Eight Firsts Freshers Experience This Week

It’s Fresher’s Week! A week of meeting great people but probably a week of firsts, too. You won’t realise this, but along the way you’ll be using standards that will make sure you have the best university experience possible.

1. Your first place of your own

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This could be the first time you’re living on your own and that can be a bit scary. You want to make sure you and your stuff is safe. Good thing you have locks on your door. The best locks will conform to BS EN 12209:2003 Building hardware. Locks and latches. Mechanically operated locks, latches and locking plates. Requirements and test methods.

2. Your first meal

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You’ve moved in and you want to impress your new flatmates (and yourself) with your cooking skills. There are over 130 standards for cooking appliances, including BS EN 60350-2:2013 Household electric cooking appliances. Hobs. Methods for measuring performance.

3. Your first post-meal clean-up

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When I cooked my first meal at uni I cut my finger so badly I still have a scar. Even if you manage to avoid nerve damage and blood loss, you’ll probably make some sort of a mess. You may need BS EN 60335-2-10:2003+A1:2008 Household and similar electrical appliances. Safety. Particular requirements for floor treatment machines and wet scrubbing machines to make sure you do a decent job.

4. Your first night out prep

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It’s your first night out and everyone knows not smelling is a key component to having a good night out. But no-one wants to be discovered passed out and naked in the bathroom, which is why I find BS 8445:2012 Bath and shower mats. Testing. Assessment of slip resistance properties quite useful.

5. Your first night out

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Obviously, you will be drinking responsibly. Less obvious is how standards will help you drink responsibly. All hail BS 6118:1981 Specification for multi-trip glass bottles for beer and cider!

6. Your first night in

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Look, neither of us want this to be awkward or cringey, so I’ll just say that all the standards from committee CH/157 Mechanical contraceptives are important, especially BS ISO 23409:2011 - Male condoms. Requirements and test methods for condoms made from synthetic materials. Can we move on now?

7. Your first laundry run

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If you haven’t washed your clothes yet, I seriously recommend you do if you want people to sit next to you. You may not believe it but, as well ensuring your clothes are fresh, BS EN 60335-2-7:2010+A1:2013 Household and similar electrical appliances. Safety. Particular requirements for washing machines and other washing machine standards have saved lives.

8. Your first lesson

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Once you’ve got all that out of your system you’ll need to do that learning thing you’re supposed to be at university for. To ensure you can use them, your university e-learning resources probably comply to BS ISO/IEC 24751-1:2008 Information technology. Individualized adaptability and accessibility in e-learning, education and training. Framework and reference model

Standards are for Students...

So there you have it. Standards are an important part of your university experience. They'll also might be important to your degree and will definitely be important to your future careers.

Luckily it's easy to discover more about standards. Many university libraries have access to British Standards Online (BSOL) where you can download any document you need (or want).

You can also visit BSI's Standards Development site to discover more about our committees and who writes the standards.

If you really want to make a difference, you can comment on our Standards Drafts site on documents that are close to publication or even suggest new standards on our Standards Proposals site.

You can also see more posts like this on There's a Standard for That on Tumblr.