So… what’s student life really like at Nottingham? Well, who better to ask than our students?

The University’s new student video team has been charged with capturing the student experience at Nottingham. And with an iPad mini for filming, a couple of apps for editing and a University’s worth of inspiration, the team, which has a student from each of the five faculties, is now out and about making videos and telling stories.

Iain Botterill, of the Faculty of Arts, has already filmed across all of UoN’s UK campuses. His personal highlight has been Sutton Bonington’s Cake Off, featuring everything from a calf giving birth on a Victoria sponge through to the depiction of a chicken’s innards in icing. It’s organised by the vet school, you see.

“The cakes were spectacular and highlighted a pocket of Nottingham’s unique culture that I’d never normally come across,” says Iain, who is pictured, centre, with the rest of the team Charlie Conway, Chrystal King, Izzy Cross and Dylan Robson.

“I’ve also enjoyed travelling to different campuses; working with the Derby choir was great fun and opened my eyes up to a whole new campus I never realised existed.”

As well as giving both current and prospective students an insight into student life, the team is working with the University’s digital marketing and communications team to learn about interviewing, filming and editing.

“This project aims to give more of a voice to our students,” says Digital Engagement Manager Tom Wright. “It’s about allowing them to have their say on what makes the Nottingham student experience so special. Rather than us making videos about what it’s like to be a student here, we thought it would be more effective and more engaging to have students do this on our behalf. At the same time, we’re giving the students some valuable experience in producing video content for promotional use — skills that will potentially help them get a job once they graduate.”

Recent UoN graduate and Digital Communications Assistant Liam Ross heads the team. Liam interned in the digital team while in his final year and understands the importance of picking up employability skills while studying.

“There’s a huge amount of value in this project for current and prospective students of the University,” says Liam. “I know if I was still a student I would have applied to join the team in a heartbeat. The student producers are going to pick up some really desirable skills from being a part of this project, as well as the opportunity to say they’ve worked for and been paid by the University, producing some tangible content that they can show off.”

The team is partly funded by the University’s Cascade fund, which awards money to projects that will enrich the lives of Nottingham students.

You can watch the team’s Campus Cam videos — including the Sutton Bonington Cake Off one — online: tiny.cc/UonCampusCam