The School Year is Past its Halfway Point

Any spare time that I used to spend wandering around the campus looking for the correct lecture theatre in the first trimester is now required to cope with the increased workload. As it turns out, the first term (which we all found fairly demanding) was still a walk in the park in comparison to what was about to come. The pace at which lecturers cover new material has significantly increased and constant attention in lectures is therefore necessary. Apart from that, for each lecture there is a seminar every week where the topic is discussed between the teacher and just a handful of students. As a result, if anyone fails to read the required reading, the tutors can tell very quickly.

My required modules have mostly remained the same. In the politics part of my course I continue to take Foundations of Politics, Political Economics, International Relations, and Methods of Political Science. In the economics part of my course, I am still required to take Quantitative Methods for Economics and Principles of Economics, which covers macroeconomics in this term. Since I am studying towards a joint honors degree, my schedule is really fairly busy. Unlike most students, I therefore do not choose any external modules, nor can I omit any subjects.

Apart from my studies, I have also been busy recently looking for accommodation for the next academic year. As the university is (quite understandably) unable to provide accommodation for all of its 27,000 students, residence halls are reserved almost exclusively for first year students. As a result, all first year students must start house hunting every year at the beginning of the second term, usually together with friends they have made in the residence halls, as I have. We have been fairly lucky, as my future housemates and I soon found a beautiful house, conveniently located and very reasonably priced. Hence, without much hesitation we signed the contract and made the deposit a few weeks ago.

For most first year students this is obviously the first time in their lives they have looked for houses to rent. The Guild of Students therefore offers us support at all stages of the process, from organizing talks on how to choose a house and what to be careful about in a contract, to running its very own student estate agency, which provides a catalogue of pre-approved properties owned by accredited landlords. They even checked the contract we received from our landlord, making sure there was no “catch” in it. With a sigh of relief I am therefore able to say that I have my accommodation for next year completely sorted out.

On top of all this, in my scarce free time I am looking for a summer internship relevant to my degree subject to boost my CV a little bit. I have already attended two Work Experience Fairs organized by the university. These were great opportunities to talk to some very attractive employers; however, as it turns out internship opportunities for first year students are very rare. A great majority of companies offer internships only for second and third year students. I have, however, applied for a couple of incredibly interesting internship programs; let us hope at least one of them works out.

Petr Bulka, a student at the University of Birmingham, UK (International Studies with Economics)
Petr Bulka's studies at OPEN GATE and at the University of Birmingham have been supported by the Educa Foundation.