Introduction
A Prospective student needs to use the University studies so as prepare him/ herself to become what they want in life. Opportunities at university open a complete new world to a young person. While it can prepare a person for their dream life, if the opportunity is not well used could also lead a young man or young woman to ruins. The young person has all the choices to go for the best in life.
In East Africa students enroll for university studies after completion of form six, that is completion of six years of secondary studies. At that time most of you students are still teenagers and as a matter of fact you still need help and assistance from your parents and or guardians. Even though you have come to that stage I would advice to keep on taking advice from your parents or guardians. They have been in the world for a while and they are full of the experience you may need as you commence your new life as a prospective student.
Here, I would like to share with you some few insights that I think could be of great importance in your journey as a university student. You join a university for studies and trace your path while life too continues; your academic life and your other that which is not academic continues too. That being the case, you need to make use of life skills, which I guess, you learnt at secondary school. I will share them with in the future so as to keep you updated. Here are five areas that I think you need to learn and know how to manage them well. Freedom Management, Money Management, Academic Responsibility Management, Social Life Management, Health Management
Freedom Management
When you join a university, in most cases as we said earlier you come from secondary school. It is important to note here that secondary school life is different from university life. One of the major difference is the freedom that you have as a university student. The problem here is that there is that sharp transfer from a secondary school life that is organized for you to a university life that is completely un structured as compared to secondary school.
At secondary school, you had all your time planned in the school time table, every minute is allocated for some form of activity, where as at university life is completely different. Everything is in your hand. You make your own time table. The only thing that is organized for you is the time table for what hours classes will be running. At that juncture you are obliged to go which the university time table.
The best you can do is to manage the way you use your time. If up to now you have never done that, then this is the time to do so. Put down all the minutes and hours you have in a day, onto a piece of paper. Allocate every minute with some activities so that you know that all time is being assigned with some kind of activity.
Your time table may take this shape:
05:00 hours Wake up time
05:00 – 05: 30 Prayer / Meditation
05: 30 – 06:00 Physical exercise
06:00 – 06:30 Bath / shower
06:30 – 07:00 Breakfast and take off to school
07:30 – 12:30 Classes
12:30 – 13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 16:00 Classes
16:00 – 17:00 Personal time
17:00 – 19:00 Sports and socialization
19:00 – 19:30 Bath
19:30 – 20:00 Supper
20:00 – 21: 00 News bulletin and relaxation
21:00 – 22:00 Personal time and study
22: 30 Sleep time
This sample of a table has tried to capture necessary activities in your working day as a prospective student. It captures necessary events that should be there in a life of university student. It is far from being the perfect time table but rather it serves the purpose of showing you the way. The proper management of time brings us to the question of money management.
Money Management
Money Management just like time management is also a new field to most prospective students. At the secondary school you will recall most of you did not stay with money. You did not stay with money because of several reasons. Some parents / guardians found it not worthy leaving you with money to manage, while to others it was just not possible as school regulations did not condone that practice.
When you are a university student, the story is very different. If up to now you did not have a bank account, now it is time for you to open one. The practice in most universities in Tanzania is that bank argents will visit the university to talk to new students on the services provided by their banks. They will convince students to open bank accounts to facilitate their academic life. In fact these new clients to the banks are really important as when they graduate, they move on to become either employees of some companies or start their own businesses.
In most cases students receive a loan or a grant from the government or any other bodies. The Tanzanian experience most student apply for a loan from the higher education students’ loans board. It is important to note here that this is a loan it is not a grant. Even though in this subject of money management it deals with both cases of grants and loans.
Money has its own power; it increases choices of doing thing differently. You may travel by air instead of going by bus if you have money. You may decide to go to New York for holidays instead of going to Shinyanga and so on and so forth. However, the money we are discussing about here is the money that is meant to help you as a student carry out your studies successfully.
If you have receive a loan from any body, that means at a given moment you will need to pay it back. If you have received a grant it still means that you have to use it well to accomplish your studies successfully. The matter here is how do you use the money.
As a university student, your core business is studies. Use the money at your disposition in the best possible way to carry out your university studies success to acquire the skills and knowledge that you need. Experience shows that some students are capable of using their money so well that they are capable of even using it to serve other goals. Some students have used their loan to pay for their siblings studies too, others have used the same money to invest into some businesses, others have used the money for living a luxurious life.
It is upon you dear student. All is possible, at this juncture, I would advice you use the money to make sure that your academic life, which the purpose of being at university, is well served with the needed money to carry out your studies properly. It may happen that the money you have satisfies well the studies you are pursuing and you have extra money. Depending on the type of a person you are, you may either save in bank, or invest it in a scheme such as UTTAMIS which will invest your money into business and give profit that is made from the investment you made.
Others may begin some form of business while they are still at university. This depends very much on the ability of a person. You need to evaluation your capabilities, are you capable of carry out your studies successfully while you operate some businesses? If you are not sure I would strongly advice to invest your money in a scheme such as UTTAMIS while you continue with your core business of studies.
To finish this subject, I would ask you to use the money as intended and only invest when you really have your basic requirements for studies fulfilled. With this kind of money you should not use it to live a luxury life; it is a loan that you will need to pay it back. And if it is a grant, then it is an important seed to grow into a beautiful story of your life. This leads us to the core business of academic responsibility management.
Academic Responsibility Management
As a prospective student, you should know that your major task at university is to carry out successfully your university studies. You have the responsibility of attending classes, seminars, reading the books you are assigned by your instructors, carry out research and above all acquire the skills you desire and need in life.
At university, you have all the academic activities grouped into two types. Individual assignments/ work and group work / assignment. The two types of learning have their advantages. The individual tasks trains you to use properly your brains, trains you how to think in different ways: critically, creatively, positively and so on. ( In the future we shall learn how to think as a university student – I have done the task in one of my books).
The group tasks train you to share, present and get challenged by your colleagues. You present your ideas before them, if they are sound enough they are accepted if they are weak they are rejected. Through this task you prepare yourself for your future. Life is lived in a team, you will always need others to succeed in what you do in life. Thus, take time to manage well your study time and in fact you should allocate it with the greatest share of your life while at university.
Social Life Management
Social life entails living with others. You are a social being. You need to live with others to obtain the fulfilment of your potential. Whatever, you intend to do in life, you will always need to meet people. As a business person your target, your clients will be people, whatever you do you will always need to interact with fellow human beings. To do it efficiently, then we need to keep on learning how best to do it. At university is just the continuation of what we have been doing since childhood.
At university it is different from other stages because of the tools that you did not have before. At this stage you have your freedom in the sense that you decide on your own what to do or what not to do. At this stage you have a bank account with your money waiting for you to allocate it into what you want.
It is because of these tools of money and freedom that you should be more alert, more conscious of your social life. How much time do you allocate to socialization as compared to other activities. At this point I say to you allocate as enough time as possible for socialization but not more than the time needed for your academic life.
Health Management
Health management is necessary for you as a prospective student. Your health is the most important gift that you have, I think one can take it as a synonym of life itself. A health life makes life really enjoyable. Life is meant to be enjoyable. The French shows the importance health on new year’s greeting. They wish each other good health – to good health – à la santé…. I think they have captured all the importance of good health in this one simple sentence wished at the beginning of the year.
Your health is every thing you need to do anything in life. You can only be able to carry out so much projects, activities, create businesses, empires only when you are in good health. The good thing is to a large extent you have the ability to take care of your health. This is your primary responsibility and you have to be conscious of it all the time. How can you take care of your health?
Taking care of your health is a vital activity that you should practice every day of your life. You can take care of your life through eating and drinking. These two necessary tasks that you carry them out every day are the ones that will help you in health management. You have to be conscious of what you eat and drink; eat health and drink health. In East Africa, Tanzania, specifically, it is easy for you to find natural and organic food which will ensure you good health and success in life. It is good health that will help you accomplish all your plans as a university student and later on as resourceful citizens.
Conclusion on Prospective Student
I hope you will put into practice these five aspects about a prospective student that we have discussed, and if there is anything you wish to ask , I will always be there to respond to your call. This article as explained above sought to give you and all prospective university students clear information and shed more light on them of what they should expect when it comes to university life.
