Dinx - the Jinx Posted July 6, 2010 Posted July 6, 2010 My younger brother has decided to pursue higher studies in UK. He has finalized the university, course and all that stuff. Now we are arranging for a edu loan and that will be followed by visa process. His is an average student at school and under grad (BE from one of the pvt engg colleges in comp. sci) He scored okayish ILTs has already selected the university based on that score. I dont want to get into a discussion on whether it was a good choice, as I myself dont have any idea about all this, cos I havent dont any preliminary research also. I go with his choice, whether good or bad. Now the reason I'm posting here asking for help is, I need to f ind answers for a few questions, which could probably help him in getting there and settling down. Request friends in UK to please respond. 1. He is joining Nottingham University and wants to rent an apartment on sharing basis. Whats the best place. I dont want him to go into some rut cos it is cheap. Please suggest some decent place which is close by. 2. How to go about this process. I mean, he may not have a friend from day one. It may take a few weeks to start attending classes, find like minded friends and then look for an apartment. What do students usually do when they land? I have a few friends who can accomodate him for afew days to start with. But they are married and they cannot be of much help. 3. Like all other student, he plans to find a part time job (he has about 2 yrs of experience wrkng for RBS backoffice operations here in chennai) and he believes he can find something soon. While I appreciate his confidence I want him to be cautious. Any tips on job searching, dos and dont will be much appreciated 4. What would be the typical monthly expense of a student from india at the time of arrival in the UK. Accomodation, Food, Commute, buying essential stuff, dont booze, no smoke, no weeds 5. Until he finds a job, we need to ensure that he carries enough cash to pay for his bills. So, what do you guys think should be the cash amount that we need to give him while he leaves india. As a good brother I need to ensure that I provide him enough resources to take care of himself while he finds his feet.
flamy Posted July 6, 2010 Posted July 6, 2010 u dont make friends and find roomies, u find roomies and make friends. thats how it worked for me in oosa.
Gunner_Mania Posted July 6, 2010 Posted July 6, 2010 Anonymous - He is a student at Warwick Uni, so he could give you some pointers. I will tell you my experience, the way I went about it when I came to the UK although I didnt come for studying. I came here looking for a job and didnt know a soul. I got myself a room in London sharing with some desi guys for starter. I spoke to some Infy guys in Bangalore and they helped me find a room through their messageboard with some Infy chaps. Once I came here, I used spareroom.co.uk and http://uk.easyroommate.com/ to look for rooms. Also there will be lot of rental accomodation around the Uni and I am pretty sure the Uni's also help find student accomodation. In terms of monthly expenses, I worked that out by using www.mysupermarket.co.uk, to identify price of food that I needed and used and a bit of premium for desi stuff. www.nctx.co.uk - This should give you the cost of fares for travelling around Nottingham I am afraid, I don't know much about jobs for Uni students. Hope that helps atleast as starters.
Gunner_Mania Posted July 6, 2010 Posted July 6, 2010 Couple of more things to add, use www.upmystreet.co.uk to identify which are the good areas in and around Notts. Use something like www.rightmove.co.uk to get an idea of rental prices also try http://nottingham.gumtree.com/
CricketGirl Posted July 6, 2010 Posted July 6, 2010 My younger brother has decided to pursue higher studies in UK. He has finalized the university, course and all that stuff. Now we are arranging for a edu loan and that will be followed by visa process. His is an average student at school and under grad (BE from one of the pvt engg colleges in comp. sci) He scored okayish ILTs has already selected the university based on that score. I dont want to get into a discussion on whether it was a good choice, as I myself dont have any idea about all this, cos I havent dont any preliminary research also. I go with his choice, whether good or bad. Now the reason I'm posting here asking for help is, I need to f ind answers for a few questions, which could probably help him in getting there and settling down. Request friends in UK to please respond. 1. He is joining Nottingham University and wants to rent an apartment on sharing basis. Whats the best place. I dont want him to go into some rut cos it is cheap. Please suggest some decent place which is close by. I think generally rents are pretty high in Nottingham as its got two Uni's there, maybe renting a room would be more economical?? at least to start with! Sooda and Gunner Mania hail from the Midlands so they should be able to fill you in the good and bad areas of the hood! 2. How to go about this process. I mean, he may not have a friend from day one. It may take a few weeks to start attending classes, find like minded friends and then look for an apartment. What do students usually do when they land? I have a few friends who can accomodate him for afew days to start with. But they are married and they cannot be of much help. Talk to the Uni, they tend to have a list of landlords that rent rooms specifically to students but watch out for pitfalls like high advance's and deposits - deposits should be no more than 6 weeks worth of rent and need to placed in a Tenancy Deposit Scheme so that his landlord cannot swallow it without justification. Probably a good idea to get him here earlier so her can take advantage of the "fresher events" where all new students get together in social events, it will give him a chance to meet like minded people and i am sure he will find a large number if overseas students in the same predicament as him! 3. Like all other student, he plans to find a part time job (he has about 2 yrs of experience wrkng for RBS backoffice operations here in chennai) and he believes he can find something soon. While I appreciate his confidence I want him to be cautious. Any tips on job searching, dos and dont will be much appreciated I appreciate he has some experience mate but to be honest most student jobs end up being retail ones as those you can do on the weekend, banks very rarely take on weekenders!! but hey a jobs a job and if it pays his expenses then what more could you ask for!! also check what restrictions maybe in place seen as he is here on a student visa i think he might only be able to work 16 hrs - i might be wrong on that one so i trust one of the guys will correct me if i am 4. What would be the typical monthly expense of a student from india at the time of arrival in the UK. Accomodation, Food, Commute, buying essential stuff, dont booze, no smoke, no weeds :) Pass! all depends on his living standards i guess!!! 5. Until he finds a job, we need to ensure that he carries enough cash to pay for his bills. So, what do you guys think should be the cash amount that we need to give him while he leaves india. As a good brother I need to ensure that I provide him enough resources to take care of himself while he finds his feet. again, comes down to his accommodation and his living standards!
Dinx - the Jinx Posted July 6, 2010 Author Posted July 6, 2010 ^^ wow gunner... thats quite a lot of information in double quick time... i'll surely ask him to look into these, besides i'll also do sme research...thanks much :two_thumbs_up:
Dinx - the Jinx Posted July 6, 2010 Author Posted July 6, 2010 ^^ tnx CG... one follow up qn. if rents are high in nottingham, would it be a good idea to stay in another town or somthing and commute to the univ daily? and i forgot to add one more question.. he has an indian driving license. for him to be able to drive in UK, does he need to get an international license from india before he leaves or he needs to get uK license after getting there?
Gunner_Mania Posted July 6, 2010 Posted July 6, 2010 ^ He needs to get international license from India and he can use it for one year. Meanwhile he can get his UK license. Another useful resource - http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/
Ram Posted July 6, 2010 Posted July 6, 2010 Don’t know much about UK, but go to some Indian student online discussion board. You should be able to find loads of information and personal experiences posted by other students. If you read their threads for a couple of hours, you should have a general idea of what you’re dealing about.
Dinx - the Jinx Posted July 6, 2010 Author Posted July 6, 2010 i'm coming across lot of pcms? what does 300pcm mean? is it 300 pounds per month?
observer1 Posted July 6, 2010 Posted July 6, 2010 i'm coming across lot of pcms? what does 300pcm mean? is it 300 pounds per month? calendar
punjabi_khota Posted July 6, 2010 Posted July 6, 2010 Dude just a tip..don't give him cash, give him traveler's cheques for the bulk amount, and maybe 300-400 pounds cash.
Desi Cartman Posted July 7, 2010 Posted July 7, 2010 Only 1 tip from me, please arrange for finances with an expectation that he wont be earning much. In Aus/Eng the govt is very strict with number of hrs students are allowed to work. I have seen many students come here and work more than 20 hrs to ease the financial burden and it effects their studies. I would suggest that he should have finances to pay for the fees ( entire course) and money for rent + other expenses for at least 12 months out of 24. Its a student loan the interest isnt that much , he can easily get lost by working too much & students forget that their priority is to study. If he has money available then he wont be under pressure and if he can find a decent job ( and work full time during holidays) then he doesnt need to use that extra loan money. Just my 2 cents
Gunner_Mania Posted July 7, 2010 Posted July 7, 2010 Dude just a tip..don't give him cash' date=' give him traveler's cheques for the bulk amount, and maybe 300-400 pounds cash.[/quote'] Even better is get him one of those Forex cards you get in most Indian banks now and about 200 quid in Cash. He can use the forex cards to withdraw cash at most VISA cash points here.
Anonymous Posted July 7, 2010 Posted July 7, 2010 Hey Dinx, First things first, accomodation is generally cheaper offcampus than oncampus. There are loads of websites that have adverts for student flatshare etc, one such is http://nottingham.gumtree.com/nottingham/2058_1.html I have used it and is actually quite reliable. But never part with the money or sign a contract unless your brother actually sees the property in person or through a friend. Am not sure abt Notts univ, but oncampus accomodation is good for socialising and making friends kinda stuff.. It would be better if he could join facebook and orkut forums of students going to notts next year which would make his job of finding students to share a house with, easier.. Part time jobs are not easy and can be dodgy when you have just arrived in the UK, in terms of working late shifts etc...Always look for jobs oncapus as there will be some during the beginning of the term. As someone ponted out earlier, Give him the money in travellers cheques which are readily depositable once he opens an account which just takes a couple of hours, also give him some cash in smaller denominations for buying a sim card on arrival and other miscellaneous stuff till he is able to open a bank account. The budget, well, depends on a person to person basis, in terms of eating habbits etc..If he can cook, he can save a lot on eating and make sure he stocks up on food items when he leaves, as most airlines give a considerable baggage allowance for students. Generally, a budget of 200 to 300 pounds a month would be enough for living costs excluding the rent, if he is a teetotaler which i think he is from ur previous post.. If you are from chennai, try booking on British Airways, as it can be very cheap in advance and also offers loads of baggage allowance...I got 69 kgs as my allowance...It also helps that its the only direct flight to london from Chennai.. I think I have covered most questions you asked, Do PM me if you have any queries.. Good luck to your bro..:icflove:
Dinx - the Jinx Posted July 7, 2010 Author Posted July 7, 2010 tnx much pk, desi, gunner, anonymous... the tips on travellers chque, forex card, british airways, baggage were all useful, which we would not have otherwise known... one question still lingers in my mind.. i read in one of the websites that students can only do 20 hrs per week during term days and 40 hours per week during holidays.. even i want him to do only that much or lesser so there is enough time to concentrate on studies... the question is what could be the hourly wages for a typical student job.. give me some rough range... we are arranging loan for the entire university fee. and also planning to give about 2.5 to 3 lakhs cash (or traveller's cheque/forex card as suggested by you guys) to cover for settling down in the first few months. after that he says he can cover his expenses through wage earned in part time jobs and if he could not manage, we'll send further money later.. thats the plan. so, assuming he gets an average wage earning part time job, will it cover his food, flat, internet, commute and mobile expenses?
Anonymous Posted July 8, 2010 Posted July 8, 2010 tnx much pk, desi, gunner, anonymous... the tips on travellers chque, forex card, british airways, baggage were all useful, which we would not have otherwise known... one question still lingers in my mind.. i read in one of the websites that students can only do 20 hrs per week during term days and 40 hours per week during holidays.. even i want him to do only that much or lesser so there is enough time to concentrate on studies... the question is what could be the hourly wages for a typical student job.. give me some rough range... we are arranging loan for the entire university fee. and also planning to give about 2.5 to 3 lakhs cash (or traveller's cheque/forex card as suggested by you guys) to cover for settling down in the first few months. after that he says he can cover his expenses through wage earned in part time jobs and if he could not manage, we'll send further money later.. thats the plan. so, assuming he gets an average wage earning part time job, will it cover his food, flat, internet, commute and mobile expenses? Well, to start of with, thats a lot of money as living expenses which am not sure he would need. You could have taken that money as installments to avoid paying interest to the bank for that period on that money..anywhere around 1500 to 2500 pounds would be enough for the initial three months... An average pay in the supermarkets etc would be anywhere around 5.60 to 6 pounds an hour with additional pay of 50 to 80 pence per hr if you work on holidays..University jobs pay more like around 7.30 an hr ...it varies... I would like to reiterate that getting a part time job is like a lottery, there are not many jobs out there, part time or full time, thats the reality. Ask him to stay focussed on the course work first, as many students have misplaced priorities when they see that kind of money from part time jobs.. The course work here is gruelling (atleast for me), and the concept of education at the masters level is very different from India..
Desi Cartman Posted July 8, 2010 Posted July 8, 2010 tnx much pk, desi, gunner, anonymous... the tips on travellers chque, forex card, british airways, baggage were all useful, which we would not have otherwise known... one question still lingers in my mind.. i read in one of the websites that students can only do 20 hrs per week during term days and 40 hours per week during holidays.. even i want him to do only that much or lesser so there is enough time to concentrate on studies... the question is what could be the hourly wages for a typical student job.. give me some rough range... we are arranging loan for the entire university fee. and also planning to give about 2.5 to 3 lakhs cash (or traveller's cheque/forex card as suggested by you guys) to cover for settling down in the first few months. after that he says he can cover his expenses through wage earned in part time jobs and if he could not manage, we'll send further money later.. thats the plan. so, assuming he gets an average wage earning part time job, will it cover his food, flat, internet, commute and mobile expenses? There is no limit during the holidays, he can work as much as he wants or is able to do ( at least in Aus thats the rule).
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