Blogs

Every year, students from all over the UK apply for college and university. For many, going to university is considered a rite of passage but it does not come without struggles for all students. There are worries about finances, balancing workloads and achieving the marks needed to progress into the future they would like to pursue.

Applying to American undergraduate programmes as an international student was a challenging experience because I had no idea if I would receive any financial aid to cover the cost of tuition. I was born in Mumbai, India and grew up in the city of Thane, where I attended a private school until the end of third grade.

We came to Canada from Punjab in India to pursue higher education. Sumeet came to Canada for a master’s degree, and stayed to finish her PhD as well, while Nav came to Canada to pursue a PhD after having spent almost two decades in the Indian education system

Below, we chronicle the struggles we faced in transitioning and adapting to the Canadian higher education environment.

I wanted to find a way to connect with and give back to my peers at the University of California, San Diego, which has an undergraduate population of more than 30,000 students.

In my first year, I got involved in the Food Recovery Network, a programme that pairs the problems of food waste and food insecurity in a way that helps solve them both.

Recent research by Cturtle, an employment network for international graduates and alumni who have studied in the UK, Australia, USA, Canada and New Zealand, has explored what international students deem the most important factors when choosing a university.

Domestic student: Divya Advani

Diwali has always been a special day. At home, my house is filled with the smell of gulab jamuns (Indian sweets), the colorful rangoli (abstract patterns painted on the floor)  and the beautiful diyas (candles). It is a day that I look forward to celebrating every year with my family and friends. Since I have come to university, I have had to spend some Diwali’s away from home. Some students, like me, may feel especially homesick on this auspicious day.

Lauren Bell, Cosi Care 

Cosi Care is a business that focuses on helping families manage skin disease. Approximately one in five children have eczema and 15 million people in the UK have it. This figure has tripled in the last three decades. Itching is one of the main symptoms, and when children scratch their skin it makes the condition worse and can lead to permanent scarring and infections.

Himmy Lee, biomedical sciences 

I had not been planning to study abroad for my undergraduate degree when I was a secondary school student. So when my family decided to give me the opportunity to study in the UK, I was excited but also nervous. I was only 17 years old, and there were many things that I was uncertain about. 

Student mental health is at the forefront of many minds – in particular today, World Mental Health Day.

Last week, Fika, creator of the student emotional fitness app of the same name, published research revealing that 96 per cent of UK students believe that adding “emotional education” modules to the university curriculum could help to reverse the student mental health crisis.

The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has everything you would expect from a university – research opportunities, a broad range of courses and many student clubs. What I love most about Caltech, though, is the feeling of trust and community that arises from the unique intensity of the academic system and the honour system that applies inside and outside the classroom.

Each academic year at Caltech consists of three quarters, or terms, of 11 weeks each.