Hi, i'll be going to UWE Bristol to do Accounting and Finance is Sept 07. I know it's not as prestigious as those older unis like Oxbridge, York, etc, but meh. (Should have done A Levels instead of this dumb foundation programme) Anyone from that uni or around Bristol here? I heard the life in Bristol is awesome.

My tuition fees will be 6200/year (after 2000 scholarship)
Accomodation will be 95/week (en-suite, new student village, 2nd batch to stay!)
I don't really drink, but I smoke. (Going to try and bring a few cartons over hopefully)
So excluding tuition fees and accommodation and stuff needed to settle there, will, let's say a spending of 50-75 per week be reasonable? I'm expecting to cook average once per day. (excluding lunch since brits seem to like sandwiches)

Oh, and i'll be staying with my bro for a few days in London (go kacau him) with my bro before going to Bristol, and is there anything i should be doing upon my arrival in England? Such as opening a bank account and/or getting a phone contract? Thanks.

my bro did his masters (mphil) in cambridge. the hard part about cambridge in terms of placements is because you must choose which college you want to apply to. i heard some people dont mind going to a lesser known college because it is easier to get a place. beware though, some colleges arent as good as other colleges.

for postgrad its different because youapply to the uni and the uni will get you a college.

well it depends on you really.

studying for your average 3 year degree would cost somewhere around rm250k. (including living expenses ofc) it is possible to do a local degree here, and then continue masters in the UK, but ofc you should check 1st in any case about the unis.

on the other hand, if you print money at home, then tertiary education in UK is good (again, depends on uni). studying in the uk not only gives you a nice paper qualification, but also helping yourself, because you are trying to perform outside your "comfort zone". (home, friends, family, etc..)

Imo, if you're unfamilliar with the area, surroundings and such, on campus accomodation is usually better. Did you do your degree in UK? The thing about staying in houses is it can either be normal, or it can be a really nice experience if you choose all your good friends to stay with you.

Dude don't worry about the porn. Normal for humans right? Especially at our age, heh.

Erm, since i'm sure 99% of us don't want to checkin our laptops, are laptops as easily as susceptible to the x-ray machines like other hardware? Should i be worried?

Normally most unis aren't so strict about that, because UCAS has the scoring system remember? 120 pts for A, 100 pts for B, 80 pts for C, 60 pts for D. (at least during my time, and those are A2 scores, and if you take an extra AS subject the score is halved, eg: 40 for AS level A)

So if the uni accepted you for 300 pts, let's say you can get a BBB or AAC it wouldn't matter so much.

Went to submit my my visa today, man it was a long day. Went there at 7.45 before they opened at 8, and there were so many already waiting outside the door. Managed to get #33, and i was only done at 1pm! Lots of guys don't bring the proper documents/certified copies or fill the forms wrongly and make the numbers move so slow..

So my advise to anyone is know what you have to submit, check the VFS websites, make copies where applicable and the VFS checklist is for them to tick, not you! (You can have your own copy if you want)

Haha yeah i got sounded for listening to my iPod because apparently next to the entrance they don't allow you to use items with a battery..

1. Make like a dozen copies of your recent photograph. You only need 1 for visa, but good to have extra when you reach there or something.
2. Make sure your passport is valid for another 6 months i think.
3. Fill out the sections of the VFS form that you know, don't go there with an empty or half empty form.
4. For financial docs, just throw everything in, RM300k shown should be able to get you your visa with no hassles/interviews. Also don't forget to get your financial docs certified and such.
5. Go there early! Like around 7.30am wait outside and queue for the place to open at 8. If you're lucky you can be done by 9.
6. Enjoy whatever time you have left with friends/family.

Actually 100k is ok, so shouldn't really be a problem.

If your mum/dad is sponsoring you, get a sponsor's letter and they can sign it (you usually type it yourself). Also, to get your documents certified, you bring 3 months bank statements showing you had rm100k or whatever in there, go to the branch manager or someone with that line of power and ask him to certify a copy of those statements. =)

How come you get your visa for a later date? Maybe you filled in the visa form wrongly as there was a section asking when you intend to arrive in the UK. Or could be admin error.

I can't say whether there will be a problem or not..

For mine it took 3 working days (including the day you send in). As for sponsor letter, you need to say who the relationship is to you, how you are going to sponsor him, your positions in whatever company, then ask your mum/dad to sign. If you want, PM me your email then i can send you a draft of my old letter or something when i get back.

No, your visa doesn't require you to have an airline ticket, but to collect your airline ticket you must have your passport and firm offer letter with you. (So don't go and give the visa people your passport and at the same time go and collect your air ticket)

For visa photographs, they should have white background, and only 1 copy is needed.

Btw how come applying for visa so late? When does your uni start?

Lol @ broadband!

I just reached UK 2 nights ago, staying at my bro's place till Monday before heading off to Bristol. Tried to get a phone, they said i needed a bank account. Wanted to open a bank account, they said needed letter from uni and all that bla bla bla. I'll only get that letter during orientation on 19th i think, so worse comes to the worse i'll have to ask them to charge it to my bro's account.

Hmm, heard this coming weekend will be internation welcome weekend, followed by freshers weekend which is nights full of music and clubbing in the local union bars. wonder how good the union bars are, but they shouldn't be too shabby i suppose.

Nah, going to UWE, Bristol.

I managed to smuggle in 5 packets of maggi (5*5) and 4 cartons of ciggarettes. No problems there, was travelling with my dad. We got this cool fastrack thing, but the immigration lady asked me to bring my xray to the medical side, and then i had to queue for the immigration officer again! so my advice is, if you have an xray, go straight to the small, ugly medical room, get them to stamp it, and then only queue at counter 6. (i think)

oh and i like starbucks here, it only costs like 1.5 pounds.

Nah malaysia is pretty lax on that, i heard from UK they won't even let you carry a bag and a pouch!

Oh that sounds really bad. So she just threw away the money she spent for tuition fees? I mean everybody feels homesick at first right, I'm currently in my 1st week in Bristol, and although in no way does it feel like home (except seeing lots of malaysians smoking around), it does provide you an opportunity to try something new. But 80 pounds a month sounds quite reasonable since 3 people are sharing a 4 room house, even per week it sounds reasonable. My accommodation on-site campus costs me 110 pounds, but some extras thrown in.

Btw, i'm using postpaid with Vodafone, but i didn't hear about that o2 thing before i bought it, but i have heard about people calling numbers to get free calls to malaysia and being arrested and sued in court, maybe it's this possibly?

That's so cool If I call that number from Vodafone will it work? Or is there a special number for Vodafone?

Yeah those are the newer notes. But they have been around for quite a long time (at least a few months), so i don't know what the shop was thinking when they refused to accept your money..