No One Teaches You to Cook at Uni
When Nobody Is Watching: The Freedom Shock of UK University
Coming from Singapore, I had mentally prepared for a lot of things before moving to Manchester. The cold. The accents. Finding decent food. What I had not prepared for was the complete weight of freedom that lands on you the moment you move into your accommodation and realise that nobody is coming to check on you.
University independence is not just about going out when you want or staying up late. It is standing in a supermarket aisle genuinely unsure how to cook rice without a rice cooker. It is realising that no one will remind you to do your laundry, and that a bathroom does not clean itself. I am not in catered accommodation, so all of that landed on me from day one.
Why Lectures at Manchester Surprised Me
The academic side of that freedom was the bigger adjustment. Back home in Singapore, my school had a very interactive learning environment. Teachers knew your name, there was discussion, you were challenged in real time. At the University of Manchester, Aerospace Engineering is a large cohort. You can sit in a lecture hall with hundreds of students and the professor will not know if you showed up. Attendance is your responsibility entirely.
I am someone who does not learn well from passive listening. I need to be doing something, discussing something, building something. If I am just sitting and absorbing, my brain switches off. That meant I had to figure out very quickly how I actually learn and build my own structure around the university's, rather than relying on the university to do it for me.
How I Found the Hands-On Experience I Was Looking For
What genuinely saved my first year was joining Manchester Stinger Motorsports, the university's Formula Student team. The goal of the team is to design and build a racing car from scratch over the course of the academic year and compete at Silverstone. I joined knowing essentially nothing about automotive engineering. People just started teaching me anyway.
That team gave me everything the lectures were not giving me at that stage: real problems, real stakes, real collaboration. I started as a junior engineer, worked my way to team engineer, and next year I will be sub-team leader for intake, cooling and exhaust. None of that came from a course description. It came from showing up and being willing to start at the bottom.
If you are considering an engineering degree in the UK, find your equivalent of this as early as possible. Your degree and your society work best together.
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before I Arrived
Get a local bank account sorted before or immediately after you land. Have a system set up with your family for receiving money in pounds. It sounds trivial but sorting out finances in your first week, while also trying to make friends and find your lecture rooms, is genuinely stressful. Remove that stress before it arrives.
Be deliberate about your accommodation choice too. Think about how social you actually want your living environment to be. If you want quiet, do not pick the most social halls. If you thrive on people around you, do not isolate yourself in a studio. I would also strongly recommend an ensuite if you can make it work. Small thing, big quality of life difference.
Most importantly: university is a marathon. The people who get the most out of it are not the ones who sprint hardest in week one. They are the ones who stay consistent, make intentional choices about where their time and energy goes, and do not burn out trying to do everything at once.
- Alexis
