Day: January 11, 2016

Blog: Week 11

/ Yasmin Burton

As Lent term is the term Freshers are usually beginning to think about next year’s accommodation, I thought I’d write a quick blog with some information, tips and advice on moving out of halls and into a student house. In the first term, those who have just arrived at Lancaster University, fresh out of sixth form, usually only know a couple of people. By term two, however, you have to make a decision about who to live with in the following year. This is not a decision to rush into! It is best to take your time reviewing all of the housing possibilities and carefully deciding who you want your next year’s housemates to be.

There are many different accommodation types for second years and many students choose to move out of their first year University halls on campus and into a rented student house. LUSU Living, is the estate agent firm which is partnered with Lancaster University and has branches both on campus and in the Lancaster town centre. If you are worried about being ripped off by private landlords or unscrupulous estate agents, then LUSU Living is a good first port of call to check out what sort of rents you should be being charged and what kind of properties are out there.

It is often best to rent with an estate agent that has an `all bills included` contract so that you do not have to worry about racking up costly gas and electricity bills. Particularly in the winter time, it is a relief to know that you can stick the heating on whenever you want, instead of huddling under a blanket with about a billion jumpers on because you are worried about your gas bill at the end of the month!

Another top tip, is to ensure that you thoroughly read your rent contract before you sign it. You may have viewed a property that you instantly fell in love with- double bed in a nicely decorated bedroom, large television in the lounge, spacious kitchen and charming garden, but always make sure you give the papers a read before you sign. On the whole, most landlords offer reasonable terms to their tenants, but it is always good to be wary just in case. Make sure you check for clauses in the contract which stipulate the amount of notice that you have to give before you are allowed to leave- if it is three months notice then you want to be clued up on this so that you can notify your landlord three months before the end of Summer term, otherwise you might be looped into staying the whole Summer!

Further to this, make sure that you find out if payments are monthly or termly. Termly payments are quite nice as they generally tie in with student finance payments. That’s not to say that there is anything wrong with paying your rent in monthly instalments- it just means that you have to be good at budgeting! You don’t want to have blown your student loan if you still have rent payments to make!

New Ways of Thinking

/ Harriotte Preston

When I decided to take my place at Lancaster University it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I know many people find it hard to decide what to major in and take as your degree, because it is a decision that will impact on your life.  However, I soon realized that I wanted to take Design; as I wanted to work in a creative industry.  I wanted the commercial side of it, where I could explore areas of product design, graphic design, advertising and many more areas that I had not even thought of yet.  This was important to me, I wanted to be challenged, and pushed into directions I did not even know existed. Fortunately, in my first week at Lancaster this soon became very apparent that I had made the right decision.

New ways of thinking

‘Good and Bad Ideas’ was the title of a Design workshop, it was one of the first that we had. The idea behind it was to make you look at Idea Generation in a new light.

This was fascinating, as most people take coming up with ideas for granted, thinking it’s easy and sticking to their methods of generation. However, we explore new techniques which takes you beyond the initial thought. One of the most creative yet challenging tasks was coming up with the worst ideas you could think of. It’s important to look at bad ideas, as identifying problems is as important as solving them.

We worked in groups of five in the workshop, so ideas were being generated fast. It was fun!  The things people think of when doing the opposite to normal is amazing, gone are the restrictions that you imply when using other techniques, as feasibility and such go out of the window.

Why did we do this?

You may be thinking what is the point of this?  Well really it’s to turn the worst idea that was thought of into the best idea. Ambitious, yes, and we were all a little perplexed at how this happened and how in the world we were meant to do this, but bit by bit you strip the idea down to reach the fundamentals. Surprisingly, it quickly becomes an amazing idea that you would not have considered before. It was also amazing to see how everyone in the group was completely involved.

Creativity existed in abundance, something that was so inspiring to be around. Now I am not saying it was easy because it was not. But it gives you a feel of what working to a deadline and client brief feels like, in a group of people that don’t know each other, then having to create a well thought out idea. I came out of this workshop happy knowing that I made the right choice and that I was so excited to start on the next tasks. But not only that, before this, I would never have looked at a brief that asked for the best idea and approached it by starting with the worst. It gave me a new mindset of sorts, freeing me from the restrictions on my creativity that I had previously placed there.