Riots make UK-bound students rethink plans

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With the current unrest in UK, students who are about to enroll at various colleges and universities there are in alert mode. While many are making frantic calls to their seniors there for a true report of the ground reality, others are glued to TV for the latest updates on the situation. Still, many feel that riots may be a rare occurence in the West, but Indians are subjected to them more often, and thereby are better mentally equipped to tackle such situations.
“I hope this is a temporary phase and things are back to normal soon. It’s very surprising to witness such mayhem and lawlessness in the West. I can’t change my study plans as I have made all the deposits and am due to fly,” says Aaryan Shah, who’s set to join an MBA programme.
Khurram Nisar is set to do his Masters in Sports Management in the UK and hopes the unrest ends soon. “We are brought up in an environment where things aren’t always smooth. I don’t see any reason to be very sceptical about going there. After all, the course I am taking up is available in the UK only. I believe that if you are best at your work, no one has a reason to hold you back,” says Khurram who has complete faith in the security system there, and is hopeful that things will be back to normal soon.
Sandhiya Sharma, 24, who’s joining a media course in the UK says the turmoil won’t affect her plans and blames the media for exaggerating the situation. “Media has magnified the entire thing. And such kind of unrest happens once in several years. London is known as a seat of quality education and I don’t think this one-off instance can change that. My relatives in London told me it’s not as big an issue and drama as it is shown in TV,” she says.
But a few have actually changed their plans and are looking at alternate destinations for their further studies. Like Shereen Iqbal, 25, who’s now planning to go to the US instead of UK. “After watching the state of affairs on TV, I had discussions with my friends there in UK. I got to know that one of the reasons for the youth-driven uproar is job uncertainty there. So, after finishing my course, I realised that bagging a job is going to be a real tough task,” says Shereen, who’s planning to take up Masters in Social Work.
“Students aspiring to join UK universities will be flying to UK in mid-September and later. Surely, UK government will take required steps to bring the situation under control on timely basis. Generally we counsel students to take on-campus accommodation because the area has 24X7 security with CCTV and other technological gadgets. Yet, in case of any emergency situation, I suggest the students in UK refrain from certain things like going out alone and keeping late hours. Always be equipped with emergency number and call police at the earliest in case of any problematic situation,” suggests Tanushree Bhattacharya, country manager, overseas education consultant, The Chopra’s.
“Dreams are dreams. I will go no matter what,” says Adil Imroz, who’s doing engineering from Karnataka’s Rural Engineering and plans to go to UK for MBA.