A student’s guide to the first year In South African Universities
Student’s guide to life
Whether you like it or not, university life begins with higher education’s most infamous seven days.
Known as Freshers’ Week, the time is supposedly filled with pub-crawls, all-nighters, making friends, growing up – and going crazy.
But, according to Laura Major, 22, a third-year psychology student at the University of Exeter, the reality is a little different.
“I didn’t really enjoy Freshers’ Week. I thought there would be organised parties at night and lots going on during the day, but there wasn’t.
“Schools really big-up your Freshers’ Week as being the most amazing thing ever, but actually nothing happened during the day and it was mainly going out to a few clubs at night.
“It was fine, but I wish I’d known it wasn’t going to be all it was hyped up to be, and that actually it’s more fun in your second year – all your friends are there, and you know where to go and what to do,” she says.
Taking advantage of second-year students’ experience is something Adam Kynaston-Smith, 21, highly recommends.
About to go into his third year of a philosophy and politics degree, he says their wisdom is an invaluable resource.
apply 2017 bursaries
“When people are finding out about universities, they get so much bias from the teacher’s side. A student perspective is a lot more revealing,” says the University of York student, “and you should definitely try to talk to as many as you can.
“For example, we got a massive reading list the summer before we started. There was one book that was £20, so I bought it from Amazon for £5. Even that was unnecessary. We only used it twice. I could have got it from the library if I’d known.”
If his flatmate, Joseph Brennan, 20, a medical student, were to give one piece of advice to his first-year self, it would be to throw yourself into everything.
“Just get stuck into anything and everything as soon as you arrive,” says the third-year student.
“In the first two weeks it’s incredible – you’ll be standing in a queue and end up making friends with the people in front of you. Two months later, no one bothers being that friendly, but at the beginning it’s really nice how über-friendly people are. Pluck up your courage and do it.”
As well as making new friends, it’s just important to keep in touch with old ones. Mr Brennan recommends opening a student bank account that offers a free student railcard, allowing you to travel to see friends at a discount.
“Student railcards are amazing – so go with a bank that will give you one. All my friends got free CDs, free iPod shuffles and loads of other things, too,” he says. “Though it’s good to stay with the same bank as your parents as well, as it makes it easier for them to bail you out from time to time.”
Once you have faced the first week and sorted yourself out a little, there’s the business of a degree to get down to. Max Cunningham, 21, a third-year geography student at the University of Newcastle, thinks one of the most important things you can do is to meet your tutors.
“University is incredibly impersonal – you are a number in a system. At school, your teachers want the best for you. At university, they don’t really care. If you don’t work, and fail the year, no one is going to rescue you – there’ll be no warning, no nagging to work harder,” he warns.
Jess Fletcher, 23, who has just graduated from the University of Edinburgh, agrees. “Tutors aren’t going to be falling over themselves to get to know you. It’s easy to go through your entire time without forming any kinds of relationship with staff,” says the History of Art graduate.
“But they will be so much more willing to help you if they know who you are, which doesn’t just help with essays, but with references afterwards.”
It’s also handy when it comes to picking courses, Mr Cunningham adds.
“Find out as much as you can about the tutors, because no matter how interesting a course sounds on paper, if you have a boring tutor, it will kill it,” he says.
At some point in your first year there will arise the subject of where to live after halls of residence. Miss Major, a third-year student at Exeter, wishes someone had told her to start looking early.
“It varies from university to university when you have to start thinking about finding a house to rent for the second year,” she says, “but it’s always earlier than you think.
“At Exeter we start looking at Easter, but I have friends at other universities who start looking at Christmas for the following September.”
“And make sure,” she adds, “when you are moving out in the summer of second year, that in the excitement of the end of term you remember to cancel all the direct debits you set up for household bills, or it’s a nightmare in bank charges.”
Long holidays are one of the biggest bonuses of student life, and making the most of the endless summer months is important, according to Mr Cunningham.
“It’s such a long time you can do something really productive. This summer I’ve been doing work experience, I’ve paid off my overdraft, and I’ve still time to go away,” he says.
AVAILABLE BURSARIES 2017
Work experience is a good reminder of what your degree is supposed to be all about: getting a job. Thinking about the future is not easy in the whirl of work and seemingly endless socialising at university, but it is something which Emma Harrison, 21, a student at the University of Gloucestershire, knows is essential.
She chose to take two years out after school to have her daughter, Abby, now two and a half, and it made her realise exactly how important university can be.
“In those years I helped out in a pub and did all the jobs I could do without proper qualifications, and I realised how rubbish it could be, and how essential getting a degree is,” she says.
“But so many people just go to university because it’s the next step, picking their favourite subject as a degree, not one which will get them employed.
“Students in their first year should know they’re going to have to face the real world at the end of it all and make sure they use their time at university to prepare themselves for it.”
The second-year social work student also believes it’s never too late to look into grants.
bursaries online
“Some people at my local authority didn’t realise that the law had changed, which meant I did qualify for a grant. Luckily, I asked as many different people as I could until I discovered the truth,” she says.
But what if you get to university, follow all the advice, and it still isn’t working for you? Don’t panic, says Miss Fletcher, who realised during her first year at Edinburgh that she wasn’t happy with her History of Art degree.
“You will be able to change course,” she says, “just don’t put it off until it’s too late. Sometimes there might be course requirements to prevent you, but go in and talk to staff because with persuasion and effort you’ll be able to do it.
“I ended up changing from History of Art, to History, back to History of Art again.”
Finally, if even changing courses does not help, then do not be afraid to look at options other than university. As James Pickard, 21, who left Nottingham Trent University after the first year of his French and European studies degree last summer, says: “University’s not for everyone. It wasn’t for me, and now I’m in London, working, and having a much better time than I did at university.”
For those who choose to stay, however, Holly Clarke, 19, has one last piece of advice.
The second-year medical student managed to get through all the requirements of her first year at Imperial College London unscathed, including working out what goes in a pint of snakebite black (cider, lager and blackcurrant cordial, should anyone ask), but her flatmates were not so lucky.
“A couple of my friends lived off nothing but Dorito crisps in their first year. They ate them all the time, and eventually, they ended up with scurvy,” she says, “So whatever you do in your first year, make sure you eat more than just Doritos.”
apply bursaries here