How it’s like to be an international student in the UK.
Tags: Work, Study Abroad, UK, International, Student

How it’s like to live? (as a student) 🏃

Here’s the tl;dr; how it looks like (note: exaggeration)

Get up, eat breakfast and drink coffee to reduce hangover,

Go to uni/study at home,

Get back home and tell yourself you’re not drinking tonight,

Go with your friends for one beer,

Get back home at 4 am,

Repeat.

It doesn’t actually look like that and most of the time the above scenario is unlikely. However, it is possible due to a large number of opportunities to drink. My personal favourite is the birthday of Nor(a) (Neither mine nor yours) 😉

New connections 🔗

I’m really hyped up for this so take it easy on me 😍

You’re an international student. You won’t have many friends here (unless you move out with yours from your home country) and trust me that’s one of the best things that can happen to you at a young age. Make new connections, find new people, sign for everything you have time and money for, go alone for parties, don’t be afraid to start a conversation you have nothing to lose!

The number of new friendships you can acquire here is enormous, it’s even better when you meet some other international students from Greece, Spain, Croatia, Nigeria, Jordan, Japan, China or plenty of other countries!

(almost) All of them are looking for new friends and people to spend their free time with so it’s even simpler just ask them out!

Exchanging opinions with other open-minded people is amazing and truly one of the best feelings in the world, you just need to ask!

I can’t count how many new things I’ve learnt about so many countries, religions, opinions, other points of view or languages (Arabic حَبيبي habibti, حبيبي habibi and Spanish joder are my favourite ones so far), just be open to people and people will be open to you!

Accommodation 🏠

This vastly depends on your budget and the standard you want to live in.

In my first year, I was living in quite a popular and well-known accommodation company “IQ Students accommodation”. They have plenty of rooms and standards to choose from. I was living in Bronze+ which I paid £420 a month for (all bills included). The rooms were clean, you get your own bathroom, the kitchen was clean and quite new (as my build was built in 2016) and it’s the only room you share. I got a welcome package when I moved in with snacks, some alcohol and some other stuff like bidon or lanyard. They also offer a lot of free gifts for you like alcohol for Christmas or some other stuff. The nice thing is they offer a cashback (£350) if you sign a contract with them before the start of the academic year and a friend referral bonus when you invite someone to sign a contract with them (£100 for each of you). The staff is helpful, know the city and they really know their stuff.

In my second year (now), I’m living in a “Hill&Standard Student Property Management”. Again, plenty of rooms to choose from but the standard is lower at the first sight. The best part is the rent — £160 for a month, all bills included. Let me repeat. £160 for a month. That’s almost living for free. The lower the cost, the bigger the sacrifice. The rooms aren’t so clean, I would call them “well-worn” and the kitchen is not very good looking either. You don’t get your own bathroom and you share it with your flatmates (6 people per floor). So remember about flip-flops when you’re showering and keep your hygiene. I don’t want to sound rude but you just don’t know those people.

All in all, I like this place a lot more than IQ but if you’re a woman, the standard of living is probably two levels under “acceptable” so I’d look for something else (e.g. Cloud Student Homes, £300 per month, all bill included).

If you’d like to live in your own flat or you have enough money to do so it’s also worth checking, £350–£500 per month (plus bills) on average, depending on the location, rooms etc. I haven’t been living in a flat so I can’t say much about this.

To sum up, If you’re moving out from your city (or country) to start studying in the UK I recommend you to do great research about accommodations available in the area. Reach out to current students on Facebook groups, go to a uni itself, lots of them have some students centres where you can reach out for help with all kinds of things including accommodations.

P.S. When you move in, check what type of stove you have in the kitchen and remember this when you’ll be buying the pan. (Non-induction pans don’t work on induction stoves. My friend learnt about this in a painful way. Learn from his mistakes.)

Healthcare ➕

Let me tell you about what happens when you get ill or you need to visit a doctor because I think a lot of people could be concerned about this.

You’re a student so the university got you covered with everything.

You call to book the appointment and based on the brief interview of the symptoms you have they book a meeting with a doctor for you (it’s called GP here [GP — General Practicioner]). Of course, you need to get to know what’s the number of university GP to contact them first.

Straight of my experience:

I booked a meeting to see someone to examine my elbow because I was feeling numbness and needles in my left hand from time to time.

I got a booking, they send me all the information about my appointment etc.

It was booked at 11 am so I came there a few minutes before. The appointment started at 11:15 and the first thing that happened was the doctor apologizing to me for the delay (which was quite a shock for me). The examination went smoothly, I got my diagnosis sent on my email and phone number shortly after. I was really happy with how smooth and concise the whole operation went. 10/10.

Straight of my friend experience:

He booked a meeting in the same clinic as he needed to see a physiotherapist, The lady booked a PHONE meeting with a physio. The physio called, examined my friend thru THE PHONE and told him what he need to do to solve his problems. He was really unhappy with how it went for him so he visited the GP personally and booked a meeting. This time it was face to face meeting and everything went smoothly.

To sum up all the stories of me and my friends regarding healthcare for students — it’s mostly great if you have some uncommon symptoms (like my numbness in an elbow or a need to see a physio) but if you call them with “I don’t feel well, I have a running nose and I cough a lot” (one of my friends actually called them regarding this), you are likely told to take care of this by yourself.

Money (when you can’t or don’t want to work) 💸

Again, the UK system got you covered. You can apply for a “maintenance loan” to get money (this money is added to your student loan), which is up to £9,250 when doing the undergraduate courses and up to £11,100 when doing masters or above. You just apply for it, you need to get some paperwork, and you are waiting for the government to answer how much money they can offer you to live (it’s based on your income in past months and the situation you're currently in like the accommodation costs). I don’t use it so I don’t know much about it but you can educate yourself on this topic here.

How it’s like to work? 💁

Personally, my first job in the UK was in a small restaurant. I worked there for one day because my boss didn’t want to pay me for this day (I needed money really urgently back then) and after a not so nice conversation he paid me less than 50% of what he should have and I went home. I won’t elaborate on that.

Then I went to a work agency and they offered me a job in a card factory (£9–£11 per hour) for 3 days only because it was too brainless a job for me, you literally stand or walk for 10h a day and scan the cards or pack them to boxes. I got paid, that’s great.

After that, I managed to get into one of the restaurants and was working as a waiter for a few months. I was paid the lowest rate per hour (£6.30 back then).

Next — found a part-time job in a city gallery (£9 per hour) and was working there for some time.

Now I’m working in the restaurant (£8.36 per hour) and I really like that.

My advice for you when you’re international is to work somewhere where you will be forced to talk with people. You will learn a lot of English that way and you’ll really move your language skills to another level.

Honestly, when I moved in I had a headache for a few days because my brain wasn’t used to talking, thinking and doing EVERYTHING in English but now it’s like second nature to do this stuff. The more you talk, listen and force yourself to use the language the deeper understanding of the language you’ll get. That’s not only work advice; you’ll use English everywhere.

I work ~100h per month but as I said at the start of this article you can work only 60h per month and still live a normal life without the pressure you’ll run out of money.

P.S. Remember that after every 6h of work you are eligible for 30 minutes paid break. Don’t let your employers tell you otherwise. It’s English law.

Is that all? 🤔

Of course, it’s not but I won’t consume more of your time with some little nuisances here and there.

I’m really grateful that you read all that and hope that you learnt something new about studying (and living, and working) in the UK as a student.

If you’re still interested in some specific topic don’t hesitate to comment and message me! If I know the answer — I will help, if I don’t — maybe some of my friends know!