It was certainly never my aim to attend university.  I had never excelled at education before, hindered by my poor performance in exams and lack of focus on coursework, I used to resign myself to performing adequately in my academic work.

How quickly things have changed. I am about to enter my second year at Leeds Met University studying for a business degree.

Before I begin talking to you about my opinion on universities, please don’t expect me to tell you whether you should or shouldn’t attend university. That is a personal decision you have to make.

Additionally, I haven’t exactly gone straight from college through to university. I took a gap year which started in January 2011.  I started at Leeds Met in September 2011.

So don’t expect any answers from this article. OK, now we have that disclaimer out of the way…

Let me firstly tell you I have had to remain incredibly dedicated and committed during my first year.

As I have revealed to you at the beginning of this article academics isn’t my speciality. I have had to learn to love the essay writing, research and reading which goes into this level of academics.

The weird thing is I love the subject of business. I can happily spend hours reading journals and business books every day. The difference is the way academia expects you to write is much more  formal and to be honest that feels constrained to me.

However during my first year of university I have started to learn the importance of developing my skills in business. I always knew that would be the biggest benefit of attending a university.

I now have access to countless online business databases, two huge academic libraries and a wealth of talent amongst the business school faculty.

You can’t easily get access to this quality of information online or in a public library. So I am actually glad to be involved with an institution where I can just sit and learn everything I can about business all day every day.

Furthermore the opportunities available to university students and the support offered is unrivalled. I have been involved in a marketing competition for the European car company SEAT during my first year and taken part in the university debating society.

That isn’t something you can easily get access to outside of university unless you know the right people.

That’s another benefit of university. You can get introductions to people in the local and national business community either through attending university led events or through your tutors.

But let me just add that you don’t get the introductions or opportunities automatically.  You have to work hard and get involved in university life as often as possible.

Too many people enter university with the expectancy that it automatically opens doors for them. I am here to tell you the unvarnished truth, you have to work hard to reach that point.

As a first year that’s my view of life at the moment. I think I will revisit this topic next year after I finish my second year and see how if things have changed.

My question to you is do you attend university, if so do you think it is beneficial to your future goals?

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