University is about more than lectures and deadlines. Whether you're new to Portsmouth or returning for another year, here's a student-friendly bucket list of memorable experiences you can complete without breaking the bank. With the start of a new academic year approaching, it's easy to focus on timetables, reading lists and assessment deadlines, but the memories you will make of university will often happen outside the classroom.
Here's just a few suggestions to add to your bucket list challenge - see how many of these Portsmouth experiences you can tick off during the year - can you manage them all for less than £20 in total this coming year?
Why not save this list, share it with friends, and see who completes it first?
The Bucket List
1. Watch the sunrise from Southsea beach
Pack a hot drink and head to the beach and greet the Sun as it rises majestically over the Solent.
2. Find your favourite study spot
Everyone has one! Where do you do your best work?
Try a few different spaces and find your second home:
- The University Library
- café
- group study on the ground floor
- upper floor tables
- Individual Silent Study zone
- Park Building
- Outdoors in Ravelin Park or elsewhere (weather permitting!)
- A quiet corner in the city
3. Walk from the Guildhall to Old Portsmouth
Wander from the town centre to Old Portsmouth and take in the historic buildings, hidden side streets, and small, independent businesses along the way.
4. Visit the Hotwalls
Browse the artists' studios, look at the exhibitions, and enjoy one of Portsmouth's most distinctive creative spaces.
5. Attend an event on your own
The best things in life come from challenging yourself, so while trying something new on your own can feel daunting, this is one of the easiest ways to build confidence and meet new people.
Why not try going to a: society event, guest lecture, careers workshop or one of the pop-up activities in the Library.
6. Digital detox for an hour
Leave your phone on silent in your bag and spend an hour reading, sketching, walking, people watching (it's surprisingly fun watching the world go by, and if you have never tried it, you really should!), or (back to the first item on our list), sitting by the sea. A French thinker once said that the problem with modern society is that we have lost the ability to sit for an hour on our own. Time to prove him wrong!
7. Try a society you've never considered
Not your usual hobby. Not something you're already good at. Try something completely different and really push your boundaries.
University is one of the few times in life when experimentation is actively encouraged, so give it your all and discover all you could be.
8. Take a photo to treasure
Capture a view of Portsmouth that means something to you and start your visual memory of your university life. Take your public library card with you for discount access to take some snaps from the top of the Spinnaker Tower or simply photograph the tower from a distance! Southsea Commons has some great views and monuments, the campus can be dramatic at sunset, or you could just take a photo of your favourite corner of the Library!
9. Support a student-led event
Dive into student life, and attend a local amateur performance, exhibition, fundraiser, showcase or take part in a competition
10. Explore somewhere you've never been in the Library
This might well be anywhere in the Library if you've never been before, but we find even those students who practically move into the Library only use a small part. Why not explore what it's like studying on a different floor, ask us how our special collections might benefit your studies, a different floor, a specialist collection, an exhibition, or a study area you've never noticed before. Try a drop-in meeting pod, an individual study pod, or an open access computer room.
11. Walk to a Portsmouth landmark
Choose from Southsea Castle, The Square Tower, The Round Tower, The Hotwalls, The Hilsea Lines, and Portsdown Hill, and see Portsmouth from a different perspective.
See Portsmouth from a different perspective.
12. Do one thing for your future self
- Update your CV
- Attend a Careers event
- Create a LinkedIn profile
- Apply for a placement
- Explore graduate opportunities
Future you will thank you!
13. Recommend something to another student
Students giving to students makes university life so much better. Recommend a book, a film, a cafe, a study tip, a student society (perhaps the one you challenged yourself to attend outside your comfort zone!
14. Leave Portsmouth better than you found it
Pick up litter during a walk. Volunteer. Support a community initiative. Help someone find their way around campus.
Small actions make such a big difference.
15. Bonus Challenge!
Complete ten of these activities before the end of the autumn semester and share your progress with friends.
Even better, create your own Portsmouth Student Bucket List and add experiences that reflect what matters most to you.
Whatever you get up to, we hope your coming year at university is a happy and rewarding one!
Image credits
Portsmouth Hotwalls - by Ptelea, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Spinnaker tower - by mattbuck (category), CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Old Portsmouth - Jetty by Colin Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons