My first year at Huddersfield
Hi, I’m Mollie and I have just finished my first year as a Physical Geography student at Huddersfield.
This year has been a big change transitioning from sixth form to university and it didn’t end up quite as planned, so now that I have reached the end of an eventful first year into my new educational journey, I have quite a lot to reflect on.
At the start of the year, I was like any other new student - nervous to start, intrigued about what I may learn and worried about making friends, but once I got introduced to the University everything became much more familiar. The year carried on like I expected it would, with essays, other assignments to complete, as well as field trips. These are crucial as a geography student and gave me the opportunity to explore different parts of the country that I hadn’t previously been to, like Liverpool and Castleton.
One of the best parts about my course has to be the vast number of new things I have learnt, expanding my knowledge of the subject I loved most whilst I was at school and aim to find a career in.
A great thing about my course has to be the support that I have received from my lecturers and course leaders, because, whilst they may have set some challenging assignments, they were always there to provide help and reply to any emails I sent.
Another new experience that I quite enjoyed was going into the labs and doing more science-based geography and having the opportunity to use more sophisticated equipment that wasn’t available when I studied science at school.
So, my first year was going well but then the unexpected happened with the global pandemic of Covid-19, attending university in person came to an abrupt stop. Given the circumstances, I was quite relieved when the announcement was made because commuting on the train had started to cause a certain level of stress and I knew the University would be able to provide good online services, which it did.
The week online learning began, my course was due to visit Blencathra, so this meant I didn’t have any scheduled lectures, and then the three-week Easter break followed. This meant I only had two weeks of lectures until the exam period began, which was also moved online.
During those two weeks we had revision sessions, lectures and personal tutorials delivered to us online. Different methods were used depending on the course or module, some chose to deliver their material via a Zoom meeting whilst others recorded a voiceover and posted them on to Brightspace, our online learning platform, alongside their PowerPoints. The voiceovers were my preferred way of online learning as I was able to complete the sessions when I could fit it around the new responsibilities I had whilst at home all the time.
The online lectures were like a normal lecture without the commute and whilst the virtual personal tutor meeting was strange at first, it went really well. I was still able to discuss any worries I was experiencing - so although the teaching moved online, I still received all the support and guidance I needed, which was great.
I never knew whether I would get to university and there were times when I wondered if I would ever get used to it and fit in, but through determination I did. Whilst it has been an eventful first year at university, I have reached the end and no matter what September brings, I look forward to continuing my studies and working towards my university and career goals.
Read my blog about why I chose Physical Geography.
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