Hello and welcome to this video about
making a decision about university study.
My name is Sophie and if you've listened
to my other video in this Get Started
series, you'll know that I work at Birkbeck
supporting adults who are interested in
coming to university
after a break from education. If you
haven't yet listened to this video
you might want to go back to it at some
point, as it introduces the idea of
university, why you might want to do it and what the
benefits are. So you're thinking about going to
university and perhaps you're watching
this video
because you'd like some help with making
that decision.
This video will look at how to decide on
the course,
the level and the intensity of your
studies,
how you can prepare for learning, where
you can get help from
and some next steps. So we're going to
start off by thinking about how to
choose the course based on the content. This is a very personal decision but
you'll want to make sure that whatever
you choose that the course gets you
excited and that it meets the aims for why you're
going to university. And also you'll need to have a good idea
as to what subjects will be covered
by the course. It sounds really obvious
but to take History as an example, you might be
interested in 20th century European History but have absolutely no
interest in British Medieval History. Make sure if you decide to study
something that the course that you
choose will cover the particular
approach or subjects that you'd like to
explore in more detail.
Whatever you want to study, if the course
you choose doesn't offer the subjects
that you're interested in
you're not going to get very far with it.
So let's think about level now. If you
haven't been to university before,
you'll be going in for undergraduate
study which is the first level at
university. Many universities, including Birkbeck,
offer an undergraduate degree. The most common ones which you might
have already heard of are Bachelor of
Arts
and Bachelor of Science but it will
depend on the subject that you choose.
At Birkbeck we offer a full
undergraduate degree in three to four
years, depending on whether you choose to study
full or part-time. If you don't want to do a full degree we
also offer other options including the Certificate
in Higher Education which is over one to two years, again
depending on if you choose to study full
or part-time.
This is a particularly good option if
you're returning to study after a break
and aren't sure whether you'd actually
like to do a full degree, although if you
do finish the CertHE and then decide you'd like to go on
and study some more that's definitely an
option.
The next thing to think about is how
long you actually want to spend studying.
The intensity of the course, that's if
you choose to study full or part-time,
will determine how many days a week
you'll be attending your classes and
also how much time you'll need to spend
studying in between.
It will also affect the total length of
time that you'll be studying the course
for altogether. What you choose will depend on how
intensively you want to study,
but also what your daytime, work, family
and other personal commitments are. You need to take into account the time
commitment for attending classes as well as
undertaking study at home,
in the library, preparing for classes and
following up afterwards. Each class will have required and
additional reading and most lecturers
give a breakdown of readings in advance
of each class. Everyone is different and the study time
required varies topic by topic
and subject by subject as a guide you
should expect to schedule
two hours of self-study for each hour of
face-to-face teaching
in class. So the next thing you'll need
to think about, when it comes to studying at university,
is how you actually want to do it and
what way will work best for you.
Mostly at university, the teaching and
learning is a combination of lectures,
which are a big group where the teacher
presents slides and invites questions,
and seminars, which are smaller groups
where you'll discuss readings you've
been set in advance relating to the topic from the lecture.
You might have to write essays,
do group projects and presentations,
experiments or field trips and
excursions, depending on the subject
you're doing. Some courses even have the opportunity
to travel abroad. Again, make sure the course that you
choose is going to be taught and
assessed in the way that is right for
you. Some universities offer online or
distance learning and others do the majority of their
teaching face-to-face. At Birkbeck, all our courses are in the
evening which leaves you free for work
and other responsibilities during the day.
You can find all the information on the
different courses we offer at Birkbeck
on our website. It's fair to say that learning at
university is more independent
and you'll have lots of self-study to do
but there's plenty of resources available
and there's also your coursemates if
you want to start a study group with them.
At Birkbeck we have lots of courses
which don't require
any previous qualifications and many
students come to us after years of not
stepping foot in a classroom.
If that's where you are a really good
place to start is to take
part in some free learning activities to
help you find out what you're interested in,
and to be really sure you'd want to
spend time and money studying that
subject at a higher level.
Plus, you will have to write about your
subject in your personal statement when
you apply for the course, so it will set you up to know what to
expect and give you some examples to
have up your sleeve.
I should just stress again you are not
expected to have all of the knowledge
and skills before you start. That will come gradually over the course
of your studies. I'm just talking about finding some
tasters to get you going.
And there are lots of things which can
get you into that learning mindset. You might develop your interest in your
chosen subject through TED talks,
Future Learn, online activities at Birkbeck,
or podcasts. There's plenty of free
learning available through museums,
cultural organisations and trade unions
and the TUC. You could also read books and articles
on the subject you're interested in studying
and your local library may even have
activities available
online. So once you've found that subject
which gets you really excited,
what next? So if that course is here at
Birkbeck and you want to know more about
studying here, you can find lots of upcoming online
events and also use our Unibuddy service to
speak to current students at Birkbeck
about what it's like to study here.
It's also a good idea to think about
what factors might make studying at
university tricky for you. You can identify support using a website
called My Study My Way. If you're thinking you'd like
to go ahead and make an application to
Birkbeck,
then we've got a video to help you with
writing a personal statement
and with making an application to the
course. There's lots of other support
available and you can visit Birkbeck's website for
information on getting support with a
disability,
well-being issues, some study skills
advice and how to get further assistance
regarding your finances prior to study. We recommend getting all the help and
assistance that you need well in advance
of your course starting time
so that it's all in place ready for when
you start. Finally, if you do come to
study here at Birkbeck, we run a mentoring scheme which pairs up
first-year students with a student
who is further along into their course.
So that's the end of this presentation
but before I go I want to leave you with
some more things to think about on your
own.
I would encourage you to think about
what you need to do
now, if there's any further help that you
need before you start and
where you can get this from. If you have
any questions, you can email us
on getstarted@bbk.ac.uk and you can
watch this video as many times as you
like, if there's anything you'd like to go
back to. If you like, you could write down up to three next
steps that you'll take away from this
video,
and if you've got any questions at all
just give us a shout!
