1. Navigator (aka, this trusty blog!)
Navigator is maintained by a team of students just like you! Every article written on our blog is created by students for students. It’s a safe place for students to share the realities faced when studying at university. We aim to connect with students who have encountered similar experiences and help them in some way.
Navigator is a great student blog to check when you feel stressed, homesick or are struggling with some of the challenges of studying. All sorts of stories are posted on the blog and created around the themes of ‘Academic Success’, ‘Your Future’, ‘Taking Care of You’, ‘Social Life’ and ‘Your Stories’. Some posts on Navigator include 5 reasons to study over summer and How to stop stress from spoiling your relationships.
2. That email thing everyone talks about
Every time somebody at the uni tries to contact you it will typically be through your uni emails. Through my own experiences with uni emails, I’ve realised some pretty important things come through there. Okay, story time!
In my first year at uni, I never checked my emails and therefore I did not realise that the Fees Office had been trying to contact me about overdue fees. After five ignored emails, my uni account was blocked right before all my final assignments were due and when I finally called to find out what’s going on, I was told that I enrolled as a New Zealand citizen and owed tuition fees (I am not a New Zealand citizen by the way). It’s quite horrific hearing you owe $4,000 you don’t have… trust me, I know. Paperwork was filed and corrected which fixed the problem, but moral of the story is if I would have just checked my uni emails this would have been sorted with way less stress.
I am now logged in to my emails through Outlook on my phone so I get notifications when I receive an email (I’m not having the citizenship mishap happen to me again).
3. Your familiar friend, Facebook
Chances are you spend a bit (a lot) of time on social media anyways, so why not do something productive with your newsfeed? Go ahead and like the Uni Newcastle Students Facebook page for all the essentials you need to know as a student, and more.
You’ll stay informed of upcoming important dates like enrolment, exams, and Fully Graded Date, events like gigs on campus, Stress Less week, and parties, and support services such as Counselling and Academic Learning Support. They also post job alerts from the latest job listings from Career Hub. Other posts include uni tips, tricks, and support like food freebies in the Library if you’re study late night before exams – you wouldn’t want to miss out on that!
4. Your new best friend, AskUON
AskUON is a great tool provided by the uni. Essentially it is a search engine that answers any queries you may have about uni. You can seriously type in anything uni related to AskUON – no joke. For example, what are the dates for Summer Term? What will my tuition fees be? What’s the difference between HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP? Or can I resubmit assignments on Turnitin?
Seriously I have asked it everything, AskUON is my saviour and will provide you with the answer or will give insight on where to get it.
Don’t believe me? Test it for yourself here: AskUON