International student profiles content store_hidden Mais El Habeel Our students and alumni

Study Abroad student Mais shares her insights on how living in London can change your perspective on life, and what the Study Abroad Diversity Scholarship has meant to her.

How have you found living and studying in London?

Living and studying in London is a dream. It’s really beautiful – it’s a metropolitan city with a lot of people, a lot of facilities. There’s always something you can do in London. It’s always busy – you can do whatever you want. So if you’re interested in theatre, you’ll find a lot. There’s a lot of art and museums – you’ll find whatever you’re interested in in London. That’s what I find really cool about London.

I really love parks here – Regents Park is amazing. The people in London are really welcoming, really helpful, and kind in general. In this University but also in the street. London’s a 24/7 city. Coming from Germany, the Germans have stricter rules – the shops close at certain times, and Sundays there’s no life at all outside. So it was a surprise for me when I came – you can have access to whatever you want, whenever you want, that’s what I like about London.

I’d like to visit the countryside in the UK while I’m here too.

Did London Met prepare you well in your first few weeks?

Before coming to here, everything was already clear from the website. The page was obvious, what should I do, what should I attend. Sue in the Study Abroad office was very sweet and lovely and replies really fast to the emails and wants to help. Before coming here, everything was clear, the courses, the timing, the examinations so that was really good.

After attending the orientation week, it was also really helpful. We had two presentations and comprehensive information about information and I had people to contact if I wasn’t sure about anything.

The international office was helpful too – I didn’t have any problems. My friends said the Student Zone was also really helpful (I didn’t have any problems so I didn’t have to contact them).

What surprised you about London Met?

On campus actually for me I was really surprised that there are a lot of international people – but that means it’s quite interesting because you get the chance to know people from different backgrounds, different cultures and different countries that you have not heard of even. I’m from Germany but I’m originally Palestinian so it was a good opportunity to meet them and tell them about the countries I’m coming from. Getting to know different cultures. As human beings we have a lot of assumptions about specific cultures, and a lot of stereotypes about different cultures – when you meet people you break these stereotypes and find out that it’s not really what I thought.

On campus I’m going to the Zumba class – we have a really good teacher who’s full of energy – I’m eating a lot in London so I need to move! It’s such a good opportunity that you offer these classes in such quality and such a vibe – it’s such a great class!

What has it meant to you, studying and living in such a diverse city?

You start to look at things from a wider perspective, not just from your own perspective and how you’ve been raised. You take into consideration other factors – the situation you’re looking on. You put yourself in the place of others. Before this, I was a bit judgemental, but now, no, they have other families, backgrounds, other experiences that made them act or behave in that way, so I’m behaving in a different way now too.

How have you found the lecturers here?

The lecturers are all so kind and willing to help – for me it was another way of teaching. There are some differences from Germany – like in the way they address us as students. They look on us in a closer way here – in Germany it’s your responsibility, your stuff to manage, but here they are more involved. The attendance here, we should attend – if you don’t come to class, you won’t pass.

Here you really focus on literature and theory – the lecturers support us to read around the subject, they recommend a lot of journals and books.

What did being awarded the Diversity Scholarship mean to you? 

The support that I took through the Diversity Scholarship was really helpful for me – I could use the money for other stuff in London, to have the opportunity to go to more shows, more places, so that was a really good part of it. It was really important – it made the financial pressures less so I don’t have that stress as I would have had if I’d paid the whole amount.

It’s really helpful, it reduces the stress for living here and for coming to London Met and London in general. It’s something special when you get the scholarship – I have this diversity point, whenever I met other international students who’ve got the scholarship, I feel we have this special thing in common.

Definitely come to London Met – you’ll learn a lot, it’s a really good university that supports you – the way the international office prepared me – it was really good.