I decided to apply to Loughborough because my older brother went here and he really enjoyed it. I wanted to try something new at university, and I was attracted by the fact that all the Business School courses had a placement year or a study abroad option.
I’d always been curious about studying abroad, but I applied to some industrial placements at first. However, after I went to the study abroad fair and spoke to people at the different stands, I had the realisation that I was a lot more excited about the prospect of studying abroad than taking a placement year.
I was interested in going to Japan because I’d always thought it looked really cool. I’d watched YouTube videos and travel vlogs, and at the fair I spoke to someone who’d studied there for a whole year. He spoke with such enthusiasm, it really cemented it as one of my choices.
The fact you can split your placement or study abroad year made me think about going to a second country. China wasn’t somewhere I’d planned on visiting, but when I saw it as an option I thought, why not? It offered something completely different, and I felt like I just wanted to see what it was really like there.
I went to China first, to the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. All the teaching was done in English, which made it accessible. The first few weeks I was quite anxious, I had no idea what to expect and I didn’t know who I was going to meet. But at the airport I met the other exchange students, and then I met my flatmates, two Germans, and we immediately made friends. I didn’t think that would happen so quickly. Everyone was in the same boat, with the same motivation and energy. Everyone wanted to go out, have fun, explore.
We travelled a lot. During the Golden Week holiday, we took the train right across central China to visit Wuhan, Nanjing and Suzhou. It was our first time properly going out of Ningbo and everything was completely new. It was amazing.
The support when I arrived in country was great too. They sorted everything out on the first day. I remember needing a Chinese bank account and someone went with me to the bank and helped me arrange everything I needed to do. It was intimidating at first getting used to all the new ways of doing things, but once everything was set up, I felt well prepared for the rest of my time there.
Studying abroad definitely made me more confident. It broadened my horizons and made me more intentional about pushing my boundaries. It made me realise I want to work internationally.
I could see myself working a few years in London and then transferring to somewhere in China, maybe Shanghai, and improving my language skills to use in my career. Coming back into final year, I felt like I was eager to get back into my studies and just do the best I can. You come out of your time abroad with this sense that you can handle most things.
The main thing I’d say is that studying abroad is completely different from just travelling. You experience everything from a student perspective, with people who are all in the same boat. It’s a unique and special opportunity. I went to China knowing almost nothing beyond what I’d read in the news. I accepted that maybe I wouldn’t enjoy it or maybe it would be too different to acclimatise, but it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, and I’ve got some amazing memories to last a lifetime.”
