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Speaking to Akis Chris Nicolau, Rachel Banning-Lover finds out what university life is like for students who opt to travel from abroad to study at York.
For most first years coming to university is a daunting time. Being thrown into halls with a random bunch of strangers is usually enough to scare any prospective fresher, but most of us at least have the small comfort that home is never more than a train ride away. However for a significant amount of students at York, living a couple of hours away from home is nothing, when they’ve traveled all the way from America, China, Kazakhstan or Germany to embark on a university education at York. Then when they finally arrive, there’s the British drinking culture, differences in food, religion or the way we speak to adapt to and understand. With all these differences to consider, not to mention the additional cost of studying at York as an international student, one wonders why choose the UK as a place to study?
I spoke to one first year, an international student from Cyprus, Akis Chris Nicolau, about his reasons for studying in the UK and how his experience at York has affected him so far. Chris believes studying in the UK is full of benefits. He sees the UK’s educational system as more advanced than in Cyprus and that there is a good student satisfaction level. By living in the UK, he also feels he’s living in “the middle of everything” and what’s great about York is he’s well placed to visit friends in both Scotland and London. The UK also appeals as a multi-cultural society and by coming here he meets not only British people but “Buddhists, Sikhs, Japanese, French, Germans...” the list goes on!
Staying at home to study was only ever a small consideration as there’s only one university in Cyprus. He looked at Greece briefly, but he jokes “there are too many strikes there” for his liking and ultimately, “the UK was his first choice” adding that: “It looks like it was a very good choice!”
If Chris had stayed in Cyprus for university he admits his university experience would be very different. He suggests the lack of higher education institutions in Cyprus has left his home country flagging behind the UK in ‘how advanced’ an education is offered. He is not alone in feeling this way as he tells me many Cypriot students prefer to study in the UK as more resources are available. Especially as when he returns home he’ll have “a greater advantage” over those who’ve stayed in Cyprus to study.
Perhaps one of the most common ‘culture shocks’ international students experience is the ‘drinking culture’ in Britain and Chris admits he was a little surprised at the excess of drinking. “At home we’ve been brought up to drink alcohol with meals, maybe have a drink at football games or while playing pool at the local pub with friends.” In Cyprus, the purpose of alcohol is to add to the occasion rather than to be an activity in itself. Students in Cyprus also tend to live at home instead of halls to avoid paying extra fees. So by coming to York Chris has had the opportunity to experience life in halls. This perhaps makes one of the biggest differences to ‘our university experience’ as for many people their closest friends are those they make in college, not to mention that your first experience of burning something in your student kitchen is clearly a marker of independence! Living on campus for our first year, Chris really gets to be ‘in the centre of everything’ and will not risk being isolated from social events as first year students who live at home undoubtedly sometimes will be.
What Chris has found at York is that the workload for his course, Accounting, Business, Finance and Management (ABFM) was less than he expected, with probably a lesser number of contact hours than he would in Cyprus, but he thinks this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it gives him more time to study independently and add to his university experience by joining societies. Chris also has experience of studying at St. Andrews where he did a foundation year last year. He reckons York is much more “relaxed” than at St. Andrews where his lectures were pretty much nine to five.
Coming to a British university, I wanted to know how it had affected Chris’ personal development. He described how he felt university “changes a person” - the people you live with affect how you interact, you learn more about yourself and the world from the knowledge you can gain from them and your shared experiences.
Like most international students new to living in Britain he’s still ‘finding his feet’ when it comes to British culture and customs. Travelling across York and the rest of the country to visit friends has caused him a few minor setbacks: “If you make one mistake, you have to pay for the re-organising of the whole trip.” He also feels that the York University campus and city is a “relatively big city” for him! He sums up his feelings about the campus size by saying “it’s like if you want to go to the gym you’ve got to walk to the whole other side of campus just to get there” - an exercise in itself! Of course being away from home he misses his family and friends but he is planning to visit several friends in the UK. Already, he’s been to Scotland and London for weekends. As one of my flat mates joked: “Chris has seen more of the country than me.” Chris also feels he hasn’t settled in completely yet and isn’t exactly sure why but has had difficulty not making comparisons to his year at St.Andrews where he still has close friends living.
However, Chris can’t be labeled the stereotypical international student who doesn’t get involved with many social activities and only socialises with other international students. He has joined several societies including Arabic, African-Caribbean and finance and has thrown himself into his role as Treasurer of the Hellenic society. He’s excited that he’s been able to take up a role of responsibility so early on particularly as he hasn’t had much opportunity to get involved with committees in the past because of the voting process. This time enough positions were available, that everyone who was interested in being on the committee got the opportunity to participate. He feels he would never have had this opportunity in Cyprus. He also feels his role as Treasurer will help him get a job in the future as it relates to his degree. Chris’ course ABFM will open many doors, as most students (Cypriots, in particular) only study accounting, yet York’s combined course allows Chris to tackle the business world from a variety of angles.
Finally, I asked him the breaking question - “Would you recommend York to other international students - what opportunities are there for them?’ Yes, is essentially his answer as studying here shows international students a new way of life, it broadens their horizons giving them a new perspective at looking at life. You have the opportunity to meet people you never knew about. To visit places you never thought about. You get to see a different social system. There are plenty of opportunities to join obscure societies that you might not get at home. He liked how welcoming the university has been - the YUSU welfare talk stands out to him as a particularly memorable moment when an ordinarily would be boring talk was turned into a interactive group event with YUSU co-ordinated stomping to Queen’s “We Will Rock You” amongst other things. Chris feels coming here gives international students the chance to market their own country to the new friends they meet. For both international and UK students, socialising together allows for lifelong “international connections ” to be created.
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