My top five tips for making your phone University ready

With preparations for student life well underway, today I thought I’d take the opportunity to give some tips about how you make your smartphone/tablet ready for university.

These are my five most crucial apps or updates which make my day-to-day life during term time here at Southampton so much easier....

1. MySouthampton app 

This app is a  must. You can do everything on it, from browsing for free computers in the library to checking bus times, your timetable and email. You can even contact IT help and get a campus map up in an instant. I mostly use it to check my timetable and look up where certain buildings are (I still don’t know all the numbers by heart). You simply download it and use your Sussed username and password to access it!

Download MySouthampton

2. Blackboard app

This app, together with the MySouthampton app, makes everything that has to do with coursework and University logistics so much easier.

The Blackboard Mobile Learn app lets you check all your modules, module announcements, information, course content and more. It’s handy to have if you wish to have a quick look at the slides before, during or after your lecture, or if you want to have a look at the module handbook and you don’t have a copy of it to hand.

The only thing which I wish you could do with the app is checking your grades on it. Turnitin is not optimised for smartphones; so when your lecturer reminds you that you’ve received feedback on your coursework during a lecture and you don’t have a computer with you, you will have to wait to check your feedback.

Download the Blackboard Mobile Learn app

3. Configure your soton email

The University IT pages have a simple explanation to how you configure your soton email to your phone and computer. It makes it so much easier than having to log into Sussed everytime you want to check your email – and trust me; you will use your soton email a lot – probably more than you use your private email.

4. RefMe 

University was the first time I had ever encountered Harvard referencing and, although this app is by not a substitute for attending the library sessions about referencing, this app is a lifesaver for your bibliography and referencing adventures. It’s very easy to use and you can access it from your computer as well as your smartphone.

5. West Quay Cars and Radio Taxis app

We do have Uber in Southampton, but getting a car is nearly impossible and unlike many big cities, you don’t really save much by using Uber here. That’s why it’s good to have the apps for the big taxi companies in Southampton, which makes ordering a taxi easy.

The Students' Union also has a deal with these companies, which means that if you ever find yourself in a position where you don’t have money to get home, you simply hand in your student ID to the driver as a deposit and pay for the fare upon collection your ID from the Union's reception.



I hope these tips can come in handy for anyone starting University later this month, or maybe current students who still haven’t discovered RefMe!

Regardless, the above mentioned are without a doubt the apps I use the most during term time, so I hope this blog post is helpful for others too!

Happy app-ing!

Alexandra