Study Skills for Higher Education

This article discusses the challenges faced by students in higher education, such as managing time, dealing with homesickness, and financial difficulties. It provides recommendations on how to overcome these challenges and improve study skills.

Study Skills for Higher
Education

Abstract
Moving out after secondary education can be difficult for students due to many reasons.
One of them can be that they have no experience of living alone all by themselves, this can lead
to rise in any challenges like shortage of money, not being able to manage time, missing family
and friends, social problems like finding it difficult to make friends etc. Thus, students can opt
for different ways to overcome these challenges.

Contents
Abstract......................................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................4
Literature Review......................................................................................................................................4
Main challenges that students face when they start university.................................................................4
Recommendations that can help students to overcome these challenges.................................................5
Analysis and Discussion............................................................................................................................6
Recommendations.....................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Higher or University Education is an important aspect for a student to help grow his
knowledge as well as career. It is an optional stage of formal education occurring after secondary
information (Assiter, 2017). Although, the time spent at a university is very exciting and
knowledgeable, there are also various challenges that come along with it. Students can find it
difficult to manage their time as they might have commitments towards their work as well as
family (Thompson, 2017). This report identifies some of the main challenges that are faced by
students when they start their university education because most of the students are not prepared
for facing these challenges. Apart from this, recommendations have also been provided that can
help the students in overcoming these challenges.
Literature Review
Main challenges that students face when they start university
When students start their high education at a university, they come across various
challenges that can result in them taking a longer duration of time to get used to the same.
According to the view point of Hannah Carter, this is because they are not prepared to face such
challenges (7 Common Problems Students Face During University Life, 2017). Also, due to work
and family commitments, they ay find it difficult to manage their time. Some of the main
challenges that are faced by students when they start university are described below –
 Money – Education costs are rising at alarming rates with time that do not include cost of
supplies, meals, textbooks, transportation and other expenses (Bennett and Burke, 2018).
Money is one of the reasons why many students drop out of their universities because
they cannot afford the price. There are students who are forced to work full time with a
less salary and also, fulfil academic requirements.
 Homesickness – According to view point of Garfield Gates, homesickness is another
challenge that students can come across, specially for those who are very far from their
homes. For such students, homesickness can be a big challenge to deal with (Ten Common
Problems Students Face During University, 2015).
 Time Management – Time can pose a big challenge for students who are at university.
Since they are by themselves, they have to do all things like completing chores, manage

expenses, work along with academics etc. This can impact their sleeping pattern which
can lead to making them feel tired all the time and is also not sustainable.
 Social Problems – As per the views of Garfield Gates, if a student is lucky, he/she will
make new connections and friends. Although it is a good ting to have a lot of friends
around, spending too much time can prove out to be challenging as conflicts may arise
(Ten Common Problems Students Face in College, 2020).
Recommendations that can help students to overcome these challenges
It is not at all easy for the university students to cope up with all the challenges stated
above. Therefore, when they come across challenge relating to money, they are recommended to
apply for a student loan as they can be obtained easily (Cottrell, 2019). An important thing in this
part for the students will be educating themselves regarding the structure of different loans.
According to the view point of Garfield Gates, the students can make use of working within the
campus. This will help them in saving a lot of time as well as unnecessary expenses like
transportation etc. Also, the students will be able to focus more on their academics.
On the other hand, to overcome the challenge of homesickness, the students are
recommended to make use of the various modern means of communication like video call, face
time. This way the students will be able to stay connected with their family members and friends.
They can even plan to visit their homes once every month. Family and friends can also stay
connected by sending care packages, emails etc. Time can pose a serious challenge to university
students and thus, they should learn to schedule their time on a daily basis. Preparing and
maintaining a time table will help the students in utilizing their time much more efficiently (Sera
and McPherson, 2019). It will also slowly allow the students to have free tie on their hands and
also all the tasks will get completed well within time.
Although, it may be easier for some students to interact and make new friends, others
might find it difficult (Crocco, Offenholley and Hernandez, 2016). In such cases, students who
are socially active and have a lot of friends spend most of their tie together. This can create
situations of conflicts among the friends and also, in some cases friendships might become
distractions and the students may lose focus on their academics. This can impact their grades and
overall ranking in the university. Thus, in case of conflicts, help can be taken from other in order
to resolve them.

Analysis and Discussion
Moving away from home after secondary studies to a university can be a tough thing for
a student. This can be because he/she might never have stayed away from home for such a long
time. When they start university, students come across various challenges that they may not have
experienced before. They can find it difficult to manage their time because they of other
commitments like family as well as work (Ding, Wei and Mollohan, 2016). There are various
challenges that they can come across like money problems, social problems, issues in managing
time as well as homesickness. These are some most of the most common yet major. It has
become a known fact that education fees are rising at an exponential rate due to which many
students drop off from their universities. Thus, in such a case they can always apply for an
education loan, which is comparatively easier to obtain.
On the other hand, feeling homesick is a very natural thing but can become serious if not
handle properly (Moore and Morton, 2017). Majority of students who go to the university have
never lived away from their family and friends. This can affect their performance academically
as well as overall productivity. Therefore, they can make use of the modern technology ways like
face time and video calls by which can stay connected to their family member as well as friends.
Time Management can also be a challenge as the students have to do all their things alone which
can gradually become difficult to manage. Thus, they can prepare weekly timetables and
schedule the various tasks and also ensure that all of them are carried out within the time frame
without any delay. Students should take breaks from time to time so that all of this does not
become tiresome and make them frustrated.
Lastly, students get a chance to interact with other people and make a lot of friends.
Although this can sound very exciting and fun to them, this can also lead to various problems
(Husmann, Barger and Schutte, 2016). Like they might stop attending their classes or lectures
and spend most of their time with each other. This can impact their overall performance
academically and therefore result in an average career. There can also be cases of conflicts which
is why it becomes important for them to prioritize their time so that they don’t skip their time to
study and just waste time with friends. Also, the students can reach out to either a senior or a
peer to resolve the conflict. It can be analyzed that there are various challenges that students can

come across when they get started with university and in order to overcome these challenges,
they can opt for different ways.
Recommendations
By analyzing the above challenges that students usually come across when they move to
universities, it is recommended that they should seek different ways in which they can overcome
these challenges (Van Emden and Becker, 2016). Like in order to overcome the challenge of
money, students can apply for an education or a bank loan which is easier to obtain. Also, to
balance their academics as well as work, jobs within the campus can be availed. The students are
also recommended to use different technology like video call, emails etc. to stay connected with
their family members as well as friends. Timetables, schedules as well as deadlines will also
prove out to be of great help as the students can manage several tasks easily without missing out
on any of them. It is easier for extrovert students to make friends as compared to introverts who
find it difficult to interact. Students get an opportunity to communicate and interact with people
from different backgrounds and communities. For people who find hard to make friends, it is
recommended that they take some time off and speak to people. This will assist them in building
friendships.
Conclusion
From the above report, it can be concluded that when students complete their secondary
education and go to a university for higher education, they come across various challenges like
time management, social problems, homesickness and challenges also relating to money. But
they should find effective ways in which they can overcome these challenges and utilize the time
at their hands while at the university efficiently. Students can prepare and follow a personalized
time table, opt to work within the campus, utilize bank loans etc. This way they will be able to
become productive and also manage their work as well as academics in a proper manner.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Assiter, A. ed., 2017. Transferable skills in higher education. Routledge.
Bennett, A. and Burke, P. J., 2018. Re/conceptualising time and temporality: an exploration of
time in higher education. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. 39(6).
pp.913-925.
Cottrell, S., 2019. The study skills handbook. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Crocco, F., Offenholley, K. and Hernandez, C., 2016. A proof-of-concept study of game-based
learning in higher education. Simulation & Gaming. 47(4). pp.403-422.
Ding, L., Wei, X. and Mollohan, K., 2016. Does higher education improve student scientific
reasoning skills?. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education. 14(4).
pp.619-634.
Husmann, P. R., Barger, J. B. and Schutte, A. F., 2016. Study skills in anatomy and physiology:
Is there a difference?. Anatomical sciences education. 9(1). pp.18-27.
Moore, T. and Morton, J., 2017. The myth of job readiness? Written communication,
employability, and the ‘skills gap’in higher education. Studies in Higher Education.
42(3). pp.591-609.
Sera, L. and McPherson, M. L., 2019. Effect of a study skills course on student self-assessment
of learning skills and strategies. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning. 11(7).
pp.664-668.
Thompson, P., 2017. Communication technology use and study skills. Active learning in higher
education. 18(3). pp.257-270.
Van Emden, J. and Becker, L., 2016. Presentation skills for students. Macmillan International
Higher Education.
Online
7 Common Problems Students Face During University Life. 2017. [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.youniversitytv.com/college-tips/7-common-problems-students-face-
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Ten Common Problems Students Face During University. 2015. [Online]. Available through:<
https://education.co.za/ten-common-problems-students-face-during-college>.
Ten Common Problems Students Face in College. 2020. [Online]. Available
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