Hello and welcome to Villa College. I am Jessie Jemimah Nixon, one of the current Student Ambassadors of Villa College, pursuing my final year in the BA (Hons) Business Management and Marketing programme. Now, without further ado, let me take you through my journey at Villa College.

QI CAMPUS

The Villa College QI Campus has the perfect environment, for just any academic purpose. Let it be a group discussion for your presentations, or for completing your assignment or even maybe to just take a short break after 2 hours of your class, the campus is the best place to do it all. Some of my most enjoyable moments were the library facilities, which offered me the peace and quiet that I needed, as at times, the outer areas could be clustered with students and the benches could be full. However, in the library, I was able to make my time worthwhile by having access to plenty of resources from the library, both physical as well as online.

PHYSICAL CLASSES

It seems like an eternity ago, when physical classes were conducted. In my opinion, the classes truly deserve a standing ovation. Face to face classes where you sit with your friends and listen to your lecturer explaining certain concepts and just sometimes, in between, passing around a quick comment or a quick question with the one sitting beside you, is surely the best way of learning. The classes are conducted using PowerPoint Presentations at almost all times and the learning hours are set to a standard of 2 hours being a lecture and 1 hour being a workshop. Workshop means a practical hand-in-hand experience, where everyone is required to apply what they have learnt from the lecture into practical use. I believe that this opens up the opportunity for a more interactive way to take in all that knowledge, instead of the traditional, boring ways of memorizing without actually understanding anything.

ONLINE CLASSES

Although my first preference would always be the physical classes, given the unprecedented situations, online classes have become the new norm which we have to learn to adapt to. The online classes are conducted through Google Meet, mostly, where the lecturer shares his/her screen with all the students and students will be able to see the slides displayed on their phone or laptop. Students are required to keep themselves on mute during lecturer’s explanation in order to avoid any disturbances, but can unmute themselves and ask any question in between. This systematic procedure is followed throughout the week and as for workshops, the lecturer will explain on how to do the workshops and will set a deadline for each workshop to which students are required to submit in order to get the full attendance.

TIPS TO GET ASSIGNMENTS DONE

If you are passionate about completing your degree successfully, here are three tips that I personally try my best to follow throughout my academic year.

TIP #1 Do NOT procrastinate

I cannot emphasize this tip enough and although it is very hard to follow through, trust me, the end is worth your while. This is something that I find very hard to keep up with, as normally at a young age, it is hard to find balance between things. But what I did noticed is that, on certain modules, where I did not procrastinate and I put my heart and soul to making the work a success, I did receive the fruit of my effort and so, I encourage you to try and do so as well.

TIP #2 Be organized

Once you have mastered the first and most difficult tip, you need to know what to do. Sometimes, when I tend not to procrastinate and I begin to study, I end up thinking, “So what do I do first”? And to be honest, figuring out what to do first itself kills time like anything. So, my advice is to try and make a study plan by writing down a series of steps on what you are going to do. This will help you stay on track and effectively organize your schedule.

TIP #3 Research, Read, Highlight, Repeat!

This is the cycle that is going to help you throughout your semester. Especially when it comes to business, researching, reading and marking the important parts of articles relevant to your topic is the most important part. It takes a lot of time and patience but at the end of it all, you will surely get a sense of direction on how to go about your assignment. This will help you like a miracle in your assignments as your mind gets a click on how to go about with the structure of whatever assignment that you are working on.

What a Degree from Villa College can get YOU

Once you complete your degree, you might be wondering where to go. But you can be well assured that if you are truly ambitious and complete your degree successfully, you can very well try and apply to the University of West of England itself, to complete your further studies, with scholarship options for students who have shown an outstanding performance. If you are not willing to study abroad, but are planning to work locally, the programmes at Villa are of a high standard and hence enhances your qualification level even more, ensuring that you get the job of your dreams.

That is the end of just some parts of my journey at Villa College, but for every person, it is surely a different experience. Hence, I invite all of you to start up and shape your own academic journey and I wish each and every single one of you the very best of luck for your future endeavors at Villa College.