At this point, you may expect that you are in for ten thousand well-chosen words about the many virtues of the Faculty of Computing and Engineering, with a few pages of good advice thrown in for flavouring. Instead of that, I want to give you three ideas. They don't contain any great secrets - in fact, you may think they are rather obvious - but over the course of three or four years of study, you may find them useful.

The first is: Enjoy yourself.

At school and college, people often don't have a lot of choice in what they do. University is different. You chose to come here, and you chose your course. So the very least you should expect is a sense of enjoyment from the subject you are reading. Going to University now involves a big financial commitment for most students and their families, and it would be sad to spend years doing something you don't like. Of course, I don't mean that you will necessarily enjoy every moment. In the course of several years, umpteen modules, a placement possibly and a project, you will like some subjects more than others. But I can tell you that if you are not enjoying yourself then something is wrong, and we all need to put that right.

This brings me to my second idea: Talk to us.

We want to know what is happening to you. We want to know if you are enjoying your course; and we want to know the parts you find easy, and the parts that are more challenging. There will be difficult bits, as there ought to be, but that does not mean that we are unsympathetic. We want to know if you are facing any problems, and if there is anything we can do to help. It's very important that you remember this. Very few people go through an entire undergraduate programme without encountering some problems. You will find that there are many people in the University who are there to help you - your Advisor of Studies, your Course Director, other staff in the Faculty, as well as the excellent specialist support services which are described later.

And finally: BE HERE.

It's part of the deal between us. You need to be here to get what we can offer. Of course, there are temptations, and late nights are always followed by early morning lectures. But if you start to miss lectures and practical classes you will not do as well as you should, and if you miss a lot, you will probably fail. It's as simple, and brutal, as that. Remember that a Semester is only twelve weeks long and is followed by exams, so there is very little time to catch up. If I can give you one personal target to set yourself at the start of your course, it is that you should miss nothing in the first few weeks.

I hope those ideas are useful to you. You are very welcome to the Faculty, and I hope you have a rewarding time here.

Professor Richard J Millar
Dean
Faculty of Computing and Engineering