Discover 5 reasons to choose the University of Birmingham from a beautiful campus, vibrant city life, affordable living, great transport, and strong community.
If you’re looking for a university experience that blends community, convenience, and proper city energy, Birmingham ticks every box. Here are five reasons it stands out.
One of the first things people notice about our university is how walkable and stunning the campus is. As a student coming out of college or at least more familiar with smaller institutions, one of my main concerns was that I wasn’t going to be able to figure out where my lectures or seminars were going to take place. However, once I arrived, I was given my timetable, I pinpointed the buildings that I needed to discover and my weekly routine was built comfortably in a week.
Everything feels connected by both Old Joe and the Green Heart. So, whether it be from the red-brick buildings, the green spaces, or the brutalist architecture, walking through the campus space makes even a rushed 9am feel scenic. You don’t need buses, shuttles, or elaborate planning to get around, instead your life becomes compact, time-effective, and instantly feels like home.
Birmingham is a major city, but the student experience gives you the best of both worlds. You’ve got full access to proper urban living through shops, food, nightlife, and culture in places like the Bullring or Digbeth, and yet you also get a close-knit student community centred around areas like Selly Oak and Edgbaston.
It’s the ideal set-up as you can enjoy the buzz of the city whenever you want, then retreat into a community where everything feels smaller, mellow, and familiar. That balance is something many universities struggle to offer, but Birmingham genuinely gets it just right.
Something that often gets overlooked until it’s too late is housing reliability. At the University of Birmingham, you don’t have to worry. Students are guaranteed accommodation for their first year.
The university has three main villages for accommodation for first-year students, and in their following years, Selly Oak real estate can provide housing for students seeking either private accommodation or, more typically, house shares. While this may seem like a daunting aspect of living away from home in your second or third year, real estate agents will guide you along the way.
That stability and reassurance make a huge difference, especially when other cities have intense competition for student housing or dramatic fluctuations in availability.
Despite being the second largest city in the UK, Birmingham remains far more affordable than many student hotspots. Rent, particularly in areas such as Selly Oak, is noticeably cheaper than in other heavily student-populated cities, and day-to-day costs like transport (such as train tickets to the city centre, buses, and especially Ubers), groceries, and social activities tend to be lower too. As a result, students benefit from the full spectrum of big-city opportunities like restaurants, events, nightlife, and cultural institutions, without absorbing the financial pressure that typically comes with them.
For anyone trying to budget realistically, this difference in living costs can be a decisive factor in choosing the University of Birmingham, as it allows for a more comfortable and cost-effective student lifestyle.
Transport is one of Birmingham’s biggest strengths. You’ve got extremely easy access to trains, buses, trams, and airports, so whether you’re popping into the city centre, travelling home for the weekend, or exploring the rest of the UK, it’s incredibly straightforward.
With major rail hubs like Birmingham New Street only a few minutes from campus and Selly Oak, as well as direct links stretching across the country, journeys are quick and reliable. London is usually around 1 hour 20 minutes by train, and you can even get a £7 bus ticket all the way too. Bristol is roughly an hour and 25 minutes, Cardiff about 2 hours, and Manchester around 1 hour 30 minutes. Even Birmingham International Airport is only a 10–15 minute train ride away, which can be such a convenient aspect for international students.
It’s one of those everyday conveniences that quietly enhances your entire student experience, the kind of seamless connectivity that makes university life, trips home, and spontaneous days out far easier.
Choosing a university is a big decision, but Birmingham offers that rare combination of a picturesque campus, a warm student community, big-city life, and practical affordability. It’s a place where you can grow academically, socially, and personally, all while enjoying the comfort of a campus that feels like its own thriving world.
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