I am Chief Adviser of Studies for Science and a Senior University Teacher in Physics and Astronomy.
Panayotakis is such a long surname so many people know me as Costas.
At the University of Glasgow I am a Professor of Latin and Classics more generally.
An Adviser of Studies is the first point of contact for students arriving at University.
They're there to be the go-to person for all students with any issues
whether its academic, pastoral, financial, health.
My role as Chief Adviser in the College of Arts is to lead the Arts Advising Team
and to be the first port of call, first contact point
for all students in the College of Arts for any kinds of issues.
All Level 1 and Level 2 Science students
are required to meet with their Advisers at least twice a year
and it allows the students to raise any concerns they might have.
If they want to check "am I doing okay?" the Adviser can check in with them,
If the results are good they can let them know they are good
If they are bad they can find out if there is anything going on.
Our students will always have someone to speak to them, someone to welcome them,
to receive their query and deal with it.
Level 1 students at Univeristy will encounter various different forms of teaching.
There's lectures, laboratories and tutorials, those make up the main three groups.
The lecture is the dominant form, it's how most information is conveyed in first year.
These are 50-minute sessons running from 5-past-the-hour to 5-to-the-hour,
and they can take place in usually large lecture theatres, anything up to 350 people.
One of the biggest changes students have to adapt to is taking charge of their own learning.
They will receive a lot of information in the lecture but they are going to have to
put their own work into really absorb that afterwards.
Roughly two hours of thier own learning for every hour of lecture.
A laboraroty session is very different, it's a lot more hands on.
Usually much smaller numbers. Most labs have a capacity of around about 50 with
students working on their own, or usually in pairs, to tackle practical experiments.
Tutorials are very flexible. They vary a lot from school to school.
They can be one member of staff to 5, 20 or 25 students.
The seminar or tutorial has a dual function;
it will help the student consolidate the knowledge about the lecture and
it will also facilitate the students getting maybe a deeper understanding
of particular elements of the lecture.
It's a smaller scenario, so can be quite friendly, but your tutor will still expect you
to prepare so there are sometimes readings to do in advance of your tutorial
and we would expect you to do that, because if all the students turn up having not prepared
the seminar doesn't really work. We can't get conversation going,
so there's a massive difference between when a tutorial doesn't go very well and when it does.
And when it doesn it's down to the students getting involved as well.
If I can facilitate the students to have a conversation or a debate themselves
and if a lot of them are talking freely; for me that's the best and that's the way it should be.
When students come in to Level 1, they will quite often run into problems.
That's perfectly normal.
Students should realise that it's very hard in the early weeks
for students to realise that they are not the only ones struggling.
Often your tutor is the person you will see most in first year
so if you are having any trouble you can come to them.
I always try to get students to speak to me right at the end of class, I think
face-to-face is best, but if that's not possible then by email.
I'm always keen for them to just email me anything, perhaps
if there were further issues I'd suggest one of the Universtiy's modular services
but we should always be the first point of contact for subject material.
You also have your Adviser of Studies, so keep that in mind.
For things like long periods of absesnce they are a good person to contact as well.
If you have a problem, do not hide. Get in touch with the Course Convenor.
That is the person responsible for bringing the module together.
Get in touch with an administrator if it is a technical issue that you cannot resolve.
If it is a general academic issue, get in touch with the Effective Learning Unit.
If it is a course issue; 'I'm not enjoying this course' 'Can I change in the second semester?'
'Can I change direction in my studies?'
Then they would need to get in touch with their Adviser of Studies.
If I had one piece of advice for a new first year student it's not to be daunted.
It's very different at University. By getting to Glasgow University you are smart
and capable of doing a degree here, but you're not going to necessarily feel that from day one.
But the univeristy is there to support you and you will be fine if you put the work in.