Martina Gardeva (Bulgaria)

MSc Tourism Management and Marketing student, Martina Gardeva, shares her experience with studying in the UK and how it compares with studying in her country, Bulgaria.

When coming to the UK to study, some of your biggest concerns might be if you are going to be able to cope with the demanding study environment, and if you possess all the skills necessary to excel in your studies.

Let me assure you it’s not that hard and everything can be learnt and mastered once you come here. Nobody expects you to be perfect and to know everything. After all, that is why you are coming to BU – to develop yourself and enhance your knowledge.

Teamwork enhances employability

In the UK, as postgraduate students, we don’t always have exams. Some courses don’t have them at all. Sounds great, right? Instead of that, we have several group projects, assignments and more creative tasks. This is quite good, as you learn how to work with people from different countries and practice your teamwork skills. All employers value them!
Friendly relationship with your lecturers

All professors at BU are very friendly and helpful. They answer all your emails quickly and give you guidelines for your assignments. In addition, it’s less formal in the UK and you can address academics by their first name.

Justify your academic argument

The biggest difference between the essays we write back home and the ones we have to write here, is that the academic essays in the UK requires a lot of referencing to justify your academic arguments. In order to have a high mark, you need to do extensive reading and research on the topic you are writing about. This referencing guide will be very useful to you once you start your studies at BU.

Less of ‘being told’, more of independent study

You will have less classes and units than you are used to in Bulgarian universities. Instead, you are expected to do a lot of independent study and reading, in additional to attending lectures. Many of the books are digital and you get all your lectures online, as well as recorded lectures that are uploaded onto Brightspace, BU virtual learning environment.

Living in the library

As students in Bulgaria, most of us don’t spend much time in the library simply because they are not very modern and have very few books. However, at BU, the library is your biggest friend. It’s big, comfy and a great place to spend time reading, preparing for exams or even meeting up for group projects, as there are so many study spaces and computers.
Embrace the change, do your best, and I am sure everything will work out just fine for you.

By Martina Gardeva, Bulgaria, MSc Tourism Management and Marketing, 2017/18