Overview: Our Getting Off To A Good Start Guide is a collection of tips and advice for new or returning students who want to start the year as best they can. Originally a print guide, it is now a series of interlinked blog posts that you can bookmark and return to at any point and resume reading. Living online, the guide is constantly updated. Last updated 26/11/24.
Hello!!
On behalf of the Health, Counselling and Disability Service (we shorten it to HCDS), welcome to Flinders University!
My name is Gareth. I am the eMental Health Project Officer, and I handle a chunk of the wellbeing focused student communications coming out of HCDS.
Here at HCDS we provide health, counselling, disability and wellbeing support services to current students of Flinders. We see over 2000 students a year and help them find solutions to issues that are getting in the way of their studies.
These might be academic issues (e.g. not having good study habits, procrastination) or personal issues (e.g. relationship problems or mental health concerns).
Having helped a lot of students, we have a pretty good idea of what kinds of things get in the way of having an enjoyable and successful university experience as well as what things contribute to a positive experience.
In this brief guide, we want to share with you some of what we’ve learned along the way.
Whether or not you are coming straight from high school, or returning to study after a longer absence, we realise that coming to university is about taking a very big step in your life. For some of you, it has meant leaving your home, family and country to come and study in Australia. For others, you are the first person in your family to study at university and it is all a bit of a mystery.
As a result, we know that you are probably a mixed bag of emotions right now: excitement, trepidation, exhaustion, optimism, frustration, surprise, relief, worry.
A really important thing to remember is that for most students, university is a rewarding and fun experience. Yes, it is hard work, and yes there will be some challenging times ahead, but modern universities, like Flinders, have a lot of supports in place to help students through those times and also a lot of opportunities you can take advantage of.
This guide is all about the things you can do to get off the best start possible, as well as being an introduction to the many services that are available to you, should difficult times arise.
We’ve broken the guide into sections so it is easier to digest and so you can take a moment between sections to connect what you are reading to your own experience. If you bookmark any individual section, you can revisit it later and resume your reading, as each section contains links to all others.
Certain recommendations are marked with a 🟢 and we’ve pulled all of these together in the ‘final words’ post.
So sit back, grab a beverage, and spend a little time with me as I go through our tips for starting university well.
Sections of the guide 📘
- Introduction
- Know your way around
- Getting off to a good start with your studies
- Know what is involved in being a successful student
- Allocate an appropriate amount of time to your studies
- Use evidence-based study techniques
- Use available services for study tips, writing and assignments
- Tackle procrastination directly
- Know your advocates
- Get off to a good start by looking after yourself
- Engage in self-care
- Ensure any known health or mental health conditions are being well managed
- Try not to isolate yourself
- Familiarise yourself with the support environment
- Further reading
- Final words
Section reflection 🤔
How are you feeling about starting university? Is it a single emotion/feeling or a mix of them? What are you looking forward to? What are you nervous about?
