Hi everyone i'm Ammira and I'm a third year Business Administration student studying here
at the University of Bath and in my first ever video, I'm going to give you a little
bit of an insight on what it's like to be a Malaysian student here at the university.
So why did i choose to study in the UK? Well first and foremost i do want to acknowledge
how lucky and how privileged I am to even be given the opportunity to study abroad,
let alone to actually have options.
But to give an answer I think the main reason why I chose to study
in the UK is because of the quality of education that they have here and
I thought that I would get the best out of my education from studying here in the UK.
Other than that the UK is also very diverse and I knew that I would be able to meet so many people
of different cultures, I'll be able to learn a lot and really open my eyes to new experiences.
But why I chose Bath specifically it's because of the many great things I've heard about the city
I knew that it was such a beautiful city to live in, a safe city as well and at the same time the
university offered amazing courses. One of it was Business and they also had placement opportunities
that not other universities offered and I thought it would be such an amazing experience to actually
have a placement opportunity. Honestly it was so difficult trying to look for a placement during
COVID, there were definitely was challenges, it took time, it was tiring, sometimes I felt like
giving up, but honestly I'm so grateful i didn't and i'm so grateful for the support the university
gave me, because I know especially during COVID it's so difficult to look for a job or more to
look for a placement as an international student but the university didn't give up on me and they
helped me so much from the beginning whether it was checking my CVs, helping with my interviews,
or just giving me additional support and reassurance; they did all of that until i
managed to get a placement and now i'm here, three months in and it has been incredible so
i'm very grateful. So in terms of part-time jobs I'm actually an international student
ambassador here at the university and to me at least it's one of the best part-time jobs that
you can get as a student and i highly recommend everyone applying for it especially when you're
first new to the university because it's also an amazing way to make friends. But at the same time
it's such a good job to have because they do pay you but it's really really flexible so it really
depends on your time because they understand that you're a student and that you're busy so you work
during the times that you're available and you get paid for it which is always a good thing.
Some of the experiences that I've had being an international student ambassador would be:
helping other prospective students, answering their questions and their queries that they have
about universities, student life, experiences, attending webinars, campus tours and you know all
that jazz and it's just been super amazing! So how did the university help us settle? Honestly the
university helped so much and they gave so much support for the students especially in the first
week they hosted a ton of events that we could attend and i highly recommend all freshers to go
for it because that's a really supportive environment oh you just have so much fun
and yeah it's kind of the memories that you will remember till you graduate.
You tend to make your first friends through your flatmates because those are kind of the first
people you see when you enter university, so I highly recommend knocking on your flatmates door
and saying hi introducing yourself; Normally that's the first way for you to make friends.
As days go by you tend to just build that bond through cooking together, or just seeing each
other in the kitchen. Especially if you have a group of really lovely flatmates like i did.
But other than that you can also make friends through societies and if you're Malaysian I highly
recommend joining like the Malaysian society because that's where you kind of get your sense
of home from. you're able to meet people of like the same country as you so it's always nice to
cook together have the same food and just you know talk about home when you miss it.
You can also make friends from your coursemates. Although course mates are relatively a bit harder,
just because people tend to like leave immediately after classes end; but you tend to make your
friends through group projects or even if you guys sit next to each other in class.
In terms of support the university has been super supportive of us students especially during COVID,
I think they've done honestly the most that they can to make sure that we're
reassured and that we're supported and I have experience as well I've emailed them several
times before and the university has replied me in less than 24 hours, just reassuring me,
making sure that i'm okay and making sure that they can support me in any way that they possibly
can and this has been super reassuring as a student and i'm very very grateful.
The hardest thing about moving to the UK was just adjusting to the cold weather! That was definitely
very new to me it took me by surprise how cold it could get because back home in
Malaysia we don't have four seasons so that was probably the hardest transition for me.
But other than that it wasn't as bad and I think it was because I found such an amazing supportive
group of friends here in the UK that went through it with me and I thought just transitioning with a
group is a lot easier than having to do things alone, so that definitely made the adjustments
to the UK a lot easier so I highly recommend making as many friends as you can because going
through things together is a lot better and a lot easier than going through things alone.
But I'm also very lucky because us Malaysian students had a pre-departure session before
we came to the UK and it was kind of hosted by the University of Bath as well as the
Malaysian society and that definitely helped me a lot before moving here to the UK because
in that session they covered a lot of questions that we had running through our heads like:
how was the university; is it easy to find like malaysian food/ malaysian
people; the community how is it there and all basically any worries that a normal student had
they answered it all, so that definitely made the transition to the UK a lot easier for me.
So how do i like the city of Bath? Well I'm not trying to be biased but i absolutely
love living here in Bath and it has to do a lot with how beautiful the city is,
I've been here for three years and it amazes me every time how stunning it is and how amazing
the architecture is and I think everyone who has been in Bath would say the same thing as well.
Every time you walk along the streets you just feel like you're in a different era, because
oh it's the buildings are so historical and it's so so beautiful! But at the same time Bath
is also such a safe place to be in and I think it's ranked one of the number one safest cities
in the UK so that's definitely very reassuring as an international student so that's one of
the things that I love about the city as well it's also very small so it's easily accessible
you can go from one place to another without even taking the bus sometimes you can just
walk and that's probably my favorite part about living here in the city. But other than that
as a Malaysian I do need to get my groceries and it's always nice to have like an Asian mart nearby
and Bath has this street where you can get kind of like your Asian goods from.
There aren't as many Asian stores as other cities definitely because Bath is relatively small,
but there's enough for you to get your daily essentials or your daily
Asian goods that you need, so yeah that's always very nice.