I’m an international student in Manchester – here’s what to expect

Being an international student is the most fun you can have without taking off your clothes. The best part? You’ve chosen Manchester as your brand-new home.

Manchester is home to some of the world’s best music, and maybe not some of the best clubs – Factory 251, I’m looking at you. I promise you won’t regret moving here.

UK student life is unmatched. Whether you’re coming for a year, or for your full degree, you’ll feel like a whole new person afterwards.

Just make sure you don’t follow in the blunders of your international student ancestors. Think getting scammed, spending all your money during freshers week, or being separated from your friends in 42s when you go to the bathroom. 

Where you’re living is important. You want to be close to university, your part-time job (if you’re not a student finance baddie), and the club. Your accommodation might even be mould free! Lucky you. Although I do recommend going to viewings beforehand, if possible. You really never know…

Move-in 

You’ve flown over, met your flatmates, and now you’re unpacking. You only had a 23kg suitcase flying over, so you need to buy room decorations.  

Lured into Primark by £3 pyjama tops, you buy four of them in different colours. You then leave without buying the bedsheets you came in for, but now you  have a mug with a rainbow alpaca on it. Worth it.

Finding a job 

While applying for jobs, you noticed that they kept asking for a National Insurance number. Wondering what on earth that means, you left it blank and then wondered why you had zero interviews. You need a job to cover your Urban Outfitters addiction, duh.  

A website tries to scam you for £60, but you eventually find the real website to apply for one. A lengthy trek to the Preston office later, you’re finally given one.  

You get a job that allows you to go home for the summer. You’re over the moon. In celebration, you buy your online shopping cart. You’ll literally earn the money back in two weeks. Or at least that’s how you reason it. 

Friendship

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Living in Manchester, you’ll meet people from all walks of life. It’s the best. Make space for a million photobooth photos in your room by the time you hit graduation. It’s a rite of passage for every trip into town.

There will come a time in your final year when you’ve been in the library for the fifth day in a row, and you’ll wish you were a fresher or second year going out with your best mates on your student finance loan. So, always say yes to plans, because you’ll miss it before you know it.

Nights out 

To assimilate into the English student way of life, you decide to get plastered. If you’re a fresher, you and your new best friends (the flatmates you met this morning) are going out. You have drinks in the communal kitchen. When the mixers run out, you drink straight vodka.

You have a cheeky Wetherspoons trip alongside every other fresher in Manchester. It’s practically the student HQ on a Saturday night.  

No matter where the night started, you will end up in 42s until they turn the closing lights on. The afters are in a random accommodation you’ll never see again. Nonetheless, Snapchats are exchanged. They’ll forever be that random Bitmoji on Snapmaps that you bump into occasionally.

When you get home, the sun is rising. You were never going to make that 9am seminar anyway. 

Your first Market Street pilgrimage 

It’s unavoidable and overstimulating. A street seller pressures you to buy his CD; you say you only have card, and the man pulls out a card machine from his jacket pocket. You haven’t set up a bank account in England yet, so you use your one from home. You’re charged international fees. You leave defeated, with a random man’s music, and you only wanted to go to H&M. 

Bonus: You don’t have a CD player. You don’t want one. You’ll never know what was on that disc. 

Manchester is full of culture, whether it’s music, Northern Quarter, or Gay Village. Fortunately, you’ll quickly adapt to life in England. Being an international student is an incredible experience, and you’ll never regret it.