Podcast: Alternative Freshers Guide
By the Library Student Team
This is part of ‘Life at University’. In this podcast, Iqra and Lily from the Library Student Team discuss their experiences as students, some of which you might not hear so much about, including living at home, not drinking, juggling part-time work, and how your relationships with friends and family may change. Last updated: July 2024.
TRANSCRIPT
Introduction
Iqra: Hi I’m Iqra and I’ve studied speech and language therapy at the University of Manchester and I’m about to graduate.
Lily: Hi, I’m Lily. And I’m studying history, and both of us are members of the Library’s Student Team.
Iqra: So what we’re talking about today is our alternative freshers guide. So we’re discussing the aspects of our uni experience that isn’t talked about as much because we’re students that didn’t fit the conventional mould.
Living at home
Lily: So firstly, we are both living at home students who never moved out when we started uni. You might hear a lot about moving into halls when you start uni, but we just want to reassure you that this isn’t for everyone, and we still had a really great experience staying at home.
Iqra: Yeah, we definitely did. In terms of travel, you will have to get used to commuting, for some students be really long, but at the university we do offer living at home spaces on campus, which is just a place for students to chill out that travel to uni. And there are also lots of societies to get involved in, which are a great way to make friends without having to have moved out.
Lily: I think that idea of meeting people, and missing out on that was something that we definitely struggled with when we were starting, thinking you kind of miss out by not being in the halls.
But we would also like to reassure you that, you know, you can meet so many great people on campus even if you don’t live in halls, you might meet people in your course or you can get involved in other things on campus. Like societies and also uni programmes, or part-time work and that’s how we met and now we’re really, really good friends and we would have never come across each other without getting involved in that kind of thing.
Iqra: Definitely, especially because our courses are so different.
Lily: Exactly.
Not drinking
Iqra: Me and Lily both happen to be students that don’t drink for different reasons. So for me, it’s my religious choice.
Lily: And I personally, just don’t drink out of personal preference.
Iqra: Yeah. So basically what we’re saying is, regardless of what your reasoning is, number one, you don’t have to have a reason, but regardless of that reason, it’s OK not to.
But when you come to university, a lot of the welcome week and the freshers events can really be centred around night outs, clubbing, alcohol and if you don’t fit that lifestyle, you can feel really excluded.
Lily: I think even if you can be around alcohol, or you do drink, that might not be the only way that you want to socialise. So that also can feel a bit overwhelming, that it feels like that might be the only way to meet people, but that’s definitely not the case at all with so many other options available in welcome week to sort of get out there and get involved.
Iqra: Yeah, definitely and to bring it back to Manchester itself, the uni, offers so much. Like we mentioned, societies, volunteering even, like, well-being events. But then if we just consider Manchester as a whole, the city itself, there’s honestly so much to do, absolutely loads.
So I really enjoy escape rooms, going to the cinema, finding like really cute cafes, restaurants, there’s so much to do. You just need the right group of people to explore it, but sometimes you can just go alone like, that’s fine too. But there’s definitely so much more on offer than just these alcohol-centred events.
Juggling time commitments
Lily: A stereotypical idea about uni students is that you have a few hours of lectures but then do nothing for the rest of the week and have loads of free time.
While some courses do have a lot of time for independent study, and that was definitely my experience in history where you have a lot of time to work independently and read and work on assignments outside of lectures, this doesn’t mean that everyone has the same workload or the same demands on their time.
So a lot of people could be studying at uni whilst having family commitments that they have to manage, but another big one is working part time. So this is something that we’ve both juggled as we’ve been doing our studies and we wanted to reassure you that if you’re someone that was thinking of taking a part time job when you start in September, that you definitely will not be the only one in that boat.
So many other people will be doing a variety of part time jobs during their time at uni. This is completely normal and you don’t have to feel like you’ll be missing out and by doing this: it can actually mean that you meet so many new people and get so many more experiences and it really enhances your time at uni. So you won’t be alone in that.
Iqra: Definitely. Yeah. I feel like my part time job was almost like a relief from my uni work, it definitely gave me a lot of peace and it sort of brought me away from my work because if not, I felt like I would’ve just sat on my laptop for hours and tried to work.
To consider something a bit more specific, I do want to touch on placements because that’s something I experienced and you might experience that as well. Even having a bit more demanding hours, so if you’re required to go into labs, that’s definitely taken away from the conventional traditional university experience.
From my placement, it was really overwhelming. I mean, it was a nine-to-five that I wasn’t paid for. You know, you can be away from campus for a long period of time and you have to sort of adjust to a new city.
But, that in itself it can be demanding, but there’s so much positive that comes from a placement, so you get the experience of working in the career you want to go into, so there’s definitely nothing more valuable in terms of building your career.
So for me, as a speech and language therapy student, I was able to go on placement in a special needs school and actually help give children communication devices which was so rewarding for them, for their family, but also for me. So it was definitely something that like, I’m so happy I got to experience and it was life-changing really.
Relationships
Iqra: An aspect of starting uni that isn’t talked about much is the potential for family or relationship dynamics to change. So this could relate to moving away and not seeing your family as much, especially if they live in a different country to you. But for us living at home, the relationship can still be different, especially if you’re the first in your family to go to uni.
Not everyone’s family has a history of going to university, so this could be a completely new experience. Everyone definitely isn’t from a privileged, wealthy background, and that’s really evident in the student body at university.
Lily: And this doesn’t mean that just because you come from a family where there’s no history of going to uni, that your family aren’t supportive. In my case it probably means that they may be even more so, because they didn’t have that experience themselves and they are so proud of you for even having the achievement of getting to uni, and are even more interested in what you’re doing.
But I think this kind of new experience could also be evident when you think about existing friendship groups. Especially if your friends are taking different paths to you and you’re now both having this very different lived experience and that can feel quite overwhelming and maybe that you can’t really relate because they understand what you’re going through.
However, I think we both agree that that isn’t a negative. You know, you don’t have to lose these existing friendships and relationships, and it’s actually so great that you know that you can keep your friends in your home life, especially in a case where you live at home and you’re in the exact same environment.
So you know, you can still keep your friends in your home life, and you’ve also got this opportunity to make so many new friends and connections whilst you’re at uni at the same time kind of carrying on your existing relationships and kind of actually just enhancing what you already have.
Summary
Iqra: These are just a few areas of our unique uni experience. Everyone’s experience is different and some of these things might apply to you, more than others.
Lily: However, the key thing is that, regardless of your experience, you deserve to enjoy your time at Manchester as much as possible, the same way that we did, once we realised how to make the most of it.
Iqra: We hope you’re excited to start in Manchester, however, you may be getting here and wherever you may be staying.
Thank you so much for listening. We hope this has been helpful. Good luck with starting in September!
