Thank you, Andrew. Well, firstly I'd like to welcome you all here, and express the hope that the four or five years that you spend at this university are among the very best of your lives. My colleagues and I are here to help ensure that they are, to give you the support and guidance necessary to make the most of your time here.

The transition from school to college or university can be a difficult one, even if it's something that most of you have been looking forward to. There are many changes to adjust to – for many of you, it'll be the first experience of living away from home, with all that this entails – cooking for yourself, cleaning for yourself and just generally looking after yourself. There'll be no parents to take care of you – and no parents shouting at you to do your homework, either: it's up to you now. You are now the only person responsible for organising your time, for ensuring that you get to class and that you complete all assignments by their due dates. Of course, some of you have probably been doing this for years, but there are others for whom the responsibility will be a new challenge, and it is to those people I am primarily addressing myself now. Because my role is, as I said earlier, to provide whatever support I can to help you adjust to this new environment and all that it entails. Today I'll be talking mainly about study skills, though my counselling colleagues and I also offer support for personal development issues, or personal problems that any student might encounter.

One of the most basic and important study skills that we need to consider is that of time management. Being successful at university level will probably require a more careful and effective utilisation of time than you have ever achieved before. You are typically scheduled for 15 or more hours of classroom work per week; in addition, you are expected to average about two hours of preparation for each hour in the classroom. This means you have at least a 45-hour workweek and are consequently involved in a full-time occupation! Many of you will also need to have part-time jobs, and then there are family and social responsibilities, which add a great deal more time. A common student complaint, therefore, is that there is just not enough time to go around.

The job of being a university student, like most other jobs, can be carried out either efficiently or inefficiently. The way we use time (or waste it) is largely a matter of habit patterns. One of the best techniques for developing more efficient habits of time use is to prepare a time schedule. Research psychologists and efficiency experts can produce impressive statistics demonstrating the efficiency of a well-organised time schedule. The work habits of people who have achieved outstanding success invariably show a well-designed pattern or schedule. When someone has several duties confronting them simultaneously, they often will fail to do any of them. The purpose of scheduling is not to make a slave of the student, but to free you from the inefficiency and anxiety that is, at least partially, a function of wasted time, inadequate planning, hasty, last-minute study, etc.

So now, briefly, I'd like to outline some suggestions for developing a study strategy – and after this talk, I'll be giving you a handout which summarises the main ideas we discuss here.

So, firstly, you need to ensure that you plan enough time for study.

The University expects a student to average about two hours in studying (including library work, term papers, themes, etc.) for each hour spent in the classroom. This is an appropriate and realistic guideline. A genuinely high-ability student may get by adequately with less. However, many students would do well to plan for somewhat more than the two-for-one ratio.

Secondly, you need to try to ensure that you study at the same time every day.

Insofar as possible, a student should schedule certain hours which are used for studying almost every day in a habitual, systematic way. Having regular hours at least five days a week will make it easier to habitually follow the schedule and to maintain an active approach to study.

My third suggestion actually concerns breaks from study! Fifty to 90 minutes of study at a time for each course works best. Relaxation periods of 10 or 15 minutes should be scheduled between study periods. It is more efficient to study hard for a definite period of time, and then stop for a few minutes, than attempt to study on indefinitely.

Now, moving on to my final suggestion – and I think it's one you'll like: make sure that you allow time for planned recreation activities. When you plan your schedule, you should begin by listing the activities that come at fixed hours and cannot be changed. Classes and laboratories, meals at the college dining hall, sleep, and part-time jobs are examples of time uses which you typically cannot alter. Next, you can schedule your flexible time commitments. Recreational activities are planned last.

Now, there are other areas we can consider ....