First year Education student, Bethany, shares with us what a typical week currently looks like for her at The University of Manchester. With online learning taking over the current academic year, gain an insight into what it’s been like for our students. 

Online lectures

I have been quite lucky so far in terms of my timetable as I haven’t been given any 9am lectures, which has been a real blessing! Often, a typical day in my life starts off at 10am with my lectures and they usually last approximately 1-2 hours. Personally, I quite like the time they are because it means that I have the rest of the day to either do work or spend time with my friends.

Since everything is online, it has been quite strange to get used to university life. However, I have developed my independence in this unique way of learning. Within the lectures, we are often split into breakout rooms, in groups of four or five, which allows us to discuss the contents of the lecture without having to speak in front of a large group, which can be quite daunting.

Staying on top of things

When I have finished my lectures for the day, I often try to do work or reading that I might have due for the next couple of days. I often find it useful to try and complete work as soon as I can instead of leaving it till last minute, as it is less stressful. Once a week, normally on a Wednesday, I go to Lidl for my weekly food shop. During lockdown, this has become quite an exciting outing as there’s not much else to do!

Making time to relax and socialise

In the evenings, it’s nice to sit and eat my dinner and watch some TV in the kitchen with my flatmates. Even though lockdown has restricted us, we have managed to fill our time in by having movie nights or nights in playing card games. I cannot recommend enough how much of a great idea it is to bring a deck of cards or other games with you when you come to university. It was such a good ice breaker for us when we first moved in!

It is also important to make sure that you don’t stress yourself out and become too anxious over your work, and there is lots of support available if you need it. I think it is important to give myself a day off from work, where I do my laundry and cleaning. It’s a good idea to set aside a day to get these jobs done, otherwise you’ll find yourself panicking because you’ve run out of clean socks! Also, my friends and I often treat ourselves to a takeaway once a week, if we’ve budgeted our money well!

Virtual societies

There’s lots of virtual activities that you can get involved in, such as societies or finding out more information about things to do in Manchester. I would recommend the 50 things to do in 50 days on The University of Manchester website. I have had fun finding out about the wide variety of things available to get involved in, and I look forward to being able to do even more of these things once lockdown lifts.

I hope I have helped you to understand more of what it’s like to be a student here at Manchester. If you have any questions, feel free to get in contact with me and I would be happy to help.

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