Helping to make starting uni a positive experience
Starting university can be an exciting and transformative experience. It's a time of new beginnings, where you'll have the opportunity to explore new ideas, make new friends, and develop new skills.
However, it can also be a time of uncertainty and challenges, as you navigate the academic, social, and personal demands of university life. With so much to adjust to, it's important to be prepared and have the right resources and support in place to help you succeed.
Our website provides a wealth of information and resources to help you make the most of your university experience, from advice on academic success to tips for maintaining a healthy work-life balance. We also offer resources for mental health support, as well as ways to get involved in clubs, societies, and extracurricular activities.
Starting university is an exciting time, and with the right preparation and support, it can be a fulfilling and enriching experience that sets the foundation for a bright future.
Websites Offering Support:
Student Minds
provides resources to empower students and members of the university community to develop the knowledge, confidence and skills to look after their own mental health, support others and create change. They train students and staff in universities across the UK to deliver student-led peer support interventions as well as research-driven campaigns and workshops. They want to transform the state of student mental health so that all in higher education can thrive.
Books on this subject:
A Guide to Uni Life
The one stop guide to what university (uni) is REALLY like
This book looks at how to juggle study, having fun and avoiding money troubles at uni. Its written by someone who has lived through the uni experience and wants to share their tips.
Help! I’m Confused about Credit and Debt
Money issues are among the toughest areas of life today. Society is continually bombarding us with the latest must have item, while the lowest estimate for UK household debt is over £8,000 (not including mortgages!). The debt trap causes hugestress, humiliation and anguish, and can destroy people s lives. This booklet examines these issues from a biblical viewpoint and offers practical guidance for steering a safe course through the financial maze, including a special word for students.
NOSH for Students: A Fun Student Cookbook
Now with a FREE APP to help you create meal plans and shopping list in seconds!!
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This is the 5th edition of NOSH for Students, a book originally inspired by the author’s son, Ben, who left for university with no cooking skills. Toasted sandwiches and Mars bars were his staple diet, but these didn’t serve him too well! What was needed to encourage him to cook was an easily attainable taste of home, oh, and pictures with every recipe! Nosh for Students was born. Since then, Joy has helped over 400,000 students get cooking with her straightforward and simple approach. Joy helps to take the chore out of cooking, giving students a taste of success and making the experience so much fun.
Starting University: What to Expect, How to Prepare, Go and Enjoy
Packed full of helpful advice, hints and links, the book includes:
- What to expect when they start university – what life as a student will actually look like and how to settle in – from student accommodation and Freshers’ Week to making friends and study skills
- Money: how much they’re likely to have, where it comes from, where it goes and – crucially – how to get more of it. Also, how to budget and what happens when it comes to paying off their loans
- If they’re living away from home, helpful advice on living without their parents e.g. how to do laundry, how to cook five easy meals, how to shop savvy
- How to keep themselves and their belongings safe at university
- Wellbeing advice: from friendships and relationships to new student blues and getting professional help if things become more serious
- Actions students can – and should – take throughout the year prior to starting university e.g. how to apply for university in the UK and the key dates concerning the university admission process, applying for student finance and a student bank account, applying for student accommodation – and how to maximise their chances of finding the right place to live
- Comprehensive lists of things they’ll need
- And a useful chapter for their parents
Student Survival Guide: What to expect and how to handle it – insider advice on university life
Lucy Clarke and Jenny Hawkins, both current students at Cardiff University, have written this guide to university life encompassing study, the social scene, accommodation and making the best of university. They cover issues from the chaos of Fresher’s week and difficult landlords, to sex and social life, the stress of finals and beyond. Recipes and a university dictionary are also included.
Uni Lifehacks: Insights From The UK’s Most Successful Students
University is supposed to be the best years of your life. However, ‘a third of graduates regret their decision to go’ according to a recent study. Why? – 70% of students live in their overdraft. – The average fresher gains 10lbs of weight in their first year. – More than half don’t know how to cook vegetables. – 20% will fail to finish their degree. – 18,000 graduates are still unemployed after six months. (Higher Education Statistics) Uni Lifehacks teaches you how to succeed at university – from the people who have been there and done it. Uni Lifehacks combines over one hundred student lifehacks and the best scientific research for success at university. The book features over 50 of the UK’s most successful students, including: – Student entrepreneurs who have founded successful companies (including a first-year student who raised £100,000 through Crowdfunder in 24 hours) – Student athletes who have competed on the global stage (including an Olympic Gold medal winner, and a Nike athlete preparing for Tokyo 2020) – Student artists and musicians who have built huge followings (including a magician who performed at Nelson Mandela’s birthday party and the writer behind a novel called “The Catcher in the Rye for the digital age” by The Times ) – Student campaigners who have raised thousands of pounds for charity (including a fundraiser who completed an ultra marathon in the Sahara desert with a broken leg and a student who beat cancer for the third time in the fresher year of his degree) From this book you will learn: – How to understand any degree topic using the technique of a Nobel Prize winning physicist – How to cook easy and delicious meals (recipes from viral sensations Mob Kitchen) – How to reduce exam stress through scientifically backed techniques – How to never have a washing up argument with your flat mates – How to get rid of pesky spots in 48 hours – How to avoid up to 12-24lbs of weight gain from switching drinks – How to save thousands of pounds by leaving one item at home on a night out – How to hack a hangover and make it to a 9AM lecture.
University Life: Making it Work for You
‘Hello and welcome to the start of your university life. I’m Lauren and I wrote this book as a student. Now that uni is more expensive than ever it’s essential to have a guide that’ll help you through sticky situations, learn how to study well and have fun at the same time – because I think we should be getting the most we can for our money. Hope you enjoy reading it and starting your new life as a student!’
Videos on this subject:
Please come back later for more resources.