Tips for Part-Time Students – There are many reasons to study for a degree part-time rather than full-time. Perhaps you’ve got family commitments, or you’re working your way up the career ladder and a professional qualification will aid your ascent. Perhaps you’d find a full-time degree too intense and you’d prefer the gentler pace of a part-time degree. Or maybe the debt incurred by going down the student loan route puts you off and studying part-time means you can continue to work full-time. Whatever your reasons, here are some tips for part-time students.
Tips for Part-Time Students
Set boundaries with friends and family
Just because you’re still living in the family home and haven’t gone to live in student accommodation in Southampton or somewhere else miles away, it doesn’t mean you don’t need time and space to concentrate and get on with your studies. Let your family know when you’re planning to study so they know to leave you alone at that time. Likewise with your friends – let them know that occasionally you’ll have to, unfortunately, turn down an invitation if you’ve got an assignment deadline looming.
Schedule your studying time
Trying to remember everything you have to do and when can lead to essays not getting written and assignment deadlines missed. Although a part-time degree isn’t as intense as a full-time one, you’ll still have plenty of studying to do, so schedule reading time into your diary or calendar along with any assignment deadlines.
Don’t put off studying
It can be easy to put off studying when you’re a part-time student. Because you have fewer seminars or lectures each week, it can seem like you don’t have much to do. But just like a full-time degree, you’re expected to put the hours in yourself at home.
So whether it’s reading, writing or listening to a relevant podcast, don’t put off studying just because you’re part-time and feel you have all the time in the world.
Socialise with other students
Part-time students are usually in the minority on a course, which can feel a bit lonely when the full-time students spend so much more time with each other, creating a closer bond.
To feel more a part of things, make the effort to socialise with your course mates, whether they’re part-timers like you or full-time. Sit with them in the cafe, invite them for a drink at the end of the day and sign up to events that catch your eye.
Even if you’re not really into socialising, getting to know your course mates will help you to feel more like you’re one of them, even if you only chat to them on your course’s Facebook group (and if you haven’t got one, you can start one).
Tips for Part-Time Students
There are advantages and disadvantages to being a part-time student but you get the same degree at the end, whether it’s taken you three years or five to get there. Doing a part-time degree is just as satisfying as a full-time one and the sense of achievement is the same, no matter what.
*Guest post
Debz Louise is a plus-size blogger based in Yorkshire. Behind many nationwide campaigns such as #WeaAreTheThey & winner of Best Blogger at the UK Plus Size Awards, she talkas about life as a plus-size 40-something woman in South Yorkshire.
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