Day in the life: Land Economy
A day in the life of Land Economy student Thomas Schute (2014).
Monday 26th January 2015
8am Within seconds of the alarm going off, the mandatory cup of milky tea becomes the number one priority. This is definitely one of the many newly acquired habits for me since coming to the UK, alongside putting Capital FM on in the background.
8.30am The opening of the floodgates, commonly known as Emails. Coming to university puts you on a lot of mailing lists, where you quickly sink or swim depending on whether you accidentally delete the supervision work your supervisor sent you or the notification of a change of lecture time. I checked my diary for the day and then downloaded the lecture slides to uploaded onto my IPad for the lecture later.
9am A quick check of the BBC and Belgium news websites (Interesting article on MP’s believing Fracking has to be banned to ensure the UK meet their Carbon targets – Very Land Economy). Then I make sure I have all my notes for the Supervision later and familiarise myself with the topics again.
9.50am A 2 minute walk down to Mill Lane for the supervision.
10am An hour-long supervision on the goods market of economies and getting supervision work back. Having become more accustomed to supervisions, you realise the value they have when receiving feedback on your work and discuss the topic with the supervisor and peers.
11.15am A quick FaceTime call back home to my mum in Belgium. Always nice to have a quick pep talk and see the dog lounging around in my seat.
11.30am Consolidating the supervision notes and then filing them away.
12pm I have just signed up to vote in the General Elections coming up in May, which is the first time I can vote in the UK! I should probably read into who I might want to vote for...
12.30pm The daily struggle of having to choose between getting lunch either at Trough or the café. Think it’s definitely a panini day at the café.
1pm In preparation for a law methodology supervision tomorrow, I have to finish-off some reading and notes of articles regarding the doctrine of precedents in the Court of Appeal and House of Lords at the time, now replaced by the Supreme Court. It is extremely interesting how the judges justify their reasoning in rulings; especially with the Judiciary in the UK occasionally have multiple grey zones on certain matters, such as Stare Decisis (Litigation through precedence).
2.30pm Getting my hockey stuff together in preparation for a quick (impossible as it turned out) turn around from lectures to Hockey. Then off to a Paper 4 lecture focusing this term on Real Estate and in particular today on the entire Development Market from the structure of the market players, to the cash flow finances. Having looked ahead, this is going to be one of those overwhelming lectures of endless information.
3pm As predicted, a lot of information, numbers and processes to take in. Nonetheless, it is fascinating seeing case studies of the application of what we are learning from planning and assessing projects to executing and managing them.
5pm A mad dash on the bike to get to hockey training, a 10-minute cycle away out to the pitch and running track. Still, it was inevitable that I was going to be late to training this week given the timing of the replacement lecture.
7.15pm Cycle back home, passing by Sainsbury’s for some dinner. Thankfully we had a lighter than usual training session since we have had three games last week, which definitely tired everyone out a bit.
7.30pm A quick hop into the shower and then time to tuck into my extremely satisfying lamb and pasta microwave meal. It’s a bit unfortunate with hockey training times being 5-7 since it means you miss out on trough dinner. Selection for 2/3’s Varisty match is being announced in the next 24 hours, so nerves are on edge. Cross fingers.
8pm Time for more reading in preparation for tomorrow’s supervision. These judges do seem to have a lot of different opinions considering they’re meant to be impartial and be following the same laws…
9pm Went to discuss the topics of the upcoming supervision with a fellow Land Economist in the college. This is always very helpful to compare conclusions from a text, as well as calm a few nerves as to not being prepared enough.
9.30pm Consolidation of the lecture today, which I have to say I really enjoyed. Many of the aspects of Real Estate, in particular the investment and development markets, have definitely grasped my attention so far this term.
10pm Headed down to the JP (College Bar) to catch up with some friends.
11pm I sorted out my notes for my 9am supervision tomorrow and finally time to get to bed.
For more about the Land Economy course, see the University website.
Images: Thomas Schute and Caroline Hancox