Hi Everyone! I’m Eloise, originally from Sussex, and I’m in my third year on the Streatham Campus at the University of Exeter studying Flexible Combined Honours (FCH). This course essentially means I can combine two subjects together – I study both Film and Television and Geography! It may sound like a unique combination, but they actually go hand-in-hand very nicely!
I’ll outline a typical week in my life and talk about some of the things you can get up to if you were to join the University of Exeter community. You may be interested to know how many contact hours a week we have or how students may structure their time – hopefully I’ll be able to help with just that!
Before we get started, it’s important to note that I’m taking more modules this term in comparison to next term. This imbalance may make my schedule look a little more hectic than is normally the case, but hopefully once you see how I organise my time then maybe a busier academic schedule won’t look too worrying.
The University of Exeter runs on a credit system – we must take 120 credits worth of modules each year to progress onto the next stage. I split my time 50/50 between each subject, so I have 60 credits in Geography and 60 credits in Film and Television Studies. My Film and Television Studies modules are worth 30 credits, so that means I only take two modules for that subject in an academic year. Geography, on the other hand, only has 15 credit modules, so I take 4 of them every academic year.
In semester 1 of my final year, I am taking one Film and Television Studies module – called Cinema in the Anthropocene (which funnily enough has a huge climate and geography focus) – and 3 Geography modules – called Images of the Earth, Managing the Climate Emergency, and Digital Geographies. As you can see by the titles, they really do complement each other across the disciplines and there is surprising overlap considering they are in different faculties – Geography is in the department of Environment, Science and Economy, and Film and Television Studies is in the department of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.
Monday
My week starts off with a 9:30am Digital Geographies lecture. The University of Exeter’s earliest possible academic start is 8:30am – thankfully I don’t have any of those in my final year! 9:30am is a good start time for me as it gets me up and out of bed and onto campus to start my day, which makes me much more productive than if I just stayed in my apartment. After I get ready and have breakfast, I do the ten-minute walk to the lecture theatre – luckily, I live really close by, so I can roll out of bed and into my lecture!
After this, I have a few hours break until my next lecture for a different Geography module – Images of the Earth – which again is one hour long. In that break I usually stay on campus to make the most of my time. I sometimes go to the library or one of the many cafes dotted around campus, such as La Touche in the Business School, to get on with some work. This may be consolidating my notes from my lecture, revising for an exam, starting some coursework, or doing some independent study such as reading academic papers.
Once my lecture finishes at 2:30pm, I’m done for the day! I either head back to the library to do some more work, or, if I feel tired, I head home for some downtime. I might call my friends from home for a catch up or read a book or watch some TV. I’d then make some food for dinner – my personal favourite at the moment is cooking some gnocchi with pesto and peas… and it only takes 7 minutes to make which is perfect when I am so busy. I’d then clean up and do the dishes so that my living space stays nice and tidy.
Tuesday
This is my busiest day of the week as I am in lectures 9:30-14:30 non-stop. First off I have my Film and Television Studies lecture until 10:30am. This week, we discussed the idea of film as a documenter of climate change, and we watched the films Steamboat Bill Jr starring Buster Keaton, and also the Charlie Chaplin film, Modern Times. We watched these immediately after our lecture which is really helpful as we are able to apply our knowledge of what we have just learned to the films themselves.
We have a state-of-the-art film facility called the Bill Douglas Cinema… it looks like a normal lecture theatre, but when we have our screenings the room transforms: the lights go down, the LED lights illuminate the aisles, the surround sound kicks in and the walls are soundproofed making it the perfect cinema environment. Once the screenings are done, I dart across the campus to my second Digital Geographies lecture, where this week we talked about videogames as a way to connect people and places.
After such a busy morning I normally chill out afterwards – sometimes I go to the city centre with my friends for a coffee or maybe relax on campus in one of the pretty green spaces, such as the gardens outside Reed Hall.
Between 7-10pm is the student radio station’s Tuesday Night Sports Show, so I often go into the studio to go live on air to round up the sports of the last week. I personally love covering any F1 related news, Premier League football, or Premiership rugby – and this is all a great way to build up a portfolio of demos for future employers and enhance my CV!
Wednesday
It’s another early start with a 9:30am lecture – this time for Images of the Earth (my second one of the week) and we discussed the importance of drones during the War on Terror. As soon as the lecture ended at 10:30am, I had a lecture for Managing the Climate Emergency – this is a unique module where lectures are two hours in one go rather than two one-hour sessions across a week.
The first hour is a traditional lecture where a lecturer introduces the topic for the week, and after a short break we begin a discussion exercise with our peers, which is a nice way to get some variety in our learning. We debated the idea of co-producing knowledges in environmental restoration projects and talked about a local example of the Lower Otter Restoration Project!
Afterwards, I grabbed some lunch with my friend at the Ram, which is our on-campus student bar. I got a halloumi burger with the famous curly fries – this cost £7.50. We then went to the library for a couple hours and locked in with some work.
Every Wednesday evening, I have ski training at the Clifton Hill Dry Ski Slope from 7-9pm. For just £11 we get two hours of training, and all of our equipment is included in the price! It’s about a 2 mile walk from campus so takes about 50 minutes to walk which I don’t mind as I see it as my warm and cool down walk! I sometimes walk home alone through the city and campus, and I feel completely safe in doing so! I shower immediately after getting home and head straight to sleep.
Thursday
Just over halfway through the week and thankfully my Thursdays are completely free of academic contact hours. In this time I usually do extracurricular activities: I am the print sport editor for the student newspaper, Exeposé. I have learnt new skills such as how to use Photoshop to edit images and InDesign to edit the paper. I usually write 3-4 articles for each print edition and sometimes do 2-3 for our online newspaper as well.
Through being on the committee and having a focus on sport I have realised that I want to do this as a profession and become a sports journalist! Societies are a great way to meet like-minded people, but they are also a great way to work out what career path you might want to take after your degree!
Doing these sports and societies has given me structure to my everyday university life. In comparison to sixth-form college, at university you have a lot of free time, so it is important you use it wisely! It usually takes me 2-3 hours to edit the paper every fortnight, and it is so nice to chat with the other editors in our very own newspaper office! It really feels like you are in a professional setting, and I am so happy to have the opportunity to work in facilities that the University of Exeter provides.
This week, I also had an office hour with my academic tutor on Thursday. This is a 1-1 meeting where I can catch my tutor up on my academic progress and ask any questions I may have about my course – it’s nice to know there is help available should I need it.
In the evenings, there are sometimes socials held by different societies – although the days do fluctuate.
Snowsports Exeter boast a busy social schedule and this week they sold out one of our most popular clubs called Timepiece and transformed it into an Après bar! Everyone donned fluffy hats and ski goggles which was really fun when everyone got involved!
Friday
A slightly later start at 10:30am for me on these days. I have a two-hour Film and Television Studies seminar which is where the cohort is grouped up into classes of 8-15 people. It gives us the chance to debate and ask questions to each other and to our seminar leader.
Once this is completed then this is my academic timetable done for the week! Sometimes I have paid Student Ambassador work dotted around the week and on this particular occasion I had to conduct a campus tour between 1:30-3:30pm as part of my job . I love the flexibility of working for the University as it works well around my timetable and is a really fulfilling job to have!
Friday evenings are spent on the tennis courts for a couple hours as part of a 6-week beginner course I’m on. I signed up so that I could learn a new skill and make the most of the amazing sports facilities this university offers.
Saturday
I love to sleep in on the weekends after such a busy week of early starts. After this, I like to head down to the quay for a walk and order a smoothie at one of the little coffee shops – my favourite is a mango smoothie from the appropriately named café, Mango’s!
I try to get some academic work done, either in a coffee shop in town or on campus at the library.
Recently I’ve been going to lots of house parties rather than going clubbing which is really fun because it is a nice group of people who I know well and we can play whatever music we like!
Sunday
This day is a rest day so of course I will sleep in a little later again. I like to see this day as a reset before the week ahead: I like to do a weekly deep clean of my apartment, have a food delivery arrive, and do the laundry. I think having a clean workspace and living space will mean you have a clear mind ready to work. Doing all these adult things on a Sunday means I’m not stressed trying to balance this alongside lectures or seminars.
At 16:30 I have another two-hour training session at the ski slope. Sometimes the team and I head to a pub afterwards to all catch up and have a chat. When there is an F1 race on, I usually stay in town and meet up with the motorsport society to have a race watch-along which is a great way to meet other fans and make the viewing even more exciting!
So, whether you are doing academic work, societies or sports activities, socialising or adulting, as long as it is productive and fun then you are bound to have a great time at university and make the most of every opportunity! The University of Exeter has 52 sports clubs and over 300 societies so you really can’t be bored here!
My advice would be to get involved as much as possible and make a timetable so you don’t get overwhelmed by work or commitments. Hopefully I’ve shown you that it is possible to do academic work, have a part time job, be on a society committee and take part in a variety of sports as well as go out with friends and do the adult things like cooking and cleaning!