Jubilee is an underrated UoN campus: Here are six reasons why

If you’ve never been, you are definitely missing out

6 months ago

Jubilee Campus is often considered an enigma to any students who spend their lives on Uni Park. The vast majority of UoN students won’t have stepped foot here and let me tell you – they’re missing out. The campus is celebrating its 25th birthday in 2024, making it older than the majority of us currently attending uni so it’s time to start respecting our elders.

As a die-hard finance girlie and a former resident of Newark Hall, I have a lot of opinions. Jubilee definitely does not get the credit that it deserves. If you’re a business, computer science or education student, you already know it’s the best but for the rest of you, here’s a list of just some of the reasons I think Jubilee is at least worth a visit:

It’s sustainable

I knew Jubilee was sustainable as it was built as part of regeneration of an old industrial site, but I didn’t know quite how sustainable until I started looking into it. According to the UoN website, it’s more than just lakes and grass with a number of hidden sustainable aspects to the campus.

For example, the roofs are covered by special plants to insulate and maintain temperature in the buildings (UoN). It also has a whole bunch of fancy boilers, cooling systems and insulation to actively try to reduce energy consumption so it’s no surprise that the campus is award winning.

We also have the equally as award winning Innovation Park which is home to the GSK Carbon Neutral Laboratory, and which aims to provide enough carbon credits in 25 years to pay back the carbon used in construction. You can read more about it here. While it may not solve climate change, it’s nice to know that Jubilee is actively working to be sustainable.

It’s so close to everything

One thing that Jubilee definitely has over all the other campuses is how close it is to pretty much everything. For those of us not living on campus, we all know the struggle of walking from Lenton to Uni Park – easily a 30 minute walk and that’s on a good day. Plus it’s a hill! Walking to Jubilee takes literally half the time. Plus if you really need to get to Uni Park you can just jump on the 903 hopper bus and get driven there for free – just remember your uni card of course.

Jubilee is also very close to the Rose and Crown and Sheaves which is perfect for that post lectures drink. Or pre lecture drink. Or just any drink.

The facilities

I’ll give it to Uni Park – Jubilee is a lot smaller. However, for those of you like me, this is fantastic because it means minimal walking between lectures. On Uni Park it can take you a good 15 minutes to get between lectures but I can safely say I’ve never walked longer than five minutes on Jubilee.

This also means you have time to go to the Costa when you have a 30 minute gap between lectures. Take another 10 steps and you’ll find yourself in the sports centre and can work off that hot chocolate, three minutes later you’re in the library.

The food

This was definitely not something I would have put on my list when I was a fresher but Jubilee has stepped up its game on the food front. Yes, we don’t have the billion food places that the food hall in Portland has to offer, but what we do have is affordable and tasty food.

There’s the standard SPAR and Costa coffee which of course, never disappoint, but we also have the wonderful Cafe Terrazzo in the Exchange building for lunchtime scran. It’s homely and satisfying and always piping hot. The best thing about it – wander down from Exchange LT3 and it’s right there.

Correct as of 23/10/23

The nature

I can’t mention Jubilee Campus and not mention the birds. I’ve honestly never seen so many different types of birds and they’re everywhere. They’re on the lake, they’re walking along the paths, sometimes they’re even sitting next to you on the wooden benches. I don’t know what breed any of them are but I do know they make fun noises.

Jubilee is also incredibly green and is a great place for a nice walk or cycle. Plus there’s always dog walkers around which means there’s always dogs – in fact I met a lovely German Shepherd called Sasha just the other day.

The architecture

I’ve saved the best til last with this one. The buildings on Jubilee may not be as old looking as on Uni Park but it brings modern designs and most importantly, it’s home to the affectionately termed “spiral library”. Djanogly Learning Resource Centre, to give it its official name, houses every business, comp sci and education textbook you can dream of.

It’s also quite fun walk round and round the floors rather than take the stairs so in my opinion, the most fun library UoN has to offer. It has a number of nice seating areas and provides a lovely view over the lake from literally every angle.