Maintaining Balance: Study Skills for Higher Education Students

This essay examines the challenges faced by university students, particularly in balancing their academic and personal lives. It explores issues such as time management, financial constraints, homesickness, and the pressure of studies. The essay provides a literature review of existing research on student life and then analyzes the common problems students encounter, including difficulties in making friends and maintaining their health. The core of the essay lies in its recommendations for overcoming these challenges, such as creating schedules, managing finances, and developing a positive attitude. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of effective study skills for academic success and a balanced life. The essay is a valuable resource for students seeking to navigate the complexities of higher education. Desklib provides a platform for students to access past papers and solved assignments, enhancing their study experience.

Study skills for higher education
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ABSTRACT
In this essay it has been described about university students who take admission to
become gradate or to do master's. Also, it is discussed that how important is for them to maintain
balance between work and personal life. Moreover, it has been explained about various
challenges such as money, homesickness, pressure of study, etc. that they face in university.
These challenges highly impact on their entire schedule and creates a imbalance. Due to this they
are not able to focus on both study and family life. Furthermore, it is mentioned about several
recommendations like preparing schedule, estimating budget, etc. that can be followed by
students to overcome those challenges.
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Table of Contents
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF QUESTION........................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
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INTRODUCTION
For a graduate student it is very difficult to maintain balance between study and personal
time. They are not able to manage it due to pressure from family and work. Thus it leads to stress
among them. Alongside, student needs to focus on their studies as well as professional life. It
becomes harsh to maintain balance (Aruguete, 2017). However, both aspect are highly important
for student as it enables in developing their career and future growth. In such situation they need
to remain calm and compose. This essay will described about various challenges that student
face at university. Besides that, it will be discussed about some recommendations that can be
followed by them in order to overcome those challenges.
LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Goddard, Hazelkorn, and Vallance, 2016 student practical life starts when
they decide to pursue their passion and decide to build career in their field. When they take
admission in university they do not have any idea of how to manage their time. Students is that
stage in life which decided future goal of a person. It decides whether person will be successful
or not. The path of future is decided here. Also, there are some students who do internship as
well during studies in university. Thus, it becomes necessary for them to manage their time so
that it does not affect on their studies. Moreover, if studies are impacted then it directly affect on
their future growth and career. Hence, student prepare a schedule and work on basis of it. A
schedule is a plan that consists of various activities or task that is to be carried out in specific
time. The tasks are specified briefly in an organized way.
As said by Klofsten, Fayolle, and Wright, 2019 usually students prepare schedule which
is useful for them to a great extent. By following that it becomes easy for them to maintain
balance between work and family life. Alongside, changes are made in it as per student needs.
Basically, it is followed on daily basis but sometimes weekly and monthly based schedule are
made.
In the view of Mitchell, Triska, and Longnecker, 2017, it has been analyzed that in
recent times university students are working in stress. They are in high stress due to workload
and burden of studies. Other than this, pressure from families is also a reason for it. Moreover, in
such a competitive world it is essential for student to focus on studies and score high marks.
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ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF QUESTION
It is stated that starting university is like starting new life. Here, student starts new
journey which leads to their future career. Generally, there are many students who are not ready
to facing challenges that occurs here. Therefore, they get nervous and depressed. However, the
common challenges are described as : (Common problems students face during university life,
2018)
Money – it is major challenge which they face in university. As tuition cost are high so some
student find it hard to pay it. They are not able to afford it so they decide to drop out from
university. Moreover, there are many other costs and expenses which they have to incur like
hostel fees, examination, etc. so, it becomes difficult to pay all these (Weiss, 2018).
Homesickness – this is another problem as student have to live far away from home. Due to it
they are not ale to cope up and sort out things. Beside, there is no support of parents as well.
Hence, it becomes harsh for them to stay away from family friends.
Pressure of studies- in this challenge students are having a lot of pressure of studies. It is because
as most of them pay fees on their own so need high marks. Along with it, family expectations
and society pressure also makes condition harsh for them. Also, as university studies are much
lengthy and there are many subjects so it increases pressure on them. However, university is
academic challenging as compared to high school (Aruguete, 2017).
Finding new friends – As all students are new in university they find it hard to make new friends.
Also, they do not know each other so feel hesitate and nervous to communicate and interact with
others. Thus, students find it hard to make friends at new place. This leads to depression as well.
So it impact on studies and mental health
Time management - From trying to study to living alone and doing the required chores, to
maintaining a social life, to possibly working some sort of a job to help with expenses, students
are not able to manage their time and maintain balance in it. There is no fix time of sleeping,
studying, relaxing, etc. it results in changing their behaviour.
Health condition- As students schedule is hectic they are not able to maintain proper diet. Apart
from it, lack of sleep and other daily problems highly affect on their mental and physical health
in negative way. So, it increases chances of falling sick (Goddard, Hazelkorn, and Vallance,
2016).
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Housing problems- it is also a challenge faced in university. They may get a place in the hostel
or dorm, but it is really difficult to find student accommodation. Here, many factors are
considered like distance, rent rates, facilities, etc.
Recommendations
There are various processes and methods can be used by the people to avoid the
challenges that are faced by them in the education and study period. These challenges are mainly
based on the issues which are related to the balance in their professional and personal life of
student. Most of the challenges that are faced by the organization are related to the work
management, time management, financial issues and career issues. These challenges in can
reduced by using various processes and methods (Cottrell, 2019). These methods can help the
students to over come the challenges and issues and maintain effective balance in student and
personal life. Some of the major processes that can be used by the students for effective
management of daily routine life. The barriers of the academic barriers of the student life ca be
prevented by implement effective system in daily routine for the effective and efficient
management of time and work. This can help them to effectively manage work life with personal
life. Time management is major problem for the students. They have to manage their university
time, assignments and personal life in order to maintain proper balance in life. To avoid these
issues student ca implement or plan suitable time table to manage time effectively to maintain
effectiveness in all the tasks that are performed by them. By using time management tools
students can execute their daily basis work with in the dead line. This is how time related issues
of the students can be prevented by time management tools. To manage the balance in the part
time job and university studies student can use various work management tools with time line to
perform both activities in effective manner. By this process all the activities can be performed
effectively with better management of daily routine work. There are different time management
and work management activities ca be performed by the organization for the effective
management of personal and student life. Positive attitude towards different problems and
situations organization can help the employees to effectively manage balance in routine life
(Thompson, 2017). The issues like home sickness can be reduced by effective planning to revisit
home on periodic basis. This is how students can visit to their home on periodic basis they will
be able to avoid the issues that are related to the home sickness. There are some financial issues
are also faced by the student in university time period. These financial issues can be resolved by
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getting support from the government and apart from these they also can join part time job to get
financial support.
CONCLUSION
This report is concluding the importance of study skills that can be used by the student to
complete their education in effective manner. Various type of literature has been analysed to find
the challenges that are faced by students in daily life. All challenges that are faced by people has
been effectively analysed in the report. Various recommendations has been studied in the report
that can be used by the student to maintain balance in their personal and student life.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Aruguete, M.S., 2017. Recognizing challenges and predicting success in first-generation
university students. Journal of STEM Education: Innovations and Research, 18(2).
Cottrell, S., 2019. The study skills handbook. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Goddard, J., Hazelkorn, E. and Vallance, P. eds., 2016. The civic university: The policy and
leadership challenges. Edward Elgar Publishing. .
Klofsten, M., Fayolle, A. and Wright, M., 2019. The entrepreneurial university as driver for
economic growth and social change-Key strategic challenges. Technological Forecasting
and Social Change, 141, pp.149-158.
Mitchell, N., Triska, M. and Longnecker, N., 2017. Benefits and challenges of incorporating
citizen science into university education. PloS one, 12(11).
Thompson, P., 2017. Communication technology use and study skills. Active learning in higher
education. 18(3). pp.257-270.
Weiss, T.G., 2018. Humanitarian challenges and intervention. Routledge
Online
Common problems students face during university life, 2018. [online] Available through
<https://www.youniversitytv.com/college-tips/7-common-problems-students-face-university-life/
>
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