Switch from Sixth Form to University
Hey guys! It’s Elif here and I'm back with a new post. You may be in the process of applying to study architecture or you might just have started first year and are thinking to yourself what the difference between sixth form and university is like. Is it going to be more difficult? Am I finally going to get the freedom I want? Well, in this post I briefly discuss the differences and the switch from sixth form to university.
For those of you who don’t know, the main difference between these two forms of education is that University is classed as higher education and is not compulsory, whereas sixth form or any other form of education (apprenticeship, traineeship, college, BTEC etc…) is mandatory till the age of 18. Since university is optional, you do pay a tuition fee which varies depending on your type of course, whether you are from the UK or an international student. This means that when you transition from sixth-form to university, you have to adopt a positive attitude to your education if you want to cope with studying at university, because you are literally choosing to study and you are doing so for a price. In addition to this, higher education is taught very differently. Where in schools you have 40-60 minute lessons 5 day a week, at university you have lectures, tutorials, workshops, seminars and studio days depending on your course. For architecture, it is usually a combination of studio days, lectures and tutorials.
I'm sure you've heard many times that at university you are a lot more independent. As an adult you become responsible for your own learning and being independent is a part of that. You are the one that needs to chase down your lecturers and tutors to get the help you need. It’s expected of you, as a student, to have researched a topic before bringing it up to a tutor with questions as it shows you being proactive and it means you are not waiting to be spoon fed all the answers. Alongside this, being independent comes in other forms like finance and living situations. This is subjective and obviously changes from person to person, but in some cases, where you are moving out, you become independent in the way that you support your own finances in rent, bills, social activities and much more. Some people may have parents to help out or a fund/scheme from their university alongside student finance, but it is still your choice on how you spend that money.
In terms of teaching format and contact hours, there's a clear difference between uni and sixth form. When attending sixth form you may have had something called ‘free periods’ which refers to the slots in your timetable where you don't have a lesson yet you might have been required to be in school (depends on your sixth form). At university you are free to come and leave when you want. You are obviously expected to attend all your classes and studio days. However, if you do not, this is on you and to a certain extent, the lecturers don't say anything. This however should not be a reason to be irresponsible with your free time. Something you will also realise is that tutors and lecturers are more like friends than teachers at university. You still have to maintain a level of respect between you, but (for example) when calling your lecturers and tutors you generally refer to them by their first name and there is no use of the terms Mr and Ms. They see and treat you like an adult and are generally quite sociable.
One misconception might be that since you are paying for your education, you’ll constantly be set work to hand in, perhaps similar to the weekly basis that you’re used to in school.. Where this may be true for extra reading and some lectures this is not the case for all classes. At university you have deadlines and submissions (and deliverables for the case of architecture students) but these are set with large amounts of time between each. You could have a submission two or three times a year but they will not set you ‘homework’ or a weekly piece of work to complete. This is down to you. You are expected to organise the work you need to complete and set a realistic amount to present to your tutor at your next tutorial. Whereas in sixth form, you have set work that you complete in class and a separate piece of work that you are expected to complete at home as homework. Don’t forget at university you study one course that encapsulates multiple different modules, so despite not doing 3 or 4 unrelated topics like you do at sixth form, you still have different modules providing you with a hefty workload.
A topic that I haven't touched on yet is socialising and making friends! The most fun aspect of starting uni :) Universities have a lot more students than a general sixth form does and it becomes impossible to meet every single person, but generally the people in your studio and the people in your year will be the people you're friends with. At university you may often find it easier to drift between different groups of people. One day you might hang out with a few friends and the next you'll be with a different group and this tends to be the case with a lot of students, whereas in sixth form what we experienced was that you have your one friendship group and you stick with them. Aside from this, another differentiating factor is that during sixth form you have clubs which tend to be under the supervision of a teacher, whereas at university there are societies which are student led. There are many more societies to join than there were clubs at sixth form as they run on their own and events are organised by the student leaders.
Overall, as we’ve gathered from this post there are some important differences in attitude and workload between sixth form and university. Hopefully this was helpful to understand how they differ from each other not only with workload but also with how you approach situations independently . Don't worry about settling in though! You’ll naturally adjust to the changes, it’s just good to acknowledge them so you can feel a bit more prepared.
If you would like to contribute and add other helpful pointers, leave them in the comments under the post at @archidabble on instagram and if you have any questions make sure to get in touch through our dm’s or email. We have some exciting and beneficial posts coming in the next few weeks so make sure to subscribe to the mailing list to be notified about them!
