Hello! It's Tamar, an exchange student here at LSE, and today I would like to talk to you about
the academic support that we're given at the university. Being an international student and
absolutely in love with London, the first couple of months of transitioning into LSE system while
simultaneously trying not to miss out from these amazing opportunities that London has to offer
was difficult. You will soon discover, upon joining LSE,
that students here are extremely academically driven, and therefore,
a lot of independent work is expected from them. This might feel daunting at times, navigating and
juggling through all these different deadlines and reading lists. However, one thing assured,
LSE community does everything to make you feel at ease and help you succeed in everything you
decide to tackle. In fact, LSE's "You've Got This" campaign is exactly for this purpose.
In this video I will outline the top things I used here at LSE that truly made a difference in my
well-being and academic success. When joining LSE, you will get your own academic mentor.
You will get one-to-one sessions with them where you can raise any questions and concerns that you
might have and get knowledgeable and professional advice from them. Your academic mentor is here to
provide you with their academic support but also help you with any non-academic issues.
They are allocated from your department, and hence, they are usually someone whose research
interest aligns to some of the reasons why you would have chosen this specific department.
Therefore, they are the perfect place for you to discuss anything about academics, further study,
and simply about how you're performing at LSE and what can be done to improve this.
Also, if you are a prospective exchange student here at LSE
and you feel worried about whether LSE will be able to accommodate different type of
experience that you will have compared to the main student body, worry no more because LSE
has a designated and highly professional team to assist you during your time here. But also,
there is a Dean of General Course and Global Mobility always available for a chat. You
can book their office hours in-person or online and talk about anything that you might want to.
Another great academic resource that you can use are your teachers and professors—using their
office hours. Office hours are instrumental in the UK educational system because there is
much less contact hours and much more independent work expected from you.
Therefore, while lectures guide you to do your own research with the readings,
it is very important that you get extra individualized support from your teachers
about anything that you might not have understood from your readings. Also, this
is an amazing opportunity for you to get to know your teachers in a more personal level and get any
academic advice from them in terms of your career prospects. They are very approachable,
very friendly, so no need to worry about meeting them in person at all. You book their office hours
through the use of an LSE app called Student Hub, where once you write the teacher's name,
their schedule pops up, and then you are free to choose any available slot within the week.
When talking about the academic support here at LSE, I must absolutely mention
LSE Life service. LSE Life service is a truly invaluable resource that you should not miss
out from. It is located in the ground floor of LSE library where you can book workshops and seminars,
themes of which varies greatly starting from "How to Formulate a Question," or "How to
Write an Academic Essay," and "How to Reduce Stress and Practice Mindfulness." I have used
LSE Life one-to-one sessions a lot when I was submitting my very first formatives here at LSE,
and coming from an international background—I'm not going to lie—I was quite lost with how English
essay structure should have looked like because it greatly differed to the one that I was familiar
with. I had a very, very useful training session with one of the advisors who taught me how to
formulate an argument with the use of examples, how to structure the essay, and how to make the
essay stand out. I'm truly confident to say that the support that I was given here really
played a big role in me being satisfied with my grades from the very first formatives at LSE.
So whenever you feel struggling, even if you think that your concern is something silly and not worth
seeking help from, do make sure you use their help because the scope of LSE Life is truly very wide.
So these are the top academic resources that I've been using almost on a weekly basis which not only
helped me to fit in and transition to LSE system, but also help me succeed in my academic endeavors.
Those resources are freely available for you all, and if you ever feel struggling
with your academic commitments or study and social life balance, do not worry. You've
got this because LSE community is here to help you. Thank you so much for watching this video.
I really hope you found it informative, and I'm going to see you soon in my next video.