Accounts from International students (1)

Here starts the serie of accounts from several international students I've met at the UWS. I hope you'll learn more about the campuses, courses, environment...


Andrzej, Bachelor of honours, Business School; 
Event management, 4th year


I'm a Polish student graduated with management (BA) and economics (MA). 24 years old. I’ve spent three months on Crete, Greece, where I worked in a hotel as a cook assistant.    I have never studied abroad before. 

·         Why the UWS?

Honestly saying, it was only one possibility for me to study abroad. My Polish university has an agreement with UWS so it was very easy to get here. Moreover UWS offers 1,000 accommodation discount for polish students (who come from partner universities) so it plays a crucial role in my case.

·         Which Bachelor? 

Bachelor of honours, Business School;

Course: Event management, 4th year;

I like the subject of my course – it’s quite interesting and this topic is much more developed in the UK than in Poland. However, my classes are not led in an interesting way. During the first semester I haven’t learnt anything new to be honest. The lecturers try to be more focused on practical aspects than it is in Poland.

·        Where do you live in Scotland?

I live at the university’s accommodation – Thornly Park Camps. In my double floor villa there are 3 people (including me). We have three rooms upstairs and a kitchen, a living room and a bathroom at the ground floor. My room has approximately 13 meters square. I would assess dwelling conditions as: satisfactory. The main minus of them are thin walls and you can hear every single noise from your flatmate’s rooms (e.g. when he’s brushing his teeth ect.). You might get used to that. The problem appears when your flatmate is listening to the music loudly in the middle of the night.

A kitchen in our villa is very well equipped, but we are an exception here. Normally the university’s accommodation kitchens is lack of basic cutlery.

In the Thornly Park there are a lot of parties. You can have a party almost every day if you want to. The problem is when you want to sleep at night rather than drinking and dancing…

Scotland is not bad place for the studies: they are free, because fees are covered by SAAS, people are nice and optimistic. However, please be aware that Scottish language (especially in Glasgow agglomeration, where Paisley is) is slightly different than English which you met at school. I bet you will have problems with understanding Scottish people at the beginning. The language of classes at UWS depends on particular tutors.   

·         Can we really progress in English?

Actually, everything is up to you in this case. If you like to chat with other people, to attend to the parties, if you are outgoing person you will have many occasions to upgrade your language. If you are not, that will be more problematic. Of course, you can try to improve it on your own (by reading newspapers ect.) but it is a hard task.

It is really hard to communicate with native Scottish because sometimes they seem to speak completely odd language.

Personally, I am disappointed with progress of my English. Of course I can feel a difference after four months, but I expected that my enhancement will be much faster.