How does University life impact student life?
University life is loaded with opportunities, but sometimes it's hard to decide which way to move first- or at least to know where one is headed- especially when your seniors and peers seem to know what they are doing.
The best way to start with is the basics! What motivates you? What is important to you? What do you wish for achieving in life? What's your definition of life purpose is? It will feel a bit overwhelming, but this is what university life is all about.
Designing a university life around the realms of positivity, happiness, engagement, and wellbeing might be a tricky thing to imagine, but if we look at the closer picture, university life is entirely about helping you out in developing your mandatory skills for life, even other than education.
No doubt that the university experience is the best time of a student's life. There are many life lessons and valuable skills to be learnt during your time there; the experience is more than merely studying to obtain a degree.
Let's have a look at the ways universities are likely to contribute in student's lives.
You meet new people:
You meet new people from different backgrounds, make new friends and learn the value of social interactions, push yourself out of the comfort zone to try new productive stuff with friends, learn to do adventures. It is no doubt a complete journey from start to finish.
You learn to think critically:
You learn to evaluate concepts, behaviours, opinions and theories about the transformation of life in general. You learn to pause and stop and delve into the deeper meaning of what something is suggesting or what something means, and that's a great life skill.
You become independent:
It's not about cleaning and cooking for yourself. Instead, it's about prioritizing, time management, being active and balancing multiple deadlines with your social life. It's solely down to your routine and life whilst at university.
You sharpen your presentation skills:
You will tremble at the word presentation if you are petrified of public speaking, but university grooms you up in public speaking skills, and you start feeling comfortable in your surroundings, realizing the positive outcome in the shape of confidence and speaking in front of the pupil.
Your communication skills are improved:
You master the small talk in the beginning of your university life, and with more exposure to the student-teacher community, you learn how to communicate effectively.
You learn how to accept change:
You learn to embrace the changes in life, learning and growing as a person, and this period has a powerful ability to shape your future. Constantly changing, learning, and discovering become remarkable processes for you.
You understand that mental health comes first:
Though the purpose behind university time is higher education, apart from that, you realize that a sound mind is of utmost importance for your productivity and vitality. Therefore, when you experience unproductive days because of having an occupied and upset mind, you understand and learn how to prioritize your peace of mind to go smoothly in life and learning.
You realize the grip over your life:
University life teaches you to craft your personal experience in any direction you want. It makes you realize that the "blaming attitude" for your drawbacks is an immature way to betray yourself in delusion. Instead, you learn the reality of holding your life's direction in your own hands instead of depending on others.
Taking chances and saying "yes" to experiences:
University life transforms a timid person into a confident one. On the other hand, if you are a shy person, university life transforms you into a productively extrovert person, in case you participate in extracurricular activities, which in the long run helps you to deal with life's ups and downs bravely.
Handling your budget:
You learn to strike a balance in university in a number of essential aspects of life. For example, you learn to prioritize your dinner over new clothes, your health over late night outs, and you realize the value of finance, keeping track of what and where you are spending.
Building self-awareness:
While the university is considered a way to leverage promising career prospects; it is also an absolute opportunity to contemplate about yourself and think about your self-growth from experience. After graduating, a ratio of students is left on the crossroads. Questions like what to do and how to do etc., fill up their minds. To avoid falling in that phase, the university provides an attentive environment for the students who give proper attention to searching their ambitions and destination route.
University life helps in building up your self-confidence, overhauling the approach of positive recognition. University teaches the students about purpose, meaning, mindfulness and happiness related to life, and it helps you paint the picture of your future life. Moreover, it teaches us how to deal with unnecessary suffering and sort out the solution to the problems.
Defining the purpose of learning in life:
Learning and teaching is strongly interrelated. University teaches its students much more than bookish knowledge. It teaches them about workplace skills, the importance of wellbeing, managing emotions, works engaging strategies, growing positive relations, and finding out the meaning of life.
Getting students out in the real world:
University life provides the students with the opportunity to gain genuine industry and business insights, develop an awareness of workplace culture and enhance critical workplace skills, including communication and positive leadership.
Fostering collaboration:
University life teaches the students that they should compete with themselves instead of comparing their struggles and outcomes with others. With a sense of delegation, students understand how to collaborate with peers in projects and assignments, learn from around, improve one's personality attributes and discipline, and work together instead of working against each other, hence developing internal motivation.
Teaching students to learn from their mistakes:
University life teaches the students to learn from mistakes, viewing them as an opportunity to improve. Sometimes, failures and setbacks act as the catalysts for future lessons and successes, by the understanding which university atmosphere blesses you with.
While the students are equipped with theories and tools necessary to overcome the challenges of everyday life, they are also encouraged to learn and deal with identifying the characteristics and challenges.
Building a student-professor trust:
Lecturers and professors are not just teachers; they are mentors too. So for students to understand and see their professors' paths to reach where they are today; can be valuable and inspiring.
Encouraging you to get out of your comfort zone:
University life helps you understand how beneficial breaking the limits of your comfort zone can be for you. If you always wanted to join a student society, organization, club or society? Get involved in something that is something you are interested in. If you do not find any society as per your standards of interest, make a layout, invite your fellows and set up one on your own!
Experiential learning:
There is no doubt that "experience is the best teacher." Learning other than the academic material is an active process, wherein students construct a novel hypothesis, encounter authentic problems, interact with others, test for real solutions to make sense of the world around them.
When we do this, we engage in multiple modalities of life, no matter which pair of disciplinary lenses we intend to wear, because experiential learning is interdisciplinary, inherently!
Following are the ways affecting the learning other than academic learning of a student:
- Skills related to observation and perception
- Personal and social skills
- Adding meaning and relevance to learning
- Providing real-world,first hand experiences
- Enhancing the intrinsic motivation
The focus on lifelong learning
Attending the university does not only guide you into a world of work, but it also offers support and advice through your career services and facilities. University is an open hub for your placements, internships and graduate schemes that, in the long run, help you to better get prepared for real life after graduating.
You learn the traits of ambassadorship:
When you get graduated from a university, you are on the pinnacle of handling and leading in different situations, representing a diligent approach (in case you do not waste your university years in useless pursuits). Prospective students highly value the views and statements of alumni, and universities have been providing opportunities related to ambassadorial roles for passed out students.
Some alumni ambassadors even receive customized mentoring and training, including information about studies, continuing educational activities, and professional development. You get the chance of helping others in developing the vision, sharing the beliefs and values. This all help you in your life ahead.
From sharing your personal experiences and advising future students to participate in extracurricular activities, there are plenty of ways that actually nurture the sense of ambassadorship in a real sense.
Thinking smartly and acting kindly:
The fake news is like a burning fire nowadays. The university atmosphere actually trains students to be sensitive toward identifying the difference between factuality and false propaganda in an attempt to counteract the bad phenomenon.
Students can expect to learn and work alongside other diverse and dynamic disciplines, where the days of configuring knowledge and data are long gone. Instead, creativity, wisdom, cooperation, entrepreneurship and empathy are considered to be fundamental disciplines necessary for solving problems and overcoming challenges.
Listed below are the areas in a person's life that are drastically affected by the exposure in university life
Cognitive and psychological :
- Knowledge
- General knowledge
- Critical thinking ability
- Basic skills
- Special Aptitudes
- Academic Achievements
Cognitive and Behavioural
- Level of education
- Attainment
- Vocational Achievements
- Level of responsibility
- Income
- Awards of special recognition
Affective and Psychological:
- Self-concept
- Interest
- Values
- Attitudes
- Beliefs
- Drive of achievement
- Satisfaction with college
Affective and Behavioural
- Choice of a major or career
- Avocations
- Mental Health
- Citizenship
- Interpersonal relations
Mehran Ali
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