We might have to welcome you a little differently this year but one thing's for sure – we're ready to give you and your family a very warm welcome to our island city. 

Getting ready to start university is a huge step. It's natural to feel a little nervous. You might find your feelings of pride and excitement mixed with sadness or worry. Please know that we're here any time support is needed.

While this is an unusual and historic time to start university, we're as excited as ever to bring you into our community. That's what this virtual welcome is all about. 

Grab a cuppa, get comfy and take your time exploring this virtual welcome.

Things you can do:

Watch a video from our Vice-Chancellor, Professor Graham Galbraith, welcoming you to our community.

Our Vice-Chancellor, Professor Graham Galbraith has recorded a special video, welcoming you and others from around the world to the University of Portsmouth community. You’ll also hear more about how we’re helping to keep students safe from Covid-19.

Talk to us

Got questions? Watch our live panel recordings to see if they've been answered.

At any other time, use the contact details below to email us your questions. We're always ready and happy to help.

What to expect from university in 2020/21

Things will be a little different in 2020/21. We've put new safety measures in place across campus and have plenty of guidance on how students can stay safe and what to do if they or someone they live with comes into contact with coronavirus.

See our coronavirus information for students to find out what students can expect when they get here.


Live panel recordings

Students at Portsmouth can always call on help if they need it. Our friendly teams are experts on finances, accommodation issues, academic study, physical and mental health, and wellbeing.

Before the start of the academic year, we hosted 2 live panel discussions. Panellists included members of our Residence Life TeamFinanceWellbeingGlobal TeamFaculties and the Students' Union. They discussed the advice and support they offer and answered questions from the parents in the audience.

You can watch the recordings of each session below.

Live Panel Discussion – 23 September 2020

In this live discussion, our panel answered your questions on:

  • coronavirus measures, including self-isolation and testing
  • academic and health and wellbeing support
  • student induction timetables, where to go on the first day and collecting student cards
  • Students' Union societies
  • our league table rankings
  • restrictions on working part-time
  • how we're continuing to attract international students

Live Panel Discussion – 26 September 2020

In this live discussion, our panel answered your questions on:

  • coronavirus measures, including if students can go home during a local lockdown
  • health and wellbeing support
  • support for students with additional needs
  • how and when students will meet their personal tutor
  • student induction, where to go on the first day and collecting student cards
  • how face-to-face and online teaching will work
  • how we're continuing to attract international students
  • what to do if a student is awaiting confirmation of Student Finance

Health, Wellbeing and Academic Support

We want every student to have a life-changing university experience – so we’re fully committed to looking out for them while they’re studying with us.

We never interfere or pry – but we do keep an eye out for everyone.

Here’s a few tips to help you and your child/ward get started:

  • Encourage them to register with a local surgery and dentist – you’ll find several near campus
  • Our Wellbeing Service is here to help if you’re concerned about their mental or emotional health. Find out more about what information we're able to share with you.
  • Give them a few weeks to settle in before visiting (or expecting them to come home) and don’t worry too much if they don’t get back to you straight away when you contact them – they’ll probably be very busy in their first few weeks making friends and getting used to uni life
6th February 2019; Feel Good Festival

Student Wellbeing Service 

Personal and emotional support, mental health support and counselling for students through our Wellbeing Service. The team organise workshops and courses throughout the year. 

Staff and students smiling at the University Feel Good Festival

Feel Good Fest

Annual free festival inspiring students to take care of their wellbeing. Students, staff, local artists and organisations come together in a range of activities.

students-looking-at-mobiles

What'sUp App

Free app, developed by a Portsmouth graduate. Students use What'sUp? to chat to the Wellbeing Service, rate their mood, record their personal journey and more.

10th December 2018CCI Facilities and Students

Learning and Academic Support

Learning development tutors and the Academic Skills Unit (ASK) offer confidential, personalised tutorials in the essential skills for higher education. Maths Cafe provides free, friendly and informal help with mathematical skills.

students-myport-info-hub

MyPort Hubs

  • Whenever a student needs support or has a question, they’ll find the help they need at our 8 MyPort Information Hubs across campus
  • The friendly staff at each Hub can help with almost everything – and if they can't, they'll point them towards someone who can help
  • Don’t forget that there’s also all the information they need to get started on our welcome pages
Student-smiling-in-library

The University Library

Spacious, comfortable and well-equipped with meeting pods, group study rooms, soft seating areas, cafe and, of course, thousands of books and DVDs. Open 24 hours a day during term time, with friendly librarians available online or by phone 24/7 all year.

Take a virtual Library tour to see how social distancing measures keep students safe.

Residence Life Team

Free and confidential welfare support and advice. Available 24/7 from the Residence Life Team from the moment a student moves into their accommodation.

Watch the short video above to see how the Residence Life Team can support you whilst living in halls.

How the Residence Life Team can support you whilst living in halls

If you're new to living away from home and you're experiencing the ups and downs of sharing a hall or house with other students, the residence life team can offer help and advice.

female-students-laughing-stairs

Funding matters

We understand for many parents and supporters Student Finance can be really confusing. You may have never been to university and even if you have, the standard finance package available to students may have changed significantly.

That's where our expert team of student finance advisors come in. We provide expert advice and guidance on money-related issues. We can help you understand what funding is available to students, how they can apply for it, and who they should contact if they have any money worries whilst they are with us. Everything is dealt with in the strictest confidence and we’ll always put the needs and interests of students first.

Funding information for undergraduates

Explore our funding and fees pages for an overview of the main areas of undergraduate funding:

If you're paying your fees yourselves, you can do this either as a lump sum before the start of the academic year, or via four instalments while you study. For payment details contact income@port.ac.uk.


Get to know our campus

Woven into the heart of the city and easy-to-reach with our free bus service, our compact campus is a great place to spend time learning, studying and socialising.

Take a walk around the campus with our students Joel and Amy.

Walking campus tour

This tour highlights how close all of our buildings, student halls and student services are located within our city.

Amy is a first year BA (Hons) Photography students and Joel is a 2nd year BSc (Hons) Business and Information System student here at the University of Portsmouth.

Amy Welcome to the University of Portsmouth walking campus tour. My name is Amy and I'm a second-year photography student.

Joel My name is Joel. I'm a third-year student studying Business Information Systems. Now, let's follow me.

Joel Here we have three halls. So the first one is Greetham Street, then Margaret Rule and Chaucer House.

Amy And Greetham Street is the really tall yellow one that you can see has a viewing platform of the whole of Portsmouth. It's really nice.

Amy Here is Portsmouth and Southsea train station. It has great transport links around the city and you can get to London in just an hour and a half.

Joel Here we have Commercial Road, known as 'city centre', where we have the high street shops. On my right, we have another halls of residence known as Catherine House. It's one of our largest and newest halls of residence. They also do social activities, during Halloween they do trick or treating.

Amy We're now heading to Park Building. Follow me.

Joel Welcome to Park Building, the home of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and we have Politics, International Relations and Languages.

Amy You can choose to learn from eight different languages alongside your university degree, such as Mandarin and British sign language, which I take at the moment.

Joel Now, follow me.

Amy Here, we're outside the White Swan Building, which is the home of Drama, Performance and Musical Theatre.

Joel If you study Television and Broadcasting, they provide a green screen studio.

Amy And whilst we're here, this is Rosalind Franklin halls of residence. Anyway, on with the tour.

Amy These two buildings are for the Faculty of Science and Health.

Joel And this is Rosalind Franklin West and if you study health-related degrees, they provide mock operating theatres and radiography suites.

Amy And in St. Michael's, you'll find Biomedical Science degrees and Pharmacy, with state of the art labs.

Joel Continuing from the Faculty of Science and Health, we're at the King Henry Building, where they provide School of Biological Sciences and Psychology.

Amy Part of the Faculty, we also have a Marine Biology degree which is situated in our Eastney campus.

Amy Welcome to Anglesea Building, the home of the Faculty of Technology.

Joel They provide courses such as Mechanical Engineering and Electronic Engineering. We have a School of Law also here.

Amy They have a mock law court situated inside.

Joel Follow us onto the Northern Quarter.

Amy If you continue this way, you'll get to Gunwharf Quays.

Amy Welcome to Northern Quarter.

Joel This is the Dennis Sciama Building. It's the home of the Institution of Cosmology and Gravitation. We also have a hub cafe and they do some amazing hot chocolate.

Amy And just behind us, we have Burnaby Building, which is the home of Earth and Environment Sciences and it also has an Engineering degree.

Joel I'm at Richmond Building at the Faculty of Business and Law. It has the largest lecture theatre and during my first year, I spent most of my time in this lecture theatre.

Amy We also have the Bloomberg Suite, which is the mock stock-exchange facility.

Amy Welcome to Portland Building. It's the home of Civil Engineering and Surveying degrees and it has a large open-access IT suite for all students to use.

Joel Here, we have the Future Technology Centre, one of our newest buildings. At the ground floor, we have the global centre. On the first floor, we have large group presentations where they have large TV screens as well. On the second floor, you have personal computer suites and they have some cosy booths. And on the top floor, they have business networking suites.

Amy Lovely. And onto Lion Gate and Buckingham Building.

Joel We're at Lion Gate, the Department of Mathematics, where they provide Maths Cafe and help you with one-to-one support and group support as well. I've had a previous experience where I've got loads of one-to-one support with my coursework and assignments, and also you can rent out laptops as well.

Amy And here's Buckingham Building, with the Department of Geography and the School of Computing. And they have a forensic computing lab inside.

Joel Follow us to the Milldam Building, the last stop of the Northern Quarter.

Joel We're at the Milldam Building, the School of Area Studies, History, Politics and Literature, and if you study Journalism, there's also a journalism newsroom.

Amy Here, you'll also find the University on-campus nursery, where spaces are primarily reserved for students with children.

Amy Welcome to the University Library. During term time, the library is open 24/7. It is where you'll find the majority of students. There are computer rooms that are bookable for group sessions and there's a large open-access computer suite for all students to use. There are also laptops available for loans for up to 24 hours.

Joel We have the new Ravelin Sports Centre. Once it's finished, you will have a 25-metre swimming lane and climbing walls and ski simulations.

Amy Welcome to Ravelin House, the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Joel The University of Portsmouth has a partnership with Hampshire Constabulary, where they provide placements for students and also graduate jobs. St George's Building, it's also a building where they do Criminology, as well.

Amy And just behind us, we have William Beatty Building, which is the Dental Academy where students practise in professional clinics with phantom heads.

Joel Welcome to the Student Union. They provide services such as advice and support for students.

Amy There are also over 200 student-led societies.

Joel I'm part of the Bollywood Society and we have weekly practises and we perform at cultural events.

Amy And it's also the home of Third Space, which is a large study social area. And there's also the University shop, which sells University hoodies that everyone wants.

Joel Now follow us onto Nuffield Centre.

Amy Nuffield Centre is home to Academic Skills, the University Student Finance Centre, Student Wellbeing and the MyPort Hub.

Joel Also, additional support and disability services, Student Housing and faith services as well.

Tati The Nuffield Centre is also home to the Global Team. They provide support to our international and EU students with everything from arrival programmes, visa advice and extensions. They also offer opportunities to engage with exchanges, study abroad and summer schools for all students of the university.

Amy And right next door, we have the University Surgery. Top-tip advice is to register with a doctor when you get to the University.

Joel Behind me is the Spinnaker Building. It's the heart of sports-related degrees.

Amy And right next door is the Spinnaker Sports Centre, which you can have over 50 classes per week. And there's a large sports hall where we can play a variety of sports, such as badminton.

Joel Now follow us onto Eldon Building.

Joel On my left, we have the University House. On my right-hand side, we have the Careers and Employability Service, they help students with placements, part-time jobs, internships and also graduate jobs and finding volunteering services as well.

Amy Welcome to Eldon Building, it's the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries, and it's where my degrees take place. Inside, there's an art shop, CCI TV and the radio station.

Joel On my left, we have another hall of residence. It's known as Trafalgar Halls, it's recently been refurbished. Now follow me to Harry Law and Bateson.

Amy These are the last two halls on our tour. On my right, we have Harry Law and on my left we have Bateson.

Joel Now, let's go back to Guildhall where we started.

Amy And now we're back at the Guildhall, which is the centre of the city, and it's where you'll graduate after your time here at university. If you've got any more questions for us, head to the University of Portsmouth website.

Joel Thanks for joining us.

Get familiar with the City

Portsmouth is the UK’s only island city. It’s a great place to study – and a great place to live.

Watch our city tour video to see some of the city’s best spots, as recommended by current students.

Take a virtual tour of the city

Discover 4 miles of beaches, with original period piers, lots of green space, independent shops, brilliant places to grab a coffee or bite to eat from all over the world, and thriving local scenes for music, comedy, theatre and art.

What’s more, most of Portsmouth’s finest features are in easy walking or cycling distance of our campus.

Take a halls of residence tour

Every hall is in the centre of Portsmouth, close to our campus. Before you arrive, take a guided 360 virtual tour of the hall that will soon be a second home to your child/ward. 

Explore Harry Law Hall with this 360 tour

Follow our fourth-year pharmacy student as she takes you on a virtual tour of Harry Law Hall.

Hi, my name is Jibola, and I'm a fourth year Pharmacy student.

I've lived in Portsmouth for about 4 years now and I've loved every moment of it.

And I'm here to tell you about the halls of residence that is Harry Law, which is right in front of us here.

So this is one of the most central halls of residence to other facilities around campus.

It is one of the closest to other campus buildings and is super central.

There are shops all around and other facilities that could be very useful to students.

So if you look to your right over here, you would see the main Guildhall centre where different events are held throughout the year.

Over here, down that way, you would see the train station and the high street.

The train station and the high street are about 4-5 minute walk from Harry Law, so it's quite convenient to get there and the train station links to London, and where you can go and then link to other stations around the U.K.

You also have shops like the Co-op, like a 2-minute walk down that way, Sainsbury's, a 2-minute walk down that way, so is a pharmacy.

And you have different university facilities and different university buildings that are really nearby, such as Park Building, King Henry and St Michael's building.

So if you want to get into Harry Law, the way to get in is through this little walkway over here and you would have a key card that you used to get in.

So people off of the street can't just stroll in, it's quite secure.

You have security all the time and there's always someone at reception that you can go to if you need help or at least a number that you can call if you need help with anything.

So let's head-on into the rooms.

So here you have a standard-sized bedroom.

All of the bedrooms are ensuites and they have a single bed.

They usually come with the same standard stuff, such as a nice, large desk and chair, a corkboard to work from.

They are in and around the same standard size.

They have a couple of little hidden away storage units.

You have the shelving unit over here.

You have a little bit of space on top of the wardrobe.

You have space underneath the bed to put away things.

So it's quite nice and compact, and there is definitely enough walking room around the room, which is something that is quite difficult to find in other halls of residence.

You have a nice large wardrobe, which is such a perk with this room.

And because you're on campus, you're close by, there are so many things that you can do around so you can never really get bored staying in these halls.

You have your own ensuite like I said, the bathrooms are quite a sizeable size.

You have your little shower area and you have a toilet and sink area to get ready, with a nice large mirror.

Let's head back to the rooms.

The room goes for about £157 per week, which works out to be about £5480 per academic year.

The academic year runs from September to June and students don't need to worry about moving out during the Christmas or Easter break because you have the room secured from the entirety of September to June, which is quite nice.

Now, let's have a look at the kitchen area.

So this is the kitchen.

You share the kitchen with about 5 to 7 students.

You can kind of pick who you want in your kitchen or go with having people based on whoever is closest to the kitchen area.

With regards to cooking and catering.

This kitchen is self-catered, so you have to cook for yourself.

You can budget about £35 a week for food, which will feed you quite well.

I have to say things around Portsmouth are quite cheap and there are loads of places that you can get really, really good student discounts around for meals.

Each student would have their own cupboard space to put away their stuff and you would also have a fridge and a freezer to share between you guys and one cooking hob area and an oven.

With regards to the cleaning, cleaners come in every two weeks or so to mop down the floors and wipe down the counters.

The cleaning is pretty much left to the student to do.

So with this halls of residence, there is an outdoor courtyard area that is kind of like a communal area.

It's quite nice to sit at during the summertime and it also leads to the laundry room, which can also be accessed from indoors as well through the elevator.

You take the elevator downstairs to the basement and you have a laundry room that you can pay for to get a wash and a dry.

So that's quite convenient.

There's also an app that lets you know whether the laundry room is full or whether your washing is done, so makes it a lot easier.

So you're not rushing downstairs to bring all your laundry there and then find out its all full.

So it's quite handy.

The layout of this style of apartment is usually like a corridor style.

So there are bedrooms that go all the way along the corridor.

And around each bedroom are like kitchen stations.

So if you went down the hall, you would see different kitchen stations and different bedrooms spotted around instead of having like an enclosed apartment, like some of the other halls.

So it makes it kind of open for people to pop into other people's kitchens, have a chat here and there, and also see other people from other rooms so that it's not just people from your apartment that you get to see, which is quite nice to see different people from different walks of life.

Halls is a great place to meet people from other courses that you may not have encountered if you did not stay in halls.

So I totally advise you to stay in halls and get the most out of the university experience through it.

Thank you for listening and I hope to see you in the next coming year.

Find out more about our other halls of residence and watch their tour videos at the links below.


Key dates for 2020/21

Familiarise yourself with important term dates including teaching blocks, Christmas and Easter break, and assessment periods.

Contact details

You're welcome to contact our friendly, experienced academic staff throughout the University year. If you find yourself wanting advice or assurance, check back to the handy list below, find the right person and reach out.

Tip: bookmark this page in case you need it later.

Funding information for undergraduates

Explore our funding and fees pages for an overview of the main areas of undergraduate funding:

If you're paying your fees yourselves, you can do this either as a lump sum before the start of the academic year, or via four instalments while you study. For payment details contact income@port.ac.uk.