Travelling abroad was one of my dreams from childhood, but I had no idea that it would happen to undertake a master’s degree. My journey from India to Aberdeen to Robert Gordon University started almost one year ago…

After graduating as an Electronics Engineer I started working in one of the most reputable hospital groups in India – KIMS. Whilst working there, I kept thinking more and more about my field and what I could do next. At that point, I thought of doing my master’s degree, and being from Kerala, studying in India was my first option as I was not aware of the international education opportunities. One day I talked with one of my school friends who was doing his postgraduate MBA course in Canada and asked him how it was studying abroad. This was the start of my journey from India to Aberdeen and thinking of it right now, it was quite an exciting one!

I opened my laptop and started Googling for master’s programmes abroad. As there was so much information on the internet I did not know where to start. To get a better understanding of what the next steps were, I got advice from a few education consultants. I also enrolled in classes for my IELTS exam. During this time, I kept planning my move abroad and only after I passed my IELTS test I told my parents. They happily approved! It appeared that everything was going according to plan.

From the very beginning, Canada and the UK were at the top of my list. As the weather was one of my major considerations, my focus turned to British based universities only. Once I got accepted for the MSc Biomedical Technology in RGU, I got in touch with other students studying there to have my questions answered. This was also when I applied for Scotland’s Saltire Scholarship through the university’s website and learned more about Scotland.

One day, I woke up to a Facebook message from Akhil who lived near me, and who too was going to study in Aberdeen. How amazing! I have a friend to travel all the way from India to Aberdeen, my first friend to share this journey to Aberdeen!

The next hurdle was to book my accommodation, which as daunting as it sounded was one of the easiest tasks thanks to the RGU Accommodation page. There was lots of very helpful information about the different accommodation types and information on how to book one.

Come to think of it, I was very lucky with the people that crossed my pathway. One of my (now) flatmates viewed our apartment and send me a few images of the rooms which helped a lot prior to booking my accommodation.

Once I ticked accommodation off my to-do list, it was time to do all the shopping. With the help of my friends, siblings, and my girlfriend (who helped me pick up my new pair of shoes) I got ready and I started packing.

Meanwhile, I got my visa and booked the air tickets for the 17^th January of 2020. After everything was in place, I visited my relatives and friends to say my goodbyes.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to my motherland, my family and my girlfriend. My feelings were mixed. I was sad but also super excited to catch my first flight to a place that I’ve never been before. A place that would be my second home for the following years to come.

My friend Akhil and I completed our security checks and started our journey to Aberdeen at around 5:00 (Indian time). We reached Aberdeen airport at 8:00 pm (UK time), picked a cab and headed towards our accommodation.

As I am not used to the single-digit temperature I was freezing. Enrolment at the university didn’t start until the 20th of January so we decided to explore some nearby places and do some shopping. The very next day we found some shops to do our weekly grocery shopping in, as well as finding some clothing shops.

My journey as an MSc student in Aberdeen has just kicked off and I am so excited for whatever is to follow!

Sankar Saraswathy

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