Hi, I’m Kamilla and I’m a final year UG Business Management student here at Newcastle University Business School. In this blog, I want to give you an idea of what the balance between my social life and workload is like in my last year of university. This resembles a typical day I would have in my first semester.

9:00am

On this day, I had a lecture at 9:30am so I got ready and left my house by 9am. I commute to university by bus because I live at home, but many of my course mates live near the Jesmond area or student accommodation which is often a short walk to campus.

9:30am – 11:30am

I had my two-hour Corporate Communications and Social Media lecture at the Business School. I found that in my final year, my lectures times are longer – usually two hours – but spread out throughout the week. This module is an optional module, so I had it in the smaller capacity lecture theatre in the Business School. We usually get a break after an hour, and I often head over to the Business School café to grab a coffee and energise myself for the rest of the day.

11:30am – 1:30pm

I made my way to the Frederick Douglass Centre for my CSR and Ethics lecture. This is a compulsory module, so the lecture had 100+ students and was held in the bigger capacity lecture theatre. Lectures are often less interactive than seminars, so I focus on taking notes during the lecture. If I’m ever unsure about anything, the lecturer usually stays back for a few minutes after the lecture to answer any questions.

1:30pm – 2:30pm

I had my lunch at the Urban Science Building café right next to the Frederick Douglass Centre. Since Newcastle University is a city campus, there are plenty of cafés and restaurants around the Business School. I prefer a cheap and quick lunch, so the university café is usually my go-to lunch spot. I often use this time to catch up with my course mates.

2:30pm – 3:30pm

I had a Zoom meeting for the group work assignment in the Corporate Communications module. Although we usually book a study room in the library for in-person meetings, sometimes Zoom meetings were easier to organise if the team members could not be there in-person. This assignment was a 15-minute podcast on the social media strategy of a firm, so the meeting was focused on sharing the research we conducted on the topic and deciding how we wanted to split the workload.

3:30pm – 4:30pm

My last meeting of the day was with my supervisor for my capstone Consultancy Project. As a Business Management student, you will have a choice between different capstone projects. Although the most popular option is a Management Dissertation, I wanted to choose a more practical option. In the Consultancy Project, you work in a group of students to produce a report on a given task relevant to your assigned client. My project is on the topic of museum sustainability in the North East. We have weekly meetings to talk about our progress. The supervisor meetings are a great way for us to check we’re going in the right direction and share interesting research we have found on the topic.

5:00pm – 6:00pm

I made my way to the Students’ Union for a yoga session through Give it a Go. Since this was a more intense day with several lectures and meetings, I like to end the day with either a workout or a relaxing activity. I often take part in craft activities like pottery painting through the craft society, Blank Canvas. I find creative sessions a great way to recharge and take my mind off the academic side of university. On this day, I chose a yoga session instead and made a new friend at the yoga session! Since everyone is going through a similar path in university, I found it very easy to meet new people and socialise. I headed home after my relaxing yoga session.

Hope you enjoyed reading about what a day in the life of a final year student looks like. Make sure to keep an eye out for similar blogs.