My initial fears of being a poor Northerner quickly disappeared as the first person I met was Kathryn Thompson from Bolton. I lived on campus in student accommodation which can only be described as a sort of stalag type hut
Our corridor was girls only and comprised of about 10 individual bedrooms with a couple of very basic kitchens. There was little privacy and the walls were paper thin. Luckily we all got on surprisingly well.
Looking back, it was very different to the classic University. We were stuck in the middle of the countryside, 5 miles from the nearest village. Everything we needed was on-site; it was very insular. Meals were eaten in the refectory, a healthy staple diet of baked beans and chips, and every evening spent in the student union bar knocking back pints of cider and black. We only ventured into Chalfont St Giles for the occasional visit to a real pub or to the bustling metropole of Amersham to shop at Budgens supermarket. London was only 25 miles away but it might as well have been on the moon.
The learning facilities were also on campus. I studied towards a BA (hons) European Business Studies. The syllabus included:
Economics
Accounting
Business Law
Marketing
People and Organisations
I.T.
European Consumer Markets
Spanish
I embraced every aspect of student life, well everything apart from the study, but sadly failed my second year exams and got booted off the course just before the year abroad. So I loaded my stuff into 'The Golden Oldie' and headed back up North, debt-laden and 2 stone heavier in weight .
With hindsight, I should have studied Travel and Tourism at Dorset (my second UCAS choice) because I left the UK shortly afterwards to start my 'career' as a campsite rep for Eurocamp.
I never looked back!
My most memorable song of the time