Greetings to all Warwick students, especially those who are joining us this year. We hope you are enjoying your first days on campus. Welcome Week is specially designed to help you integrate into university life and to lay the foundations for your new adventure. Apart from fun, Warwick has so much more to offer, including this blog where students and members of staff share valuable tips and insights. We are here to support you on your academic journey and provide you with tools to tackle any difficulties you may experience…
Earlier this year, the Study Blog celebrated its’ 5th birthday. The blog is managed by the Postgraduate Community Engagement Team at the Library that closely collaborates with other professionals at Warwick to provide the best possible content for all our visitors. Our contributors are masters and undergraduate students at Warwick, as well as members of staff. This makes the blog an extremely valuable source of information as it combines two different perspectives. A wealth of tips we offer is significant to all students, not just those at Warwick, although some posts focus more on activities and events on our campus. In 2018, approximately 40 % of the views were from outside the UK with the USA, India, Philippines, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong SAR China, France, Spain and South Africa in top 10. We noticed the same trend in 2019 when Germany and Malaysia replaced France and Spain, but the percentage of our non-UK visitors remained the same. This indicates that the Study Blog developed in a truly international blog for undergraduate and masters students, but also those who may not have embarked on their academic journey yet and could be looking to find out more.
The Study Blog focuses on all topics related to the ups and downs of students’ lives and solutions to overcoming challenges. Student life can be an amazing experience, especially when living independently for the first time far from home and your family. It teaches you skills beyond academia – skills for life. However, this is the area where you may struggle, particularly in your first weeks when you are trying to adjust to Warwick bubble. How can you make the most of your academic life and growth professionally while at the same time you need to rely on yourself when it comes to meals and cleaning? How do you blend in into the community which is extremely vibrant and diverse? Can you make friends fast? Or is your social life suffering? Do you miss home? Are you struggling with health issues or perhaps you have a disability?
These are all aspects we tackle and our bloggers are very open in sharing their personal experiences that made their academic journey more challenging. But, they do offer hope based on things they learned in the process and tips that can share. They are people who were in the same shoes as you are, and what they have to say can help you find solutions faster and make your path smoother. In its’ core, this blog is about you and your wellbeing. We hope you will follow it, learn from it, and perhaps even join us as a new blogger. Feel free to drop us an email if you would like to contribute. If you are not interested in writing, you can still comment on our posts, share them online and give us feedback, particularly regarding topics you would like us to write about.
Speaking of topics, you are probably asking yourself what all those readers found so interesting to keep coming back. Last year we wrote about time management skills, accessible study rooms for students with disabilities, using audiovisual sources, referencing, study buddies, boosting your CV, revision apps, the writer’s block, learning foreign languages, creating a study schedule, creating effective visual presentations, and study apps. We also published a series of posts on spending a year abroad: Beyond the Campus Bubble, Thinking about studying abroad?, Tips for your study abroad year, What to do once you’re home from your study abroad year, Why should you study abroad?. In 2019, we have broadened our horizons when our lives took an unexpected turn. In February Warwick community was extremely worried about the wellbeing of our campus cat Rolf who got hit by a van and who was recovering from his accident. His campus friends, students and staff, were visiting him at home bringing treats and toys to make his days in house arrest more bearable. Rolfie returned to his patroling duties in spring. In early May he was welcomed back to campus and that event marked the beginning of the Rolf Says Relax campaign. Rolf is a very laid-back fellow and we are sure you will see him around the campus. People say he brings them luck when they see him before taking their exams, so do pay attention to that little black creature wearing a high-visibility jacket. He may even help you explore our study spaces and reveal a secret or two about some of them. As you can see, we write about fun stuff too, so there is something for everyone.
Almost 300 posts have been published on the Study Blog so far. To make things easier for our readers, we have decided to publish our Content page with the titles of all of our posts. The names of the authors, publishing dates and links to each post are included. Hopefully, this will make surfing our blog a more enjoyable experience, and it will help our readers to discover hidden gems of the Study Blog.