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Starting university is one of the biggest transitions many people will ever make and whilst there’s no shortage of advice out there, much of it caters towards a single ‘type’ of student experience that doesn’t reflect everyone’s reality. In this series, we explore how the transition to university can look very different depending on who you are, where you come from, and what you’re carrying with you, and what can be done to provide more meaningful support.
Transcript Podcast 3:
Maisie Greening:
University is perhaps one of the biggest transitions a person could make, and comes loaded with expectations, excitement, independence, possibility, but also uncertainty, pressure, and a whole load of questions. Online, there is no shortage of advice. There's endless checklists, what I wish I knew videos, move-in vlogs, and tips for surviving that first week. Universities themselves also offer induction events aiming to ease students into the university life. However, this advice only often speaks to one type of student, the school leaver, embarking on what feels like a natural next step, yet for so many students, there's simply not their story. Transitioning to university can look very different depending on where you're starting from. If you're an international student, you transition not only to a new education system but an entirely new country with its norms and languages. If you attended state school or you're the first in your family to go to university, you may be adjusting to unfamiliar places and situations, and as mature students, you may be balancing external responsibilities with studying, making that transition that bit harder. So, whether you're about to start university, you're in the middle of figuring out, or you're just curious about how people adapt to these big life changes, join me as I explore how transition to university can be improved for everyone.
Hello, and welcome to the third episode of Navigating University with PALS. So far in this series, we've spoken to staff about some of the most challenging aspects of transitioning to university in general, and explored how these transitions can be even more complicated for international students. In this third episode, we're focusing on another group of students who are often underrepresented in conversations about university life; commuter students and mature students. For many commuter students, university life means balancing the demands of academic studies with long daily commutes, all whilst continuing to live at home. Similarly, many mature students often enter university balancing existing personal, professional, or family commitments. To start off this episode, I first spoke to Anna, a first-year PALS student who commutes from home into university, and she began by telling me what she has enjoyed most so far about coming to UCL.
Anna-Maria Vatavu:
I really enjoyed getting to be taught by professors who are so passionate and like enthusiastic about their lessons.
Maisie Greening:
I also spoke to Adrijus, a second-year PALS student who also commutes from home, and he also begun by telling me his favourite thing about studying at UCL so far.
Adrijus Kvederavicius:
I think my favourite aspect is to do with the actual course integration, the way linguistics and psychology is tied in. I mean, they're similar, they focus on some similar cognitive processes, but at the same time, individually, the modules, at least from the name or from, like, general overview, seem quite different. For example, I don't know, speech science, and then social psychology, but there are many philosophical and actual scientific methodologies that kind of tie in together. So, you'll hear something, you know, like, "Oh, yeah, I know this, or "I learned this before in this module, and it's kind of cohesive in that manner, but also just kind of like being able to immerse yourself fully in what you were already previously passionate, interested in.
Maisie Greening:
We then moved on to chatting about some of the more challenging aspects of attending university as a commuter student. Here's Anna.
Anna-Maria Vatavu:
I think, well, something that was quite challenging was just like the change, like the strain on my body at the start of term, having to get used to like the new timetable, and coming in and just like lessons, like lectures being later in the day. I think that was quite challenging, like it took a while to get used to. I was getting home very exhausted at the beginning of term.
Maisie Greening:
Adrijus also pointed out that whilst he was already living in London, the area surrounding UCL was still unfamiliar to him, and so he faced many of the same challenges in navigating campus and finding lecture halls as students that were not commuting, but he also told me that commuting did bring with it some challenges which he had not considered before coming to university.
Adrijus Kvederavicius:
when you're with your friends or something, and it's in between lectures, or after a lecture, and you just want to have a chat, get a go to a cafe, get a cup of tea, or cup of coffee, you don't even really think about, you're just like, yeah, that sounds wonderful, I'd like to go, and you end up, without really thinking about it too much, spending more than you would have probably preferred to, and I definitely found that I find myself doing that quite a lot.
Maisie Greening:
Anna also explained to me the impact she felt commuting has had on her experience of the social side of university.
Anna-Maria Vatavu:
I do often like just pass on certain activities just because I don't want to get home later, especially if I've got 9am the next day.
Maisie Greening:
Despite these challenges, Anna told me that commuting had affected her ability to make friends much less than she had expected, and that the events organized by Pals had played a big role in helping with this.
Anna-Maria Vatavu:
I think PALS have done quite a few socials, like earlier in the day or in the afternoon, and they're really helpful, especially when they're like right after a lecture, or sometimes you've got really big gaps, and that I really conveniently placed there, yeah, so that's really helpful. So, if that continues, I think it would help anyone who's commuting.
Maisie Greening:
From talking to both Anna and Adrijus it seems that whilst commuting does mean they must think slightly more about how they spend their time, adjusting to university as a commuter student has been easier than they both expected. But commuter students are not the only students who balance external responsibilities with university. To explore how transitioning to university is different as mature students. I spoke to Anushka.
Anushka Sorcher:
So, my name is Anushka. I'm a mature student on PALS. I'm in my second year now, and yeah, I call myself an extra mature student because I'm in my 30s. I know that I think anyone over 21 is considered a mature student. That's why I'm an extra mature one.
Maisie Greening:
I started by asking Anushka what made her want to come to UCL to study PALS.
Anushka Sorcher:
So, I've always enjoyed languages, and, like, I learned a couple in back in school, and obviously I live abroad now, and speak English kind of as my main language, even though it's not my first language, and I've just always enjoyed that, and I looked at kind of the different, the different modules, and it just sounded all really interesting, and, and, yeah, so I thought, okay, I wanted to change careers, like, why not go to uni, why not apply? I applied like a week before the deadline, because it was a very spontaneous decision, yeah. Then I got an offer, and I was obviously really happy.
Maisie Greening:
We also talked about what she's enjoyed the most about coming back to academia.
Anushka Sorcher:
I think just getting back into learning, because I've been out of school obviously for quite, quite a long time. I did my A levels back in in Germany, which is about 16 years ago, so it was just really nice to like to like learn something again. So I've just really enjoyed being in the lectures and learning new things.
Maisie Greening:
I then asked Anushka what she's found to be the most challenging part of returning to academia.
Anushka Sorcher:
So I think the most challenging thing is that I have two kids that are still quite young, so my oldest is only five and my youngest is two, and just balancing that with kind of finding enough time to study, to do your reading, to, you know, to even attend lectures is probably the most challenging thing. I feel like as much as I want to procrastinate here and there, I don't think I have the time, so everything is really, yeah, I need to make use of all the time I have to be sure I get everything done, because, yeah, like when my kids are around, there's just no chance to sit down and have five minutes to yourself.
Maisie Greening:
We spoke some more about some challenges that come up when trying to balance a family life with university.
Anushka Sorcher:
So I do the school drop off in the morning, and then depends on when the first lectures will be. I didn't have anything too early, so often I'd have a brief amount of time to tidy up at home, then get on the bike, cycle in, do my lectures, and then, yeah, at sort of 10 to three, or whenever they finish, jump back on the bike, cycle back out as quickly as I can, pick them up, and then, then it's like, well, then it's their time, so you know, I'll take them to the park, or whatever, until you know it goes back to back until bedtime, no breather in any way, and then after bedtime clean up, and then see if I've got any energy left to do any reading, which is hard at 10 o'clock, because yeah, it's up by then it's often sort of 10pm and sometimes the TV wins, but sometimes reading wins.
Maisie Greening:
We then moved on from talking about the academic side of university to the social side of university.
Anushka Sorcher:
Yeah, I haven't really gotten involved too much, because a) the age gap is really big, so it's, it, you're just in really different, you know, at a really different point in your life, like, I mean, I remember being 18, 19, and you just, you just change a lot throughout your 20s, and then when you have kids, it's just, it's just a whole different world. So, yeah, and obviously I've got my friends like here, so I didn't feel like, oh, I'm going to uni to make friends, like I'm getting there to learn and to get a degree, so yeah, I've not really hung out with anyone. I did join the Mature Students Network, and they do meet up, but like, even that is challenging because I have to pick up my kids, like I can't come to the pub for the same exact problem, like for the same exact reason that I can't hang out with with anyone else at, like, five, other than other, like, mums that you know, where our kids can play, and, yeah, no, so there's obviously people I like, I'll chat to if I'm on campus and I see them, that wouldn't say that I've made like close friends with anyone, but yeah, I wasn't, I wasn't looking for that either, so.
Maisie Greening:
From speaking to Anna Adrias and Anoushka, it seems clear that both commuting and returning to education as a mature student can bring extra pressures and challenges, but their experience also showed that these can be overcome, especially when universities make student life more accessible by putting on events during the day or holding other flexible opportunities to get involved.
Thanks so much for listening to the third episode of Navigating University with PALS. In the next episode, we'll be exploring another major transition in student life, the move from university into the wider world. I'll be talking to some alumni from the PALS program about how they navigated that transition and the challenges and opportunities that came with it. If you'd like to contribute to the conversation in any way, please send me a message at maisie.greening.23@ucl.ac.uk. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time!