hi......im goin to UK for a student exchange program for about 6 months.....is it necessary to apply for a Student Visitor Visa? The VFS agent recommend me not to apply for this visa as it is similar to a passport

Do i need to provide my medical report to go through the UK custom? What other documents are required as well?..thank you

1) Where shall I go to further my studies
I would definitely have to say Canada.

2) How much is the living expenses overseas
Im living in a basement suite (1bedroom,living room, kitchen,laundry room) in the suburbs of Vancouver City and the rent is arnd CAD$900 including utilities. Monthly groceries would be arnd $400 (if you are smart enough and cooks a lot u can definitely go lower than that). However things like clothes cigarettes (thats if u smoke) and booze are a little bit expensive here as the province of British COlumbia charges 12% of tax. One thing good about studying in canada is the tuition fees. For an international student, u pay one quarter of the amount to study in the US.

3) What is so good about overseas.
EXPERIENCE AND MEETING NEW PPL!!!! Also, the living conditions here are so much better (by far). The ppl are nice, really good healthcare and transportation system. Also, Canada is a country where it is easy to move to and be a part of. The immigration to Canada is pretty high and it is a quite easy process once someone goes there as a student. No discrimination against international students or whatsoever.

This post has been edited by Oki-ni: Jul 31 2009, 09:09 PM

Why no people talk about Japan? lol

Japan is another nice country other than UK to be study at.

In fact, they trying to attract more student to study there, and they have plenty of scholarship provide.

This post has been edited by Dark Lord: Aug 1 2009, 12:36 AM

undergrad level for most Uni.. Good man!
no need to study also can pass with decent grades!
like my pal! work and play most of the time still can get into a American Uni to do masters.

Didn't know they providing plenty of scholarship. Can share the sources? I do know the city/prefecture do offer scholarships to citizen to go overseas.
when they do promote in taiwan and China they make ppl pay MONEY! I read in this forum, Uni do award. Full award? everyone gets? don't have detail info.
after the baby boom, too many Uni today. Need foreigner to fill these places.

This post has been edited by patryn33: Aug 1 2009, 07:46 AM

Hi there,

For your information, visitor visa only can last 3 months. Your course is 6 months, therefore you will need to apply visa. Please check out the british immigration office or ring up british high commission

You will still need to provide medical report. Get your panel doctor to do a medical check up for you including X-ray.

Thank you for your question

Hi,

I can answer your question as I am an UK education advisory consultant from Studycare.

The easiest and most popular way to find out which UK universities are good in business is through the following lists:
http://education.guardian.co.uk/university...2276673,00.html
http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/tol_gug/go...ersityguide.php
http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/

But you should only use these lists as a reference not as an absolute measurement because they don't include business schools outside UK, for example, Hult International Business School is the prime example, Hult has campuses in Boston (headquarter), Dubai, London and Shanghai (small satellite campus) , although Hult is the best 16th MBA business school in US, the best 31st MBA in the world, however, Hult is not included in the UK university list.

I would suggest you apply to both Cardiff University and Hult basically for the following reason;
Hult (www.hult.edu)
- US credit system based; that means you can do half your Master degree in UK and the other half in US/Dubai/Shangai (subject to visa requirement)
- Specialised business school; they dont do other subjects except business related ones, that's why they are gooood.
- Top business school in the world; many of their lecturers are CEO / GM from blue chip companies in London.
- Located in London
- 2 intakes in a year for Master; Sept and Jan
- 13mth MBA, its requirement is 3yrs working exp + GMAT
- 1yr Master In International Business, no GMAT/Exprience required; credit can be transferred to MBA later.
- Master/MBA dissertation is case study, not traditional lengthy thesis writing.

Cardiff University (www.cardiff.ac.uk)
- the best 20th university in UK in business
- located in Wales, good scenery.
- The campus environment is good
- 1yr MBA; recent graduate with no exp considered
- sept intake only (unfortunately you won't have time to get the visa for this year on time)

One more tip; All top business schools like Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Cambridge, Hult, Warwick.. all require GMAT and working experience, studying MBA is get to know people so that you might be able to secure a job after graduation.

As we are a partner to these universities, through us, you will be able to receive scholarship of up to 30% off your tuition fee (depends on which uni), and we do not charge any service fee.

Please contact me on swong@studycare.co.uk or info@studycare.co.uk

Thanks.

Sam Wong
Education Advisory Consultant

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Added on August 19, 2009, 5:51 amJust an extra piece of comment.

Have you guys seen this website www.notcanada.com before? You will find out many truth of Canada that many don't know.... I guess if you were to study in Canada and you probably won't have problem finding work in Canada after graduation? But if you already have experience gained in else where you might not be able to make use of it in Canada at all, check out the website to find out why i said it.

Good luck.

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Added on August 19, 2009, 6:37 amAfter my high school graduation I went to study and work in Japan for a year, and this was about 15 years ago, now I live and run an education advisory organisation www.studycare.co.uk in UK.

Before you make up your decision whether to study in Japan, it's necessary to understand their culture and thought.

Japan is an extraordinary country with cultures cannot be found in elsewhere other than Japan (obviously).

To majority Japanese, studying abroad is expensive and uncommon, Japanese Universities are always their 1st choice. In general speaking Japanese people are very conversative, they pride themselves for being very superior than others, therefore they often exclude themselves from Gaijin (foreignors), esp. the asian (non-white).

After high school they can choose to study in University (4 yrs) or Senmon (2 yrs professional education), the tuition fee is very very high and so is their living expenses, my friend who is teaching English in a village in Japan, she recently told me for some reasons they don't sell apples in a pack, but rather in a single unit which cost UK50p per apple, it is around RM3!

Finding part timer work is not easy at all in Japan, Japanese ppl simply do not hire Gaijin (foreignor) without personal reference from their existing workers. Because of high living standard, it is very common to see Japanese people having 2-3 jobs, and yet not having enough for any saving at all. Because of the closed mindset against non-Japanese, since they don't even enough position for their own people, even if you master their language you will have to be very very lucky to find a good job in Japanese company. Unfortunately Japanese is not useful once you step outside Japan so it is likely your skill will be wasted too.

Based on my experience, I can conclude Japan is an excellent country for travel but not a place to settle or study.

Good luck.

This post has been edited by studycare: Aug 19 2009, 06:37 AM

Some said Japanese is very helpful, they will help you if you have any problem in Japan. Others said they are selfish. Who should I believe? lol

Or nowadays, their behavior changed? I mean at least they are more friendly than last time.

I would say Japanese is not as useful as English. If you happen to run Jap car import business or Jap food business then you would need to know Japanse, otherwise the chances of using Japanese is slim...very slim.

I don't think Japanese is selfish, they just have a very strong sense of superiority therefore it is extremely difficult for foreignors to integrate into their society, one thing that I am still very certain is Japanese look up on caucasian, but look down on Chinese, partly because mainland Chinese ppl committed alot of crimes there.... and unfortunately they cannot differentiate Chinese Malaysian from other Chinese Chinese, so they tend to treat us all the same.

Why don't you take a short trip to Japan to experience it yourself?

This post has been edited by studycare: Aug 19 2009, 11:59 PM

UK will the cheapest among US,AUS,and UK...

If I got money then I will be gone there already... lol
I just thinking of going there to further my study. Other country that I also considering are UK and German. Other than study I also want to travel in their country.
Many people said I looks like Japanese (they say my skin so white, like Japanese. Japanese very white meh???). Strengthen my japanese language and don't speak chinese they won't recognize. haha

UK got cheaper than US and AUS?? But life there very boring. They say at night other than cook at home and go pub, nothing to do d...

This post has been edited by Dark Lord: Aug 20 2009, 07:32 AM

depends on major.
life is very boring? how would U know?
U could be in NYC or Tokyo and scream life is very boring! LOL.
Its how U make out of it.

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Added on August 20, 2009, 10:34 pmthere are many truth about a country.. let it be canada, UK, USA, Australia etc.
NZ also had a similar site to boast how "good" is their country http://www.expatexposed.com/
There are always ppl complaining how much a country sucks. Look at Singapore, ppl are always complaining how much it sucks. Still we find ppl around asia moving there to work.

with todays globisation, It pretty much depends on how one leavage on his/her skills and use it.
can or cannot use the skills very much depends on one's trade, I don't see how a Country limits that.

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Added on August 20, 2009, 10:39 pmvery depends who U meet. I got to agree with studycare comments on japan. U don't know the neg side of it.
studycare stayed there a yr. I always date jap, even married 1.
U need to open your eyes and ears


This post has been edited by patryn33: Aug 20 2009, 10:39 PM

Does anyone here apply ATAS Clearance before? The Online Application portal seems down.

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/fco-in-action/cou...s/apply-online/

(Apply Online Now)

Is there any other way to apply ATAS Clearance?

Thanks.

edit: The server is already functioning. thanks.

This post has been edited by hOnGhOnG: Aug 21 2009, 07:36 PM

Hi Reynna

Yes, the application service is free, can you send me all your result transcript? and please let me know what degree are you planning to pursue and when do you plan to come over to UK?

Thanks.

Kind regards,

Sam Wong
Student Advisory Service
email: swong@studycare.co.uk
tel: 0845 652 55 22

darn! ppl here bashing UK edu!!! wonder whats studycare take...
http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=1025889&hl=

Is that true???

I was considering going UK or EURO countries to get my master...

did U follow the thread? TS in that thread didn't back things up after numerous refute the claims.
as for whats true? what are U talking about here?

Hi, it seems like you are very keen to know my reaction to this news.

I checked the forum, there have been many ppl answering to the "UK medical education bashing" issue, so i would just share with you some of my thoughts here.

Before we jump to any conclusion, we should first understand the background why this has happened, however I am no expert in medical degree education in UK, this is by no mean my very personal understanding.

According to what i heard from my friends (medical doctors), getting into specialist course after their first degree is extremely competitive in the UK, the local UK students used to compete against their European counterpart as well as everyone from outside the EU, since each specialist student must learn directly from a consultant at one time, and since there aren't many consultants in the UK, the demand is far greater than the supply, unfortunately in the past years many foreign medical students after they have become consultant (4-6yrs training) they have left UK for their home country or Aus/US..for easier life and better pay, UK government was under immense pressure, what is worse is the local media kept bashing UK government for not doing enough to increase doctors, reduce the patient waiting time, etc etc... So what happened next, the UK gov had to implement several policies to stop the brain drain getting worse, one of them was to increase doctor's salary (ie. GP salary was from £70K jumped to £110K/yr), allow UK patient to receive treatment from EU country and restric non-EU students from applying the limited specialist placement, i think those foreignors with Permanent Residency status are not affected by this policy.

I am no policy maker and I don't think their policies are perfect either, but i can see the reason why they are doing this, I guess if you were the UK government, you probably would have done the same thing too, won't you?



Sam Wong
StudyCare
swong@studycare.co.uk

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Added on August 23, 2009, 8:13 pmHi

They are many good universities in Europe for postgraduate degree but many of them are taught in French / German / Dutch, so you will have to be cautious.

Second concern is the duration, UK needs only 1 yr for master degree (including MBA) but other countries may require 2yrs-3yrs.

Third concern is the cost, Euro dollar is very expensive nowadays, you might find it cheaper to complete your degree in UK than in Europe esp if your postgraduate degree takes more than 1 yr to complete.


Let me know if you need any help


Sam
swong@studycare.co.uk

This post has been edited by studycare: Aug 23 2009, 08:13 PM

Agree

1) not really valid without the right language skills those uni would have rejected the applicant. either that THE LORD would have noticed it when he/she get the admission letter. don't have to be cautious, if so blur how to do masters degree.

2) with regards to duration.. different ppl have different views
eg:
http://educationmalaysia.blogspot.com/2006...ke-so-long.html

3) Euro is not EXPENSIVE, its STRONG. without any uni in mind its easy to write "you might find it cheaper to complete in the rest of Europe than UK".

why do people always aim to study overseas instead of aiming to study in a good university overseas? it's like they want to study overseas only cos it;s nice. If i have the choice I would like to study in UBC or RCM.

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Added on August 30, 2009, 1:42 amand University of Berlin toooo!

This post has been edited by wnar: Aug 30 2009, 01:42 AM