A very exciting phase in your life is about to start – new teachers, new classmates, new things to study about your chosen subject. If you’re away from home for the first time, you need to work out new strategies to get yourself up on time without the person or pet that used to perform that function. You’ll discover, sadly, that the washing fairy who used to transform piles of discarded clothes into sweet-smelling, smoothly ironed wearable articles is a myth – or didn’t accompany you to your new address. You’ll learn a
lot about yourself. You might turn out to be a highly talented omelette maker, write the best essay on fluoridisation and freedom in your study group or score a hat trick at hockey, a sport you never played at school.
Some things you can do nothing about, like not growing another six inches if it’s not in your genes. However, there are plenty of things you can improve by developing strategies and planning, and the good thing about planning is that it doesn’t take very long. You can do it in small doses, and it can make a big difference. In addition, planning will save time so that you can have more fun, and some planning will itself be fun and certainly a lot more interesting than watching paint dry. Knowing how to do things – having good study skills – is just as important as knowing what’s what
Getting to Grips with Student Life Basics
When you arrive at your college, you will normally be given a student information pack which will include:
General information about student life at your particular university or college, such as:
A campus map
Significant term dates
Information about the library
Details of shopping and banking facilities
An introduction to the sports centre
All you need to know about the health centre
Information on campus safety and security
A guide to the Students Union
General academic rules and regulations relating to exams, handing in work late, and plagiarism
A lot of the information is useful to consult as the need arises, so keep it safe. In study terms, your timetable for the term is your road map showing how much of your time is structured by the formal elements of your couse. The weekly elements consist of timetabled classes, ranging from wholly taught lecture courses and seminars (which probably include contributions from class members) to workshops and laboratory work, which may take the form of supervised group or individual work. Each class will be allocated a particular room and tutor. If you are lucky, your weekly timetable may be set out for you by your subject office. If not, the school office will give you the code numbers for the classes you have to attend so that you can find the time, place and tutor from the overall room allocations timetable, normally available in the reception area of most campus buildings or with the porters.
Finding your way around
The academic department in which you study may be part of a school or a faculty, depending on which is the preferred term in your university. The school (faculty) or department office will supply you with a blank timetable so that you can fill in your classes and don’t need to carry all the room bookings information round with you
You also need the campus map (ask the school (faculty) or department office for one if you aren’t given one). This should at least give you the building names or numbers, if not the room numbers. Room numbers are usually allocated like for hotel rooms – 102 means first floor room 2, and 210 second floor room, though this may vary. Lecture theatres usually have a name or code to indicate what they are and seminar rooms may just have a building code or name and number. See Chapters 5 and 6 for more on lectures and seminars
Take your timetable and campus map and spend an hour or so finding all the rooms you will use or visit using the checklist which follows this paragraph as a guide. The teaching rooms can be in different buildings and some distance from your subject home base area, so note the loos and cafes in passing. There is normally a ten minute gap between classes, so knowing where you have to get to when you have one class immediately after another will tell you if there is only time for a loo break, not a coffee break.
Checking out who’s who
When you have found each tutor’s office, check the important information pinned to the door: the time of their office hour and the name of the person who provides their secretarial or administrative support, each with their internal phone numbers and email addresses. This is important informa tion to get in contact or leave a message at short notice, if you are ill or get held up. The teaching staff will be out of their rooms teaching for much of the time, so messages are best left with or at least copied to their secretary, probably working in the school office or nearby. Tutor’s office hours are a guaranteed time when tutors will be in their offices and available to students. Find out more about what tutors do in Chapter 2
Although appointments may not be necessary, it’s worth either suggesting a time to call within the office hours (by email or internal phone) in case the tutor is expecting other students. That way, you don’t have to wait around. If you can’t do that, get there a bit early to be first in line. Your time is just a valuable as your tutor’s and an extra half hour in the library might be more useful than waiting outside a door.
Take a book to read just in case you have to wait.
When you have found the teaching rooms, your various subject tutors’ offices, their office hours, phone numbers and email addresses, the phone numbers and email addresses of those who deal with their administration, where their offices are located (they might be some distance away from the tutor’s) make yourself a ‘Who’s Who to keep with your class timetable as shown in Figure 1-1. The information on Tutors’ doors tends to be the most up to date. Check again at the beginning of the next term in case office hours have changed.
You will note that two tutors who teach you can have office hours at the same time and you may have a lecture at the time of an office hour. However, students are not expected to contact tutors on a regular basis and office hours are arranged for when a tutor is not teaching. If you have a bigger or on-going problem, you should probably contact your year or personal tutor, if you have one. It may also be possible to arrange a different meeting time with a tutor
Other important locations
You probably went on a campus visit, either when you visited to find out if the college was for you or not, or perhaps during Freshers’ week – the first week of the first term of the university year. If you haven’t been on a tour of the library already, sign up for one at the reception desk. You will be shown where the books and journals in your subject area are located, how to reserve books, use the interlibrary loan system, (a system which allows you to borrow books from other university libraries if your university library doesn’t have a copy available) and how to find out whether books you want are held by the library, on loan or available, and what library information you can access on line. In short, all the practical information you need to start borrowing. Check the library opening times
Find out the location of the open access computers on campus. Some might be set up with special facilities or programmes for drawing technical dia grams or learning languages and will normally have a resident technician to help with any hitches. Check when the technician is available. The computer laboratory will normally be open outside their working hours. Check Chapter 4 for more detail on ICT skills
The Student Union bar will normally be the cheapest place to buy alcohol. Bars with names which include ‘Senior’ or are in research unit buildings are often aimed at staff or older students and will be more expensive. The same is true of cafes – the Union café will be cheaper. However, prices on campus are generally relatively low and slightly more expensive cafes often provide a range of daily newspapers to peruse while you sip your coffee. Campus newspapers – official and student – should also be available. (You can often buy at least one ‘quality’ newspaper like the Guardian, Times. Independent, Telegraph, Financial Times very cheaply on campus for as little as 10p.)
The Student Health Centre will have doctors on campus and may also pro vide dentists and opticians as well as a counselling service. There is often also a dispensary or chemist shop. It’s a good idea to register with the health professionals on campus if you can, as they will have a good idea of your overall health profile. In addition, you may find there is a sick bay for on campus nursing if you are too ill to look after yourself where you can get plenty of TLC, and there will be First Aiders in all buildings. At the entrance to each building there is normally a notice telling you where the First Aid post in the building is and the name of the First Aider, usually next to the Fire regulations.
Behaviour and Etiquette
The rules of academic engagement between students and tutors normally mean that professors (the highest level of university teacher, with an interna tional reputation) or deans (the heads of the faculties or schools have their phones more or less permanently switched through to their secretaries, who usually have an office adjacent to that of the academic in question. You might be lucky and get through to them directly if they teach you and you have a query related to your course, but you normally have to go through their sec retaries. This is very positive for you, as a secretary is much more likely to get you any general information that you need. If you want something from the horse’s mouth, you’ll probably have to make an appointment. This might take a while if the professor you want to speak to is about to leave on a trip to the swamps of central Africa. Senior staff are generally a bit more distant than tutors, lecturers, senior tutors (the next level up from tutor/ lecturer) or readers (the level below professor) because of the range of tasks they carry out within a tight schedule.
If you phone a tutor/lecturer, senior tutor or even a reader who teaches you they are quite likely to answer their phone. It is normally switched through to their secretaries only when they are teaching or not in the university. A tutor may answer the phone even if they are taking a tutorial in their room. If they do answer, you should ask if they’re busy. They will probably ask you to ring back later at a fairly precise time if they are teaching (because their time is quite tightly allocated) or offer to ring you. You can always check their timetable with their secretary so that you don’t disturb them when they’re teaching. Secretaries (sometimes called administration staff) always know timetables, although certain maverick tutors will go walkabout at other times without telling their secretaries where they’ve gone. Most administrative staff can provide the information you need, so its always worth asking them first. The Vice Chancellor, the administrative head of the university, usually welcomes new students at the start of term (there may even be drinks and nibbles). Some have an ‘open door’ policy and keep an office hour for stu dents or have general receptions with students once or twice a year so that you can speak to them. They also take a keen interest in the feedback from students – in most cases, you fill in a questionnaire at the end of each course of study with your impressions and suggestions. Check out Chapter 2 for more on tutors and what they do
Departmental culture
Every department within an institution has its own culture. In some, you will find students, tutors, even professors, and administrative staff sitting together and chatting informally in the department cafe. Tutors may thus be very approachable, especially if they are creatures of habit and tend to be in the same place at the same time on a regular basis. Other places may be more formal – or the offices of the various department members may not be close together, so they can’t so easily be found outside their offices or teach ing time. In this case, the more formal structure through the administrative staff will help you get hold of who you need.
Generally speaking, the administrative staff keep all the records, rules and regulations and are at the forefront of organising the marks, timetables and other data for your course. They will also probably have copies of any hand outs or lecture notes you missed, as well as copies of previous exams. They may even have sample copies of old exam answers. See Chapters 17 to 19 for more on how to survive – even enjoy – exams.
If you need any help with any of the day to day running of the course, course papers and so forth, then the school office for your subject area should be your first port of call. Make friends with all the people in the school office and make sure you know who the ones on your list are, in particular the sec retaries to your tutors. These people are likely to be able to find out most of things you need to know and can save you (as is their job) from bothering a tutor about something the tutor can’t help you with anyway. This saves you time. Departmental staff can usually suggest the best person to ask if they don’t know the answer themselves. They are generally the calm in the middle of the storm, keeping the ship on course
Administrative staff tend to go home quite early or may work staggered hours. They may not work every day, so be careful to note their work times on your ‘Who’s Who’ list so that you know when as well as where to find them
Sorting out problems
Once you have sorted out your weekly timetable – rooms, times and tutors with their associated administrative help and know where to find people – there may be a problems concerning the formal requirements of your course. Again, try the school office or administrative staff first as it is likely to be a problem they’ve come across before. If they don’t have a solution, they will know who to ask. If it’s a strictly academic (rather than organisational) ques tion, then you might try the year tutor. The sort of issue you might encounter includes
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