Arshaaq’s story

Arshaaq was in his second year at the University of Wolverhampton when he took part in a Grit programme.

I was massively burnt out. I’d lost my motivation and was only just managing to keep up with my assignments. And the work I was doing was pretty slap dash. I’d lost sight of why I’d come to university in the first place. I was seriously thinking of leaving.

University hadn’t been what thought it would be. I thought it was going to be so exciting. In the movies you see people doing all sorts of new things, going out with interesting friends. But, as far as I could tell, people just stayed in their rooms. It was so difficult to meet new people. There were only 12 people on my course and, although I made friends with some foreign students, they left at the end of my first year. I felt isolated. I was disillusioned. Even the campus didn’t look how I thought it would, the sports facilities were not what I had been expecting.

I was struggling to get used to how the lecturers have different styles of support, different teaching styles. Some were more hands on, some were more hands off. Some were laid back, some were pretty demanding. It was difficult to adjust.

The Grit workshop was just great. It was all about me, the way I think about things, the way I talk about myself. It gave me a positive mindset. I realised that, although I can’t change how university is, what I can change is how I am, how I deal with things. Uni is different from how I imagined it, but that’s OK as long as you don’t get stuck on that. I saw that I had it in my power to get the most out of it.

In the workshop I met people who were in the same boat as me. In fact, we had loads in common. Now we get together to revise, to socialise. It’s helped me make more friends so I’m more comfortable with being at uni. I feel more like I belong here.

Grit took the pressure off. Before I felt as if I should be taking every opportunity I could, going out and doing all sorts of things. Grit has put my attention onto me and what I need, rather than all that’s going on around me.  It helped me remember why I wanted to come to uni.

It gave me the confidence to take more control of my learning – to make it work for the way I learn, to do what I have to do, not just try and do the same as everyone else.  I’ve looked at different ways of studying and the work I’m doing is so much better. Definitely.

Because Grit has been specially brought in by the university it felt more than just a tick box exercise, more than just going through the motions. It showed me that a that a lot of thought was going into supporting us, that someone cared. So I’m much more positive about the university itself.

I wish I’d done Grit in my first year. It would have eased the transition to uni a lot. It’s definitely worthwhile. It’s given me a completely different ways of looking at things, about how you get out what you put it. People genuinely need this. More people should do it.