Danish wanted to progress in his Engineering career and looked at studying a Master’s abroad. After finding out about the Bestway Foundation Scholarship, he applied to the University of Bradford.
Danish Masoodi, MSc Advanced Civil and Structural Engineering
I have more than three years work experience in Civil Engineering and hence I opted for a course which was not just focused in one stream. I wanted to study a course that had modules containing Big Data Analytics, which is currently being offered to engineers by a few universities in the UK.
The University of Bradford offers the fully-funded Bestway Foundation Scholarship to Pakistani students and that was a very important reason to apply here.
Another important reason to select Bradford is that it offers taught Master’s degrees of one year. A person can effectively complete their Master’s degree in one year and can pursue further education or join industry quickly. The University of Bradford has a very good reputation in my home country – Pakistan; the Prime Minister of our country, Mr. Imran Khan, used to be the Chancellor of the University.
Career-focused study
The perfect blend of core and optional modules offered in MSc Advanced Civil and Structural Engineering attracted me to the University of Bradford.
I was amazed to know that Bradford’s heavy structures lab holds one of the largest strong floors in the UK. The lab facilities are simply amazing. They provide an excellent understanding of practical experimentation, such as a shake table for earthquake dynamic forces simulation.
I was further impressed by the statistics of employability of its graduates, which showed that 94% of graduates join industry or continue their education within six months.
Applying for the Bestway Scholarship
In my pursuit of a scholarship grant, I found out about this opportunity over the internet. After visiting the university website, I was sure about applying for this scholarship. The amount of the grant was phenomenal and there were no preconditions. Blog posts of former Bestway Scholars helped; the way they penned down their experiences of scholarship application procedures and life at UoB was very motivating.
The scholarship application process is simple to understand. The application procedure required me to fill an offline document with all the required details. This scholarship didn’t require me to secure an admission in the university in the first place. At the same time, if a scholarship is granted, the admissions offer usually takes less than a week.
The offline application document clearly explains the necessary requirements in terms of qualifications and documents. At the same time, it is kept open-ended for applicants as the application form puts no limit on supporting material and word-count in essay type questions. So I was able to write as much as I wanted with a bundle of supporting material.
Moving to the UK
The tremendous support from the University in the form of emails and calls was indeed a blessing for us. Starting right from the scholarship result to the admission process, student IT accounts to the allocation of accommodation, student life to academics, visa support to pre-arrival information, every step was made easier through detailed informative emails.
UoB even provided the pickup service from Manchester Airport, which was no less than a blessing at that time. So from the time I flew from Pakistan to the time I checked into my flat in The Green student accommodation of UoB, everything was quite smooth.
I was nervous about this move as I was returning to university after four years. I come from a country where there is fierce competition for jobs between applicants. I left my job and moved here. Four months down that period and I can already feel the difference.
Life after Bradford
The postgraduate degree I am pursuing here is going to make me an all-rounder in my field of civil engineering. The comprehensive degree content coupled with frequent field trips is providing me with advanced knowledge in multiple areas of my discipline. The modules like Risk Assessment and Big Data Analytics for engineers are one of a kind, as the University of Bradford is one of the few universities which is offering these latest courses to engineers.
The lecture delivery, in general is more flexible than in my country. The learning environment is comfortable and there is always an air of friendliness during the lecture. Unlike my home country, the Master’s class has a majority of students who are simply continuing their education from Bachelor degree onwards. This results in a cohort of students who are full of vibrant and fresh thoughts.
This has boosted new confidence in me and would definitely give me a competitive advantage on my return.
I would like to assure all other international students that this a place where your life’s most amazing chapter will kick off. You will find students from all parts of the world. They will reshape your personality. The bond you make with exchange students is going to last for a long time.
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