By Anna Powell (University of Melbourne, Australia)

I thought that returning to uni after a whole year away would be tough. This year counts for 67% of my final degree (a little different to last year’s pass or fail requirement!) and over the summer I watched loads of my friends graduate from Manchester. I’ve been a little concerned about adjusting from a pass or fail year to my crucial final year as well as wondering what would remain of my social life back in Manchester. Despite my concerns, returning to Manchester has been fine, great even!

There are far more people around than I had expected; it turns out that a surprising number of people did a year abroad and quite a few are doing a masters year. This is nice as, although a lot of friends have graduated, I’ve grown closer to other people who are still around. Also, those of us who have been abroad from Psychology have already made contact and have been sitting together in lectures. It’s been good not to feel like the newbie on a course where everyone else has had classes together for two years. I’ve loved hearing about where everyone has been, from America to Canada to Australia, what our experiences were like and how they differed.

Although the academic year has only just begun, I already sense a change of attitude in the people around me as everyone has developed a really strong work ethic. Because most people are either final year or masters students, partying has been seconded to working hard, which feels like a good environment to be in. For me, I feel like my year abroad has made me a lot more driven. After seeing many friends graduate and be launched into the real world, I’ve seen the importance of working as hard as possible in my final year, as well as continuing to beef up my CV in preparation for job applications. Being away has given me a bit of a breather from the intensity of my degree, so that I’ve returned feeling refreshed and ready to take on final year. Fingers crossed all goes well!