Podcast: 100 Days of University
By the Library Student Team
This is part of ‘Life at University’. In this podcast, the Library Student Team discuss the blogs they have written, highlighting practical steps for the first 100 days of university. They share their experiences from three different faculties, offering their authentic experiences to provide insight into into university life. Last updated: July 2024.
• 100 Days of University: Humanities Guide
• 100 Days of University: Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health (FBMH) Guide
• 100 Days of University: Faculty of Science & Engineering (FSE) Guide
TRANSCRIPT
Lily: Welcome to our 100 days podcast which will give you tips and advice on how to get the most out of your first 100 days at Manchester. I’m Lily from the Library’s Student Team and I have three of my fellow Student Team members here with me.
Beth: Hi, my name’s Beth and I study with the SEED department, and I am in the Faculty of Humanities.
Ashleigh: I’m Ashleigh, I study Speech and Language Therapy so I’m with the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health.
Kai: I’m Kai, and I’m doing a PhD in Mathematics, so I am in the Faculty of Science and Engineering.
Lily: Fab, thanks everyone. So, Beth, Ashleigh and Kai have all written blog posts that are all going to go into more detail about their experience of starting Uni in each of their faculties.
But this podcast is going to be a bit more of a general chat with tips and guidance that are going to be helpful for everybody. So, my first question to you all is:
What would have been the most helpful piece of advice that you could have had when you started your course?
Beth: I think for me I would probably say that my biggest piece of advice would be to have a look at as many of your pre-readings as you can before you start your first year. I think the first couple of weeks can be really busy, you’ve got a lot of things going on with fresher’s week, societies and even just the start of your course can be a lot to take on.
And if you do a lot of pre-reading it can just give you some background information of what you maybe will start learning when you first begin your course so maybe it could be theories, if you’re studying in Humanities that’s quite common, and key concepts and ideas that you’ll be focusing on so you’ll maybe be a bit less overwhelmed in the first couple of weeks that you’re here.
Ashleigh: Yeah, I agree with all of that and I think what’s important is to look over all of your handbook and assignments guidelines ahead of time because you can lose silly marks on things like referencing and even just using the wrong font size in your work. So it’s important to come to, just to get to grips with everything before you start doing your work.
Kai: Most degrees, the first year doesn’t contribute to the degree grade but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the first year seriously. You should take this time to figure out how you best study and get some good study habits in place.
Lily: Fab thanks everyone. So, my next question is:
Looking back how did your priorities change from the first few days to the first few weeks? So, when you first settled in and you got here after you got yourself settled, what were the first things that you maybe focused on?
Ashleigh: I think the first few days I found it really important to make friends and that was my main concern. And once I was settled in that regard I started thinking about placement, because on my course my first placement came I think it was about eight weeks into the course which is quite daunting. So just getting prepared for that really became my priority.
Beth: Yeah, I very much agree with Ash. I think for a lot of people the first couple of weeks are very much a social time and if you’re not familiar with the city it’s a good time to kind of get to grips with places that you maybe want to go to or if you have more boring things to do like organising your life because you’re moving to a new place, that kind of happens in the first couple of weeks. I think as you move into your course and you start getting to deadlines and a lot of other things come up you then really have to get good at scheduling your time better so there’s no one saying there’s not more being social with people and can’t enjoy your Uni experience but you have to sort of realise you have to get good at scheduling things in.
So if you’ve got a deadline coming up maybe taking on less social side of things but also if you have society meetings or sport events or any games or anything or kind of scheduling, your time around those. So you can still have a good balance between studying and doing all of your other fun things alongside that as well.
I think subject and also course-specific societies can be good for that because you kind to get to a bit of both. You can meet people on your course from different year groups too so you can kind of get experiences from them and learn from them about things to do and not to do on your course and you can still do things related to your course. But you can kind of meet different people in that way and also have fun doing it as well as also doing stuff related to your course so you’re not completely separating the two things out.
Kai: I think looking back it’s kind of funny that some aspects haven’t really changed over the years.
So, during welcome week and the first week of Uni, I remember booking time off at work. I had two part-time jobs back then and so those first two weeks of university was quite relaxing and it was quite exciting to get back into higher education and figure out how the University works.
And then the weeks after that it was going back to part-time work and to trying to balance studying, socialising and getting money.
But I remember at the end of October I was quite burnt out because of the two part-time jobs so I just decided to drop one of those and that was quite a good decision back then.
Lily: Thanks so much for that. So, moving on, the next question is:
Is there anything you wished you’d have known about or would have been helpful in the first few weeks of Uni?
Ashleigh: So, I think I wish had known that my initial work placement wouldn’t have been so scary. I think I assumed that I needed to know everything, and I was being thrown in the deep end. But the placement educators were very welcoming and understanding of the point that I was at in my course, and they provided me with lots of resources and advice to help me.
I also wish that I knew more about all the support available from the Library. I’d done a degree at this university before, and I definitely never took advantage of all that’s available. So I was struggling and suffering in silence a lot of the time when it came to just getting started with my essays and losing marks just because I didn’t know how to proofread or reference properly.
Beyond that it’s super helpful to get to know about all of the different study spaces available to you. And it’s just about being in a place where you feel comfortable can help with motivation and productivity when it comes to doing your assignments, rather than needing to waste time looking for somewhere to work.
Bethany: I also second Ashleigh saying about study spaces because there’s so many that I didn’t know about when I first started here. Including ones in my own department building for the school of environment education development, we have our own little study spaces, also for postgrads in particular as well. So when exam periods- and the library was really really busy couldn’t get a seat anywhere it was really good to have a place that I could go to that was special for my own department that we could kind of have our own space to do stuff that was really quiet and there was a computer. So yeah definitely check your own subject as well and see if they have their own department study space you can use.
Also as a kind of random piece of advice that I would definitely recommend kind of is familiarising yourself with campus sort of early on. Just because, in my first week that I was here- even my first day when I was here, I got so lost on campus and I would luckily turn up early enough that I didn’t make any- I wasn’t late for any of my classes or anything like that but- I still do recommend just to alleviate some of the stresses of first day of uni, definitely pre-prepare where you’re gonna be.
We also have our interactive uhm map as well of campus so that’s super helpful erm just for finding your away around and it’s got all the buildings you’re gonna need. So definitely check that out online and that helped me a LOT in the first couple of weeks- just being able to locate every place that I needed so I do recommend that
Kai: Uh before my degree, I took a gap year and during that I was in therapy, but that had to be paused because I was getting an Autism assessment so I wish I knew about the My Learning Essentials and Counselling workshops that were available in university so that I did have some support around that period. And… Yeah, I feel- I feel like I’m going to continuously, uh, advocate for those workshops because they’re quite useful and it is quite eye-opening to be on the other side of that as a student team member.
Lily: There’s so much helpful advice there thank you, so the final question I have for you all is:
What questions did you have when you first started University and could you answer them now for the students listening to this podcast
Bethany: I think for me I’d definitely say the things I struggled with the most when I first kind of came to university was the different uhm internet-based services you have to use for your course. So things like blackboard, erm even kind of outlook mail and those sort of things. I’m not super great with tech things anyway so I think kind of adjusting to those things and a lot of people do- there is kind of a lot of assumptions about really having good tech literacy and that’s not always the case for everyone.
So I think definitely there is support available for that, lecturers are really helpful with that, we also do have IT services erm that do sometimes operate within the library as well so they’re able to help you. If you do have issues or kind of concerns about how to use things like that. That’s probably my biggest thing which I know I think that comes with time you do get used to- all these different things you have to use, you have to use them so much so, after a while, it’s really easy to navigate them but I think definitely should you have any issues in the first few weeks — there is support available for that.
And I think also kind of funny thing to reiterate — when I work at open days I always get asked about the weather in Manchester. I always get asked about the rain! And I always get silly questions about “oh does it rain as much as everyone says it does in Manchester?” So another question I also had when I came here too. Um even though it’s raining right now, also it is actually not that bad! I think it rains a fair bit, but you know, Manchester’s a great city, so it doesn’t ruin the fact that it’s a great place to be. And definitely just, you just, you make you get used to it you get you get brollies, you have jackets you can get used to it. It’s not the end of the world (laughs).
Ashleigh: When I first started my course, my head was just buzzing wanting to know everything and anything with the unrealistic belief that I could get ahead with my work. But everything comes in time and information is provided when it was needed. I was worried about timetabling, deadlines, work placements and what would be expected of me on my course. But honestly, although I could probably answer all those questions now, I would just tell myself that everything would come together and it’s easier to take it day-by-day than stress yourself out in the first few weeks.
Kai: Er so I was working part-time throughout my degree. And a lot of those part-time jobs was working in kitchens, which is quite stressful. So I think, I did have questions about what kind of student jobs there were available and er… I- I did look at the SU website, careers website and it looked like they were quite typical waiter or kitchen jobs.
But I think it would have been good to know back then that there are more impactful student jobs that I would have been interested in. Like, erm, in the SU, you’ve got the exec officers or the wellbeing officers who help support other students, and advocate for their voices. You also have association chairs who uh represent specific uh groups of students like Disabled Students or specific ethnicities. And, in the university, we also have ambassadors who also help with welcome events like er open days or help with like outreach events where we go to other schools. And yeah we also have the Library Student Team who help run the workshops, help revise the workshops that we deliver in the library and we have like a wider influence in making sure the wider university use good teaching practices that are supported by our own lived experiences as students.
Lily: Thanks so much for all the tips and advice, everyone! That’s the end of the podcast. We hope it’s been helpful in preparing you all for the start of your time at Manchester. Make sure to also check out the blogs that Beth, Ashley and Kai have written that give some really helpful advice and insight in starting in their studies in their particular faculties.
Ashleigh: Bye!
Beth: Bye everyone!
Kai: Bye!
