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Successful study, making friends and forming social networks often go hand-in-hand. Students that have a good social life and a solid on-campus network often find academic work easier to accomplish.
While uni is hard work, you're allowed to have fun; if you're not happy socially how can you do all the assignments you will be expected to complete?
If you're a school-leaver, you're coming to uni from an environment (high school) where you were thrown together with other people with whom you spent 15 or 20 hours per week. At uni you may only have class contact for an hour and then everyone will disappear. So it is really up to you to make connections with other people: it is worth the effort.
If you're a non-school leaver, you may not spend much time on campus. If you're juggling other commitments, it's easy to decide you don't have the 'free-time' required to make friends, and that you're just at uni to work.
However—meeting other students is not a luxury, it's a necessity.
Establishing a good social network is crucial to success at uni. Making friends not only contributes to your general well-being, it helps you become a more successful student. It's also vital to establish contacts with student colleagues and participate in formal or informal 'study groups'.
Apart from the enjoyable social aspects of meeting people, it's important to cultivate a group of people with whom you can:
Student colleagues can also be an important source of support if you experience problems with your studies and need extra help, be it resources or reassurance.
Many lasting friendships are made at uni. The important word here is 'made'. It's a common misconception that making friends at uni will be easy. But establishing friendship networks can be difficult at first. Great friendships don't just happen - you need to look for opportunities to get to know other students.
In your classes
Outside classes
There are plenty of opportunities to meet people:
Students Comment
"I certainly found that, not straight away, but throughout the year I was developing a group of friends ... who I could share ideas with and that really helped me in my learning, being able to discuss things with my peers."
(UNSW student)
"I think I probably had expectations of how I was going to fit into it all but it didn't happen like I expected. I probably had too high expectations. Like, I could slip straight into the social thing, get a good group of friends straight away. I thought it was going to happen like that overnight. So my expectations didn't quite live up!"
(First year student, RMIT)