SEVEN reasons why you should study in the UK

Over the past few weeks, it has been fun and exciting lecturing media students in India. Raring to change the world, media students are always so much fun to interact with. I go there to teach but instead come back having learnt a thing or two myself. It also helps me connect with the current India – a serious insight into how younger men and women think, behave and view the world in the world’s largest democracy. 

Most ask me one question: “Should I study in the UK?” 

YES. Is my resounding answer. I mean, if you had a year to spare, wanted some serious learning and wanted an amazing academic experience – why wouldn’t you study in the UK? I’ve put down a few points here, that even I didn’t know about when I first embarked on what’s been a fantastic journey. I now live and work in the UK and I don’t give this advice lightly. 

The main reasons are these: 

1. Media capital: The United Kingdom is home to some of the most creative media geniuses that have dominated our world view. As a small island nation – the power the UK has projected across the world, has so much to do with its media. Be it the BBC, the Beatles or Harry Porter – the influence of the UK globally has a lot to with its media that seeps into popular culture in other parts of the world. Studying in a country with a media that has resonance in so many different parts of the world is a rare treat. (Perhaps rivalled only by the US, but read on…) 

2. Degrees are cheaper and shorter: I have included this point immediately after the first one because often people compare the US to the UK. It’s no doubt that the US is also a fantastic place to live, work and study – I briefly lived in Boston while working for the BBC and love the US. But it is no secret that degrees in the UK are cheaper and shorter – a master’s degree in the UK will cost you roughly half of what a degree in the US would cost you. And you are done with a master’s degree in ONE year.  

3. Education system is fantastic: When I first went to the UK, the best part about the academic experience in media studies was – learning by doing. No rote learning, no boring books to memorise and no teachers shouting at you to do your work on time. You learnt by doing – a practice-based learning experience. (I was amazed when I became the only student who got a distinction in a class of 30+ students!)

 

4. Visa changes: The re-introduction of the ‘Graduate Visa’ route makes life easier for those who’d like to settle in the UK after their degree. Maybe you don’t want to do that and maybe you want to live and work in India – the option exists and is a really good time to think of that because you can’t predict when and how visa rules may change in the UK.

5. Closer to India: People laugh at me sometimes, but it is true that the UK is so much closer to India then north America. An 8-hour flight and boom you can be in India or vice-versa. Not the same if you are in the US! 

6. English: I once spoke to a rather troubled young man who decided to study a master’s degree in an Eastern European country. He said the teachers were great, some speak a bit of English too – but he told me, with disappointment in his voice, that he won’t get a job there or even an internship because he doesn’t speak the language. 

7. Truly international experience: Another really big reason is the truly international nature of the student experience in the UK. I have a WhatsApp group of classmates who now work in media industry from Lebanon to Russia to the US – we all keep in touch, share our experiences and often help each other out as well as a network with one another. So it isn’t just about an international student experience, but the UK offers you a lifelong list of contacts in several countries – because many of your classmates will end up going back to their home countries. 

There so many reasons why a student would choose to study in the UK. These are just some of them. If you have any questions or queries, please email me on rj@melantra.co.uk