Why study in the UK?

People from around the world come to the UK to study for many different reasons. These are my reasons for doing it, I hope they inspire you to check your options.

1 – High Quality Education

I’m from Brazil, and I’ve had plenty of contact with higher education there before moving to the UK. I did a BA in Brazil and know many lecturers and researchers from different universities. I felt a massive difference when I came to the UK and started studying here. In Brazil, I worked hard to get high grades, but I felt quite lost when it came to the marking criteria of tests and assignments. There wasn’t a particular standard and lecturers had freedom to decide how to mark and grade students. This meant I had to know the lecturer well enough to understand what they expected from my work. That gave me a lot of anxiety and often my grades weren’t as high as I’d hoped because I just didn’t know what was expected of me.

In the UK, things were completely different. For every module I studied, I was given the marking criteria and a clear outline of the assignments. This meant I knew from the beginning what I needed to do and what standards were expected so that I could work towards them. I felt safe knowing that my grades depended mostly on how hard I worked, rather than a random subjective criteria by the lecturer. This happens because the UK has systems in place to ensure the quality of education. When something goes wrong, students complain, and they have to fix the problem.

Don’t get me wrong, the education system in the UK isn’t perfect, but the quality is definitely up there. Some of the best universities in the world are here, Oxford being number one. However, I felt that even some of the less known universities had a lot to offer students, with high standards and quite a lot of resources, like free software, e-libraries, mental health support, etc – things I hadn’t seen in Brazilian universities.

2 – Prestige

I don’t particularly like the fact that UK universities receive the amount of prestige they do, but it definitely helps a lot of people with their careers. For many people, having a degree from the UK results in amazing opportunities around the world. I have heard from many of my students – particularly from South America, China and India – that this was the main reason why they wanted to study here.

Employers tend to like CVs that have British universities on it. This means that between two candidates who have similar qualifications and experience, if one of them has studied in the UK, they are more likely to be hired. It isn’t fair, but it happens a lot. It has certainly helped me, even though I still live in the UK. For example, once I had studied a higher education course in the UK, I didn’t have to take any tests to prove my level of English. I also didn’t have to pay to have my qualifications validated in the UK in order to prove that they were equivalent to UK qualifications.

Another point I found was that, independently of my grades, when I validate a Brazilian bachelor’s degree in the UK, it isn’t considered an honours degree. This is important because many universities require an honours degree for you to apply for a graduate course or a research programme, for example. In the UK, if you’ve completed the higher number of hours of a course and passed with a good grade, you get an honours degree, which opens a lot of doors. Because other universities around the world don’t follow the same system as in the UK, their degrees don’t count as equivalent to an honours degree here, which reduces opportunities considerably. Again, I don’t agree with this system, but it is in place. Therefore, depending on your career path and where you want to be in the future, a UK degree may be the best option for you.

3 – Culture

If you are anything like me and love museums, historical sites and meeting interesting people, then you’ll love the UK. I love the fact that most museums, as well as a vast array of cultural and educational events, are free to access. It’s hard to absorb a lot of information from these places with just one visit, so it’s nice that I can come back on my free time, without having to pay. And they are everywhere. I live near Cambridge, which has over 20 museums, most of which are free. Even my small town, that doesn’t even have a McDonald’s, has a little museum where you can learn about the local history.

People from around the world visit or move to the UK every year, which makes this country even more interesting. I love being able to meet and hang out with so many nationalities and learn about so many cultures in one place.