Things an Indian student learnt while studying in the UK

With the September intake for universities across the world nearing, many students are getting ready for their education journey in one of the most popular study destinations, the United Kingdom. International students might have a lot of questions about academics and lifestyle in the UK since they will be far away from home. Here are some things Indian and international students can have a heads up about before they go to this European country. Here are five things that Shriya Shripannavar, an Indian student pursuing an MSc in advertising and marketing communications at Nottingham Trent University learned while studying in the UK :

Academics: To be very honest, it’s a struggle at first to fit into this academic structure in the UK. Initially, it took me a while to figure out how it works and what they expect from me. It's different from the pattern you learn back in India and students are expected to conduct proper research with references, theories etc. to justify their findings. I like how efficient the pattern is since it helped me build a new liking for in-depth reading and exposed me to a lot of new methodologies to study.

Being responsible: You will become more independent, responsible, and mature since you start living out here by yourself. You will also get to learn new things about the country and people here every single day.

Clothing: Warm clothes are a must here. It’s cold, windy, and rainy at the same time. You need to start wearing a lot of layers and thicker clothes if you wanna beat the temperature. Shoes are something I’m wearing every day here, unlike in India where we could wear open footwear like sandals and chappals.

Experience as a vegetarian: Being a vegetarian is not very easy for me when it comes to food. You get almost all of the Indian ingredients/vegetables here so that's a good point. I didn’t eat rice very often back in India but since it’s one of the easiest foods to prepare, I’ve been cooking and eating a lot of rice since I got here. If you’re vegetarian, make sure you learn how to cook for yourself.

To be careful: Be open-minded, be open to exploring the city and its facilities, people here are polite but make sure you have good company as people here can also be snarky behind your back

This column is part of a bouquet of tips being published all of August - a special offering by The Free Press Journal to help Indian students going abroad to study.