Don’t panic, just plan!
It’s already August and there is less than a month left before you move to a new country. Yes that’s overwhelming! From my experience and a bunch of mistakes I made, I realised that the earlier you prepare the better. That’s why I decided to make a list for the students who might be a bit confused about what to do when they come to the UK for the first time.
- First of all, advice for everyone is to figure out all the formalities as soon as possible. This refers to all the visa issues, bank accounts and police registrations. My advice is, if you arrive a bit earlier, go to your NCUK University and talk to the reception. They’ll guide you through these procedures. And if possible start everything before everyone else arrives; that’ll save you a loooot of time and nerves. Believe me if you are late with that you won’t have as much time to enjoy your new home and try out new things before university starts!
- Take advantage of what Fresher’s Week/month offers. When you arrive in the UK in September you can find a lot of student offers (Apple has some nice ones). Don’t forget to sign up to student offer websites (such as Unidays or Studentbeans) which have discounts throughout the whole year. Also, you can attend events at your university; this will allow you to meet people, find interesting societies to join and find out information about local organisations you can be part of.
- Another thing you can do in September is investigate the city and your NCUK University. Find out all the opportunities for scholarships, the interesting projects for students and potential volunteering or internship opportunities. September is the best time for this as you’ll have a lot of time to consider what opportunities are offered and at this point you don’t have any exams to think about. So go ahead, one year flies by in no time!
In conclusion, you can’t prepare for everything that’s for sure but don’t worry; as long as you try to get most of the big things done before university starts then it means you can use the rest of the time to enjoy and have fun before you start studying!
Take a look at the wide variety of Study Centres where you can study your NCUK qualification by clicking here.