Chinese - advice on British universities

[Chineselookingwest]

my Son would like to study at UK University. Many of his friends do but they only mix with fellow Chinese and international students and keep themselves to selves. This is not what my son wants - he wants to integrate properly with UK students. His English is fluent.

he does not want to go to a university where international students isolate. He has friends at Essex university and Guildford and Holloway London who do that. He will avoid those places. Where else should he avoid please.

@honeyandfizz thank you a lot. We watched YouTube videos and instagram on Bath and it is exciting place with top graduate prospects. Good for economics and Spanish my son say. When we in UK in summer we will visit Bath, Bristol and Exeter as close together. I will have to reserve a new Air BnB for that area! It is very difficult choosing where to go for university in uk

scared of Belfast because of party DUP. In control, but bad and just interested in self from reports I read.

My daughter is at Exeter, which is RG. There are many foreign students admittedly, but when she lived in student accom in her first year she shared with 6 others, 3 of whom were foreign but none Chinese. She was not in an expensive Hall. The most expensive, from what I can remember, are the studio apartments and this is where the 'richer' students lived, I believe this is where many Chinese students were housed.

I think that if, a) your son chooses clubs judiciously and b) chooses less expensive accom he will meet a wider range of people.

I hope he has a really hapy time wherever he goes.

My DCs all went to university in the US, where we live. All have encountered a lot of Chinese students. One thing that was noticeable on the social front was that those Chinese students who took European MFLs had more non-Chinese friends than those who took Japanese or Korean as their (obligatory) MFL subject. DS made friends with several Chinese students who were doing German alongside him.

You will see a lot of the UK and hopefully have a lovely experience!

I wish you well and I'm sure your son will find the right place for him.

Sometimes you just have a feeling that this is where you are meant to be.

On your travels I think your son needs to follow his heart just as much as his head when thinking about his choices and in doing so will find the right balance.

How exciting op. I’m sure your ds will have an amazing experience and enjoy your search!

QUB is very much a university that attracts students from the half of the population that does not vote for the DUP.

The DUP really are a horrible political party but their political hold is waning. They are outnumbered by the combined other parties.

OP I went to QUB 20 years ago and even then there wasn't a sniff of DUP leanings. Don't let that put him off. I will say though that as fab as Belfast was/is, it's much more parochial than any other capital city in the UK. Back then a large majority of students were locals and I don't think it has changed much in that respect. Many people in mainland UK haven't even heard of it, on the student room I keep seeing it referred to as University of Belfast!

We know a couple of SE Asian students who studied in Belfast and who enjoyed their time there. One ended up marrying a local girl, and staying. (My friend is now a very proud grandmother and apart from distance, is happy with her son’s choices.)

Feedback is that yes Belfast is parochial. Most other students are from N.Ireland, but that is not a problem. People are friendly and appear to welcome those from other countries. Also post Brexit it looks as if things are changing. Young people, regardless of religion are applying for Irish (EU) passports and investment is coming in, whilst TV series like Derry Girls and films like Branagh’s Belfast are using humour to examine the troubles, and hopefully help place them in history where they belong. (Liam Neeson’s cameo in Derry Girls is on YouTube and well worth watching.)

We had a Japanese girl in our accommodation with limited English. She ended up in hospital in the first few weeks and me and my friend were the only ones to visit her. I think in that instance being with other international students would have been helpful to her.

I think Warwick might be a good fit. My son studied there when we lived in China and it was convenient to fly from Birmingham university via Frankfurt back to China. Warwick accommodation is all self catering and cooking together is a good opportunity to meet people and the sports facilities at Warwick are very good. Although my son is British he had never lived in the uk before he went to university and mixed a lot with foreign students eg from Germany Singapore and Hong Kong.

Hmm, I'd have probably said to avoid Warwick. It has an extremely high number of international students there and the Op's son wants to mix.

I am on record on this Board ad a big fan of Bath for undergraduates, OP. They always seem happy to me (on the whole, of course). This year Bath is The Times University of the Year.

In the past it was perhaps under rated but that has changed in recent years.

Warwick, too! But it needs little recommendation from anyone. Most of the Economics programmes are extraordinarily competitive, however.

Advice for the very best British students, those predicted four A stars with considerable other strengths, is to feel lucky if they get one of Cambridge, Warwick, LSE or UCL for Economics after applying to all four. I don’t know whether Joint programmes are as competitive, however. (I don’t even know who offers Econ and Spanish -what an interesting combination).

Economics and Spanish being such an unsual combination is another factor in Lancaster's favour with its Part 1/Part2 Major/Minors system

when you choose accommodation for Warwick you can specify the type of people you want to share with which is another opportunity to specify a good mix of nationalities, sporty people etc. Requests did seem to be taken into account as my son asked for a sporty, international mix and ended up sharing a house in years 2 and 3 with friends he made in halls.

Warwick business school society is also an excellent opportunity to mix with other students.

Bath, Bristol and Exete aer all good and are the kinds of places where chidlren from the better schools in the UK tend to go (along with Oxford, Cambridge and Durham of course and the better London universities).

3 of my children went to Bristol (2 are now trainee lawyers and 1 is qualified as a lawyer). They loved Bristol. Two stayed in Wills Hall there in year 1 (which is "catered" (meals) hall). http://www.bristol.ac.uk/accommodation/about/residences/wills-hall/

You can look up percentages of international students at universities here op https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/student-advice/where-to-study/international-students-at-uk-universities

Surely you mean "children with the best results" not "children from the better schools" @Xenia?

Surely you mean "children with the best results" not "children from the better schools"

Nope, I'm pretty sure she typed what she meant.

Certain Universities do attract students from "the best" schools where some Stubbs are hothoused in lieu of talent.

That's often not a good reason to recommend them, especially in comparison to other Universities which outrank them in pretty much every league table.

There is is course the bonus that whilst this demographic corral themselves to certain institutions, others have the opportunity to thrive in more socially diverse and academically superior Universities.

I can't believe that any university in this day and age admits students with lesser grades just because they went to a particular school (and I'm assuming that you and Xenia mean private or grammar schools here). So you're saying that, faced with 2 candidates with equal grades, these Universities favour students from particular schools? Surely they all have much more incentive to diversify and admit more state school pupils these days?

Or do you mean that the cohort self selects because more people from those schools apply to them?

Or do you mean that the cohort self selects because more people from those schools apply to them?

This in my case.

Xenia means “children from schools where parents have lots of money and pay for them”.

The students from these schools are no better or worse than students any other school either in attitude or intelligence, the only difference is having money.

Shocking snobbery!