The 'week in the life' project was co-created with 11 students currently studying at Cambridge from different disciplines and with different interests. The students created this content in their own voice to represent their own experiences of navigating the Cambridge 'week'.

Every Monday starts the same - I have to send out the newsletter for Cambridge Climate Society. It's one of the biggest student societies in Cambridge. As Communications Officer, I send out an email every Monday morning with upcoming events, internship opportunities, and climate-related news to over 1,700 subscribers.

Once this is done, it's time to get ready for my morning of lectures. Mondays and Tuesdays are the busiest for a second-year HSPS student - my week gets less busy as the days go on. I cycle down to Sidgwick Site - the main site for the humanities subjects - for my lecture at 10.00 am. I arrive early, so go to the ARC Cafe (one of two cafes on the site) for my daily 88p cup of coffee and 60p cookie. This is a regular occurrence - I sometimes wonder how much money I'll spend at that cafe over my three years at Cambridge. Maybe it's better not to know. 

My first lecture is on the political thought of the American Revolution. This is part of POL8, which is the history paper spanning from 1700 to 1890. After this, there's another lecture at 11am on the comparative politics of Syria and Iraq, before another at 12pm on the political thoughts of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

When BeReal goes off during this last one, the lecturer looks annoyed at the whispers of 'it's Be Real time!' that echo through the lecture hall, and the attempts at surreptitious selfies that follow.

After three hours of concentration, I'm exhausted - and my stomach is rumbling. I get lunch with a friend at Selwyn College. It's a hidden gem - a 30 second walk from the hustle and bustle of Sidgwick Site, but as you enter the grounds it's suddenly peaceful. Towards the end of last year, I discovered Selwyn's salad bar - as much pasta salad, quinoa, and roasted vegetables that you can fit on a plate, and all for £2. Since then it's become a weekly staple. 

After lunch I go to the Haddon Library, another hidden gem. While you can't walk through Sidgwick Site without seeing people you know, the Haddon is often quiet. I tuck myself away in a corner and attempt to finish an essay due the next day. The essay is about AI, social media, and algorithmic bias - it's a little different to things I've studied before, but all the more interesting because of it. 

The Haddon Library closes at 5, so I head back to my college, Churchill,  and go for an early dinner in hall with some friends. After that, I relax in my room for awhile, before going to life drawing at St. Catharine's College. I find that this is a great way to escape the rigour of academia - you pay just £2 for unlimited art materials and two hours of life drawing to acoustic music. This finishes at around 9pm. I cycle back to college, dropping into the pub on the way (my friends have texted, and I can't resist a trip to the Pickerel Inn!). I do a bit of relaxed admin, finish the bibliography for my essay, and collapse into bed. 

Tuesday starts with a burst of activity! I go for a run with my friend Toby, who goes to Trinity Hall College but lives off-site near my college. It’s a great way to do some exercise while catching up on all his news and gossip – and all before 9am! My essay is due in the morning, so I read over it and then press submit. The relief is palpable, but lasts only a few minutes – there’s another essay due soon!

After this, I head to Sidgwick Site – part of a daily commute to the History Faculty Library. You can find most HSPS books here, and it’s relatively easy to navigate (unlike some of the others!). After a few hours of reading for my next essay, I get lunch at one of the Sidgwick Cafés, which supply the coffee and bags of crisps that fuel my degree.

At 2pm, I have a Sociology lecture; ‘Modernity and its critics: the German tradition of critical theory’. After two hours of this, I’m exhausted. Attempts to work in the library for the next hour are punctuated by yawns and idle checks on my phone.

At 5pm, I have a meeting with the Varsity News Team. Varsity is the main student newspaper in Cambridge. I’m one of two Deputy News Editors, and it’s one of my favourite parts of University life – it’s exciting, a space where I feel like a proper reporter holding the institutions of Cambridge to account.

When the BeReal notification pops up mid-meeting, I take it with my fellow Deputy News Editor Eric, a History student at Trinity Hall. 

After this, I head back to Churchill and get dinner. I’m exhausted, so I try and do some relaxed work before a relatively early night.

On Wednesday morning, I wake up early, get ready for the day, and walk into central Cambridge. I've got a lecture at 101m in the centre; before this, I've got plans to meet a friend for coffee. We go to Pret a Manger, where we bundle up with our coffees and sit outside to catch up. A few friends, who are also on their way to our lecture, walk past and join.

When Be Real notification pops up, my friend complains about it being far too early, before rushing to apply some lip gloss. We all head to the lecture and sit together.

Afterwards, I have a supervision, so rush off to the Sociology Department. The supervision is about the Information Society, AI, and social media. After an hour of discussion about the discourses surrounding technology and representation the supervisor gives me back my essay with feedback attached. I’m happy – it’s good feedback! After a celebratory lunch at Selwyn College (you may notice a pattern), I head to the library until a Sociology lecture at 4pm. The lecture, part of the module ‘Control and Resistance in Digital Societies’, continues the discussion from the earlier supervision. Afterwards, at 6pm, I walk back to my college, going via Sainsbury’s, and have dinner with an episode of something – The Thick of It is my current series on the go.  

After dinner, I go to Churchill’s library for a few hours, armed with a huge cup of tea. I tend not to use the college library too often, but I find a quiet desk and do a few hours of reading for my next essay – a political history essay on the relationship between liberalism and empire. I work until my eyes start blurring, and then head to bed.

Thursday is a strike day, so there are no lectures. Libraries and faculties tend to be open, but there are picket lines outside and I prefer not to cross them. To avoid the strikes, I instead spend the morning in Trinity Library with another friend who studies HSPS. She invited me to come and I needed an academic space outside of my own college. 

Otherwise on strike days I tend to study in cafes. I meet a friend for lunch at 12 - we get falafel wraps from the stalls in the market square and sit on the grass outside King's College to eat them.

I go back to my college in the afternoon, where I carry on reading all afternoon for my next essay.

BeReal today witnesses my distress at trying to comprehend Marx's Modern Theory of Colonisation.

After dinner, I head to Pembroke College to see a play produced by a friend. Cambridge has always had a lot of student theatre on offer; there’s a long history of thespian alumni, from Hugh Laurie to Emma Thompson. For only a few pounds, you get to experience brilliant performances, all the time wondering whether you’ll see the students on the big screen in a few years' time.

Friday is another strike day. Strike days are strange - if you do go to lecture sites or Faculty libraries, they're almost eerily deserted, a far cry from the usual bustle. This is a day I need books from the History Faculty Library, so once the picketing lecturers have dispersed, I apologetically head to the library and crack on with my reading.

Once again, BeReal comes at a point of solitary academic stress.

The essay deadline is fast approaching, and I’m not even halfway through the reading list yet. At 5pm, I go for a cup of tea with a friend at Newnham College – I haven’t seen her in weeks, and it’s lovely to catch up.

I have dinner at college, taking advantage of Churchill’s new ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ policy – from 7.10 to 7.15, everything you can fit on a plate costs just £1. I had intended to go to the college library after dinner, but a friend calls me and tells me of plans to convene in Churchill Bar for a drink. I’m tired, and the thought of more hours in the library makes me wince, so I decide to join for a Churchill pint. We chat in the bar until late, when tiredness forces me to peel off and go to bed.  

Weekends in Cambridge are strange. Most humanities subjects don't have lectures, so the lecture sites, which are normally buzzing with people and activity, are desolate, and libraries don't often open until the afternoon. I work in the college library for a few hours, before heading to Corpus Christi for brunch. This is a tradition among our friends - there's something about waffles and chocolate sauce that is difficult to turn down. 

BeReal conveniently goes off as we sit down in their elaborate college dining hall. Immediately, the hall is filled with a sea of people lifting their phones to get the perfect shot with their hash browns.

After brunch, I head to Sidgwick Site. It’s a ritual of mine to spend Saturday and Sunday afternoons in the Seeley Library. I continue working through the reading list for the next essay until the library closes at 6pm (taking copious tea breaks). I return home and do little in the evening – it’s a weekend, after all.

On Sunday, the essay panic kicks in. The essay on liberalism and empire is due on Monday morning, and I haven’t yet begun writing. I spend the morning in the college library, frustrated when I remember that before I write my essay I have some extra-curricular commitments I have to complete. I finish editing an article for Varsity, before uploading it online – this one is about a controversial speaker who has been invited to give an address at one of the colleges. I then write up the draft for the next day’s Climate Society newsletter, scouring the internet for relevant news and opportunities, before sending it to the society’s President for approval.

The afternoon, as always, is spent in the History Faculty library. A group of us often convene there on weekends – as you walk in, there are always several familiar faces. The hours I spend there are productive – the looming deadline forces me to work efficiently. When the library shuts at 5pm, I walk back to my college. It’s a formal hall that night, so I spend the next hour or so getting ready.

Formals – three-course dinners with wine and a formal dress code - are held several times a week at most colleges. I tend to go to one or two a term. This is a big one, held by Churchill’s JCR. It’s a fun opportunity to dress up and socialise with everyone in college – everyone’s so busy in Cambridge, that sometimes you can go a week without seeing even the people you live with!

As luck would have it, the BeReal notification pops up as we’re having drinks before the formal. Everyone’s elated – wine is flowing, everyone’s smiling, and there’s a buzz in the air.

When the gong rings (yes, there’s a gong), we all trail upstairs and take our seats, enjoying a night away from academic responsibilities. But I’m exhausted, and I know I have to finish my essay tomorrow, so I turn down the invitation to go out clubbing at Lola Lo’s afterwards, and head to bed, my head spinning slightly from the wine.

Before I know it, it’s time to do it all again!