UCL English student Aniella Ingram shares how to make the most out of your time at UCL on a programme with fewer contact hours.

Since coming to university, I was surprised to find myself with a lot more free time than I could have prepared for. While I know that there will be some STEM students scoffing to themselves about this, as a second year BA English student I have around nine contact hours per week. So, although there is certainly work to be done outside of this teaching time – an absolute mass of reading mostly – I still end up with a lot of spare time on my hands, time which if I don’t make an effort to fill seems to be consumed by doom scrolling. So, this is an example of one of my days at uni, with a couple of lectures as well as what I get up to in between.

8am: Wake-up and brekie. I try to wake up around the same time every day just so it keeps me in a good routine.

9am: Workout class. I am really lucky to live close to uni so I walked to my gym for a workout class before walking to my lecture.

10am: Lecture. A one-hour lecture on the influence of Ovid on Chaucer’s dream vision poetry (not everyone’s cup of tea but definitely interesting!)

11am: Coffee and study. I grabbed a coffee with one of my course friends before we headed to the student centre to get some work done.

1pm: Department meeting. I am on a student-staff committee for the English department and today we had one of our bi-termly meetings. I find that being involved in these discussions makes me feel like my voice can be heard in such a big university.

2pm: Seminar. A two-hour seminar for the Modern English Language module I am taking. Today we were focusing on applied linguistics and communication in healthcare contexts.

4pm: Library. I had an hour to kill after my seminar, so I took myself to the Science Library to get a bit of reading done for my American literature lecture tomorrow.

5pm: Salsa Society meeting. I met with some committee member to discuss upcoming projects for the spring and summer term. I find that being involved with a few societies is a great way to spend my time and feel more involved at uni.

6pm: Ballet class. I gave up ballet as a teenager but for ages had wanted to pick it back up. So, I have recently been going to Dance Society’s weekly beginner classes which are great!

7pm: Lidl shop. Quick trip to Lidl near campus to do my grocery shop (which I had been putting off for a week!) before walking home.

8pm: Dinner with my flatmates. We don’t always do this but when we are all around, we like to do little flat dinners together. Tonight, we had stir-fry noodles.

10pm: Chill + unwind. I face-timed a friend for a catch up and then just watched some Netflix before going to bed.

This was one of my busier days and by no means does every day look like this; it’s so important to have days where I just relax at home. But I find that spending time on campus and engaging in all the extracurricular activities UCL has to offer is extremely gratifying, especially as an Arts & Humanities student, as your course is merely one element of a fulfilling university experience.

Instagram: @aniella.ingram