Being an international student is a very common thing at UoB. I consider it as one of the benefits of being at this university. In my first-year accommodation we had a representative of each continent: Asia, Africa, 
Europe and America and it was quite an amazing experience to get a feel of all the different cultures and have those friendships that would last forever be it all over the globe. In the summer of second year, I invited my flatmates (who are also my amazing best friends) over to my home country Egypt. One of them is English from Coventry and one of them is Dutch. It’s so magical to witness other people find what you perceive “normal” as extraordinary. My other best friend and course mate is from Poland! And we are currently planning a trip for me to go and visit.
Support has been magnificent throughout my University experience. Not only at the start but at multiple points in my journey. I had a big problem at the start of my third-year where I wanted to switch my course from MEng to BEng and I didn’t know I had to change my visa for that. The support of the International Student Team (IST) was amazing. It was the start of the year and they had large volumes of students registering and I remember Ms. Agnieszka Kaczor in particular. To this day I am in awe of the magnificent help she gave me even after work hours to sort my visa and make sure I didn’t miss the year. All of the engineering department were also very understanding of the situation.
I am currently also the international representative for our civil engineering society, and I’ll be doing that while doing my MSc next year! There are A LOT of international societies and I am sure you will find one that gives you a feel of home. I look forward to meeting you!
Here are some photos of our trip to Egypt, a photo of myself and my beautiful polish friend, and a photo of the gifts she keeps bringing me!
