Everything about cardiff university.

Till date I must have told about Cardiff University to atleast couple of dozens of people and still i get messages asking about the university and the place. So here I go with everything about cardiff and the university.

1. CARDIFF UNIVERSITY

Its one of the best universities in UK and ranks 4th for its research and development. It has many renowned lecturers and professors. As a student, I must say I have been studying text books written by our own lecturers. they are highly qualified and knowledgable. every department of the college has really good faculty.

There are so many campuses of cardiff university. Like bute building for journalism department, julian hodge for MBA etc. all these campuses are just 6-15 minutes away from university residences.

Classes take place for just 5 days a week being saturday and sunday weekends. Hanndout are supplied in every class and no notes are dictated. It is on us whether to write important points told by lecturers. I recommend you to write and attend all the classes which will in turn help in scoring good marks. another important point to be noted here is that the passing marks is 50 on 100 and its not possible to re-evaluate your papers after marking takes place. 49 marks on 100 will also be considered as fail here. so be responsible if you have accepted the offer letter.

There is no dress code. There are canteens available in college campuses and good food is provided for both breakfast and lunch. university has a very good digital library which has huge range of books, journals and magazines on stock.

Most of the students here are indians and if you are coming from India, its no point bothering about your stay, friends and safety.

2. RESIDENCES

according to me talybont court is the best residences among all the residences. i recommend you to take up the contract of 1 year i.e. sept to sept rather than taking up the contract of 9 months i.e sept to july. I am sure you will enjoy your stay in residences. usually Indian students are put together in same flat or same building. and atleast 2 girls together.

my next preference of residence is talybont south. though building looks pretty old, its always cheerful. talybont south never sleeps. at the same time there is lot of safety, privacy for everyone in the residences and silence prevail during exam times.

all the residences provide basic cooking necessaries like hobs, oven, micowaves, water boilers, toasters, refrigerator, freezers, vaccum cleaners and heaters in every flat. house keeping maintains the cleaniness of residences in an appreciable way. fire safety doors are fixed everywhere and fire alarms also exist. if you face any problem for example fixing water taps, tubelights etc will be done as soon as it is possible without any chaos.

every student is provided with a unique key to access their bedrooms and a person will have to open 3 doors with the same key to enter into one's room. so you can imagine how safe it is to stay in university residences.

when you are planning to fly make sure you are carrying the following.

thick quilt, sweaters, a nice over coat (though its expensive buy a good quality one coz its going to be really cold in here), umbrella (you never know when its gonna rain), rain jacket, scarf and hand gloves.

get all the required spices for your cooking like mustard, elachi ets coz its very expensive here. do also get garlic - ginger paste, dry fruits etc if required. get some maggi packets, ready to eats and powders like chicken masala powder etc if required. if you get a small 3 litre pressure cooker its gonna help a lot. please do not get rice, sambar, onions, tomatoes etc. everything is available here of the best quality. There's a small grocery store called tesco which is just 2 minutes away from residences and tecso extra whoch is like really huge is just 5 minutes away from residences.

Things are gonna seem really expensive in the beginning but you will get used to it day by day. if you don know what is expensive means then just check this one.
price of 1 onion - 60 pence
1 cucumber - 89 pence
1kg apple - £ 2
1kg rice - £ 1.70
6 bananas - £ 1.39

Mc donalds 3 piece chicken strips - £ 3.99
1 200 page ruled book - £ 2.99
1 way local bus ticket - £ 1.50
and the price list goes on.

3. TELEPHONE

as soon as you land here, every grocery store tend to give you a prepaid SIM card free of cost BUT do not take it. beacause they charge a lot for just a minute's call to India. So as soon as land in cardiff go to your nearest following.

a) Carphone warehouse - look for a nice phone which gives contract of both handset along with connection for just £ 20-25 a month and buy it. It will be the best deal if you buy it early. for example: I bought Blackberry bold when i came to Cardiff in sept 2009 for 24 months contract with orange connection by paying jusy £ 20 a month.

If you buy pre-paid SIM (pay as you go SIM), you end up recharging more than £ 20 a month and you wont even own a handset for that money.

b) Orange - it has the best plans for international students like £ 20 a month, 600 minutes free, unlimites texts free etc.

c) O2 - last but not the least, O2 has good contracts too. I have got myself £ 20 a month contract with 900 minutes free, 900 texts free and unlimited landline.

why unlimited landline ?? because I buy a calling card worth £ 5 and call using that which charges me just 1 pence a minute. YES, just 1 pence a minute. If i dont use calling card, i will be charged £ 1.20 a minute.
you can find these calling cards either online or any shop near by. its available every where.

So i recommend you to buy a connection either with more free landline minutes and unlimited landline minutes (you need to call a landline to access that card everytime before calling india) so that you can use calling card to call india at 1 pence only.

4. CARDIFF

a beautiful small city and capital of wales. people are very friendly and very helpful. please do not bother yourself by thinking about racism and stuff beacause there is no trace of racism in wales all over.

Night life is good as you find students everywhere and goodnumber of discs, pubs and restaurents. City centre is the place to shop and cine world to watch your favorite hollywood and bollywood movies.

PRIMARK - I recommend you not to carry lot of clothes because you get everything here at very less price.

Climatic condition seems really cold till march-april and becomes warmer for few days later. It snowed a lot this year and wish it snows when you arrive here too.

there are so many places to see in and around cardiff which you can visit by taking a train or booking your own car. indian driving license is valid for a year in UK.

hope i have cleared everything you have in your mind. if you still have doubts, leave me message. ALL THE BEST !!!!!