Student stories Students share their experiences of starting university and give you their advice for getting through it all.
Niall Dickson BIO
President of LGBTQ+ students’ community group. COURSE
Finished foundation year in Politics and International Relations. Commencing Psychology degree in September 2021.
How did you feel when you first arrived at university? I felt a bit overwhelmed in honesty! I did not go to college and I had been out of education for a while, so I was feeling anxious about starting university. That feeling quickly went away as soon as I met my tutors during my induction. The academic staff here at university treat you as an adult and are completely on your level (unlike at school!). They were also really kind and checked in with me regularly to see how I was doing. Once I had got to know my tutors, I settled in and started to feel excited about my course and being at university!
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How did you go about making friends? Well, first of all, I joined the LGBTQ+ community group! I saw that the Students’ Union was advertising for students to run the group and so I contacted them to apply to join the group’s committee. I invited my boyfriend to join the group and we started organising events – we both made friends this way! I have also made friends on my course as we all have similar interests. We like to meet up outside of lectures as it is important to have conversations outside of an academic setting. There is a WhatsApp group for the students on my course, which has been a lifeline during the pandemic! We were able to help each other with any courserelated queries and it was nice to keep in touch given that we could not meet faceto-face. Which other student groups did you join to meet people? I joined the politics and international development academic group that was recommended to me by my tutor. This was a great group to join as they often held online meetings, and sometimes with guest lecturers. I also joined the Law
