loan payments, I was awarded the minimum loan when I was actually entitled to the maximum amount. This meant I had to work 30 hours a week on top of my degree for a year and a bit whilst it was resolved. Fortunately I got what I was owed just before the pandemic hit, which meant I then couldn't work at all.

Generally with mine, the university I went to is very highly regarded for electronic music which was a big pull factor for many in my year also. Likewise an opportunity to go somewhere far away for a few years and get out there into the big wide world!

 

Wish I'd done it myself, never had the intelligence or the outgoing personality to take it on unfortunately. Something I've regret for a very long time.

 

I came to Bradford in 1980 from south Essex, when I was 24, after working in London in the civil service for five years. I'd had enough of commuting and of living in a one horse town. No one in my family had ever been to uni, so I had no idea what to expect. I just wanted a big change in my life so I applied to places that were very different from home.

My A level results had been crap - playing guitar instead of revising - and I was turned down by East Anglia and Birmingham Universities. Bradford accepted me. I can still vividly remember walking from the interchange, up Great Horton Road past all these side streets of stone built terraced houses and being excited by how different it was.

Bradford Uni was a very vibrant place in the early 80s. People came from all over the country and many of the courses - engineering, pharmacy, optics, modern languages, social work -were very highly rated. The music and social scene was fantastic and I couldn't believe my luck. I really felt I'd fallen on my feet.

I did the social work training course, which involved two work placements, one of which was with the council's Social Services Department. I made friends on that placement, so it felt like a natural thing to get a job there after graduation and stay in Bradford. I've never regretted it.

I worked at Bradford Uni for four years before retiring. There's no doubt it has changed massively. The majority of students are now locals who, because of the loss of grants, live at home. Most come from Muslim backgrounds and don't drink, so nearly all the campus bars and local student clubs have gone. So the student social scene as I knew it has disappeared. I guess it's become a self-fullfilling prophesy - the more the social scene shrinks, the less attractive it becomes to non-Muslim students from around the country who want a vibrant social life at uni as well as decent courses. It's hard to see that changing really.

 

Bradford Uni suffered massively as a result of the 2001 riots. Until then it was a normal Uni with a vibrant social scene. Queens Hall, Tumblers, and Champagne Bar were great nights out. It attracted people from all over the UK.

With the damage to its reputation, parents from outside the area choose other Uni's. Bradford used to get 15,000 students. It's massively dwindled. It now mainly attracts local residents and overseas students. Both groups are far less inclined to drink/socialise around town. Caps on student numbers were removed which was another blow. Popular Uni's could expand and take on more students reducing the cascade effect to the less popular.

The Business School moved onto the campus, which further weakens the prestige of the school IMO to use a spare faculty building. It's a beautiful modern eco-building. It still has good core areas, like business MBA, pharmacy and physio.

It's a real shame because business and a thriving student population are vital to the local economy.

The riots in 2001 resulted in a very heavy price for Bradford. In terms of students and business investments. You can see the results in what's left of the town centre.

Who shops in Bradford anymore?

 

there is a term for this Human Capital Flight AKA "Brain Drain" . The article linked talks about it more on an international scale but does occur on a city level.
For myself the profession I work in simply does not have the number of job roles nor pay in Bradford compared to Leeds!

 

Bradford as a city must be one of the most backwards city’s in terms of lack of improvement.

From having the most billionaires in the UK, a city that was better than Leeds to a shithole in the main.

Some of you slag of Hull but I feel we will do worse than them with wasting the Capital of Culture money. In my mind to many people in Bradford in key positions are lazy, selfish, shite and need to resign.

Bradford people that live there should demand better for the government and council.

Why on earth a student would want to come to Bradford us beyond me. Shite and a boring city!

 

Why not join the legion of people who are trying to make it better

 

The Top 20 Russell Group Uni's do get a lot of money from commercial interests, but the lesser uni's don't. They heavily rely on the money from students. Overseas students are charged more (2 or 3 times). They also profit from student accommodation provided by the Uni's or commercial partnerships.

 

What like you over in York?

I own property in Bradford. What you doing?

I’m always in communication with the joke of the council currently to demand change.

I do more to make a difference to Bradford than our club.

 

City of culture eh?