Written by: Moseza Putri
Every university day is different as it depends on the timetable that week. However, this is how a typical day looks like for a final year Business Management student.
I have found Thursdays to be the busiest, it has three classes that are spaced throughout the day. On other programmes, students have four to five back-to-back classes which is similar to what you would experience in your second year. This is because the time you spend in class reduces over the years as more independent study is expected.
Read below to see a day in the life with me at Newcastle University Business School (NUBS).
I wake up at 7.30am to have an early start and get ready for the day. The first class, BUS3035 – Contemporary Issues in International and Comparative Business, starts at 9:30am. Pre-lecture readings were required but most of the content is covered during the two-hour lecture too. Because of this, I only bring my iPad along to the lecture to take down some notes.
My next class is another two-hour lecture at 2:30pm for BUS3054 – Strategy, Organisations, and Society. During the time in between, I head on to my group project meeting for BUS3053 – Management Consultancy Project. As an alternative to a dissertation, I took up a consultancy project which is a group project that works with a real-life client to provide recommendations to the problem presented by them. As this is a module that requires a lot of commitment, my group has decided to meet every day during the breaks in between our classes to ensure a steady daily progress in our project, in order to complete it on time.
Next comes lunch. My group takes a break and heads down to the café together. On most nights, I cook a double portion of my dinner so I can pack half of it for lunch the next day. However, on days when I do not have time to cook, lunch would be a Tesco Meal Deal, conveniently located right in front of the Business School, or the deals from the Business School café that is so good for value.
We return to our project after lunch, until we have to head off to our lecture at 2.30pm. To prepare for this lecture, I looked through the lecture slides and made notes the night before, so I can follow along during the lecture and add in any additional information the lecturer might go into detail about. This helps me focus my attention on what is being said instead of using my time and attention to type out my notes during lecture.
Last class of the day is a BUS3053 seminar. This is where my group meets our module leaders to update them on the progress of our project and receive feedback or guidance from them. This seminar lasts for an hour, all the way until 5.30pm. By the end of this day, you will be exhausted and ready for a good rest.
Once I get home, I get straight to cooking dinner. This usually consists of some social time in the kitchen with my flatmates and trying out each other’s food. After dinner comes more studying, especially for my consultancy project.
On other nights, I would spend time with friends instead, either just by going over to their houses or on an occasional night out. Either way, it is a good way to destress throughout the week and get a healthy work life balance.