Our niece will be studying for her master’s degree at the University of York for a year starting in September. She knows other Thais there, or at least has been in contact with some, so knows some of what to expect. But do the Brits on this Board have any advice to pass on to her?
Thanks in advance.
After that thread where someone went to the wrong Sydney, make sure she’s going to the right York. That’s York, not North York, East York, New York, York Region, or Yorkville. 
She’s pretty sure which York it is. 
Oh, and congratulations!
She will need good rain gear. It gets cold and rainy up in Yorkshire, even as compared to, say, London: see the recent thread on On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at.
She may rest assured, however, that, these days, very few people speak in that sort of broad Yorkshire dialect. The locals do have a bit of an accent, but it is not hard to understand (and, at the University, most people won’t be locals, anyway).
York has a sort of stand-your-ground-law. You can kill a Scotsman in York, but only if he’s holding a bow and arrow.
Yes to the rain gear! (Buy wellies the first day, thank me later.) Also: buy some really warm pyjamas, a dressing gown and slippers. Houses, and especially student houses, can have dodgy heating. Also a hot water bottle. Really, I am not joking about this. She wants a hot water bottle.
Landlords who let to students are basically scum. Go over what she can do when she experiences problems. It can get bad: no water, water everywhere, rats, a hole in the wall. Crazy stuff. You can withhold rent if the landlord is refusing to fix something. Because if you are underwater and overrun with rats the landlord will tell you he might come over some time next week. And then he won’t.
Don’t stick too much with just the Thai friends. It’s quite easy in the UK, because there are plenty, but she will miss out. Join the drama society or something. It’s difficult to meet people at first, but it is for everyone.
York is really pretty. The countryside outside York is also really pretty. When she has a nice bunch of friends, get out there for walks and picnics. September will be a little rainy, but there might still be some nice days. And anyway, there is nothing like a picnic in the rain to make you feel really English.
She’ll have a blast! But remember that Master’s are really short and she shouldn’t forget to have fun.
Thanks, all. She won’t have to worry about landlords, as she’s going to have on-campus housing.
She was also accepted to the University of Glasgow but chose York’s program. Probably a good thing too, as she might have found herself in a different country due to that referendum coming up. Not sure how that would have affected her visa.
I graduated from York 20 years ago so my info might be out of date. It’s a wonderful campus with the second largest plastic bottomed lake in Europe. That fact comes up a lot and was even mentioned on Qi. The ducks and geese are cute for the first few weeks. Then you get tired of treading in their poo all day. There are covered walkways that will protect you from the elements. Unless it’s a windy day and the fountain is running.
It’s a collegiate university and most of the colleges have their own bars and dining rooms. Each one has it’s own character. There are two pubs in the village, ‘Charles xii’ is the more student friendly one. But ‘the heslington arms’ does a great Sunday lunch.
It’s one of the best cities in the uk for cycling so get a bike if you can. It also has a high bike theft rate so get a cheap one and a good lock. I paid £15 for the worst bike you have ever seen and it never got stolen. The city is only a few minutes away by bike.
If there’s anything specific you want to know, feel free to ask.
I just saw that she’s got on campus accommodation. Do you know which college she will belong to? The post grad rooms used to be bigger than the under graduate ones. But they all had really narrow beds. The rumour was that the university was part funded by Quakers and they didn’t approve of 2 unmarried people sharing a bed.
When I was there they were upgrading most of the rooms to be en suite. Mainly so they could rent them out to conferences when the students weren’t around.
There’s usually a bedder assigned to each corridor. These are usually middle aged cleaning women and you should always be nice to them. They see everything and normally keep their mouths shut. But they can make things difficult for you if you upset them. The same goes for the college porters.
Also, even colder and wetter.
Thanks for the info. She’ll be doing her master’s in computer science. That was her bachelor’s, and she’s already worked as a project manager for a couple of companies here in Bangkok. It’s not out of the question that she might try to stay for a doctorate. (Her aunt, my wife, a professor herself, is encouraging her to think seriously about that.)
The niece is about a month away from leaving and will have her visa interview at the British Embassy here in Bangkok on Monday. But damn, it’s expensive I heard they just went up, and now she has to pay 530 pounds! That’s 28,200 baht or US$885. Just for the visa. I don’t know if that’s just for this visa type, an education visa, or for any visa. She was expecting to pay about 20,000 baht, but again it just got hiked about 40%.
I know my wife’s tourist visa to the US – she always keeps a 10-year visa in her passport – runs about $100 or $125.
Are you sure you’re not thinking $530 US? Student visas are £310 here (unless she needs a different type?) and that converts to around $530.
She said pounds. But looking at the British Embassy website here in Bangkok, I do believe you are right and that she got confused. Will check into this more closely. She has to pay online before she can have the interview on Monday. Hope she doesn’t overpay!
EDIT: Sure enough, we just heard back from her after my wife sent her a message on Line. She said something like “:smack:.” Thanks for pointing that out. 310 pounds is only about 16,500 baht.
Thanks again for all your advice. The niece got her visa, flew into Manchester yesterday (Saturday) and made it to York. She uploaded pictures of her dorm room, and it looks very nice, with a view of the lake.
She’ll be there for a year. If there’s any other advice, pass it along.