ARRIVAL
I was really nervous about coming to the UK. I was worried there wouldn’t be international people, but actually Cardiff is really international and especially the business school is. Most of us are international kids; we come from all around. When I came, there was an international group chat and now I’ve been best friends with them for three years now, which has been really helpful over the years being here.
LOCATION
Still sometimes I realize I’m in Cardiff and it’s still a bit weird. It’s a bit kind of crazy that I’m here on my own. But I do see it as my home. I love spending time here with my friends, different places, the pubs, the parks, all of that’s become a part of my life, especially as an international student growing up in different places. New places like that become a part of your home and so you have multiple homes, which is really nice.
There’s a lot of stuff around the city. The parks are so nice here. There are always things that you could do for cheap or even for free, which is really great. It’s really student friendly. You can always find something to do with your friends. There are nice pubs, small cafes if you’d like to study, just hang out with your friends.
One time, for a weekend, me and my friends booked an Airbnb in the Brecon Beacons and that was so beautiful because it was deadline time and we all wanted to get away for that. No WiFi, no signal, just went to enjoy. There were just sheep and farms around us. That was really nice. We’ve been to Barry Island; that’s also so beautiful during the summer. I wouldn’t think that a place like Wales would have a beach like that. You may be interested in our why study abroad guide.
THE CAMPUS
I think Cardiff’s campus is beautiful, architecture-wise, and each of them reflects their own departments. It’s really inclusive and it’s super accessible and they’re made to be comfortable, but also they try and make it just as stylish and as nice as they could, which is really nice. They’ve invested a lot recently for new campuses and refurbishment. The year that I came in, the new business building just started, so that was really nice. There are always different spaces for you to use if you need to do something for group discussions or something on your own. If you prefer quiet spaces or a bit of background noise there’s always something for you, which is really great.
DEGREE PROGRAMME
We have the stock exchange room. I think that’s a reason why people choose Cardiff, because of that. We also have new lecture theaters. We have study rooms like where people come and have group discussions, because you have a lot of group projects.
I do business management and marketing and it’s really nice that I have a lot of control about what modules I want to do. I hope I can get into social enterprises, charities and NGOs like that. There are modules about ethics in business and marketing in society that have really helped open that area for me, and how marketing and businesses can do good. I feel for a long time the connotation was that businesses can only be bad, which I don’t think is true. Check out our what to study abroad guide.
TEACHERS
My teachers are super friendly. They’re super easy to talk to. They’re always open for office hours whenever you need them. They give you as much help as they can in the assignments and exams. Of course university is hard, but they definitely try their best to make it as easy as possible for you.
CAREER/FUTURE
Growing up, my dad worked in an NGO and I guess that’s where it all came from. I would love to do the marketing aspect of NGOs and charities because marketing is both something I enjoy, but I also would love to do as a job, which is a win-win for me. After I graduate I would love to get a graduate job. I would also be open to doing corporate social responsibility for companies. I’m trying to apply to Unilever, P&G and all of that and eventually move on into charities. My end goal would be to start my own social enterprise in Indonesia because I hope that I can move back one day and help in some way with adding better companies that do well for the community and society.
In Indonesia, one of the biggest and most notable challenges is environmental issues. Every time I go home, I can tell the air quality is getting worse and worse. A lot of forest fires. They burn a lot to get more fertile soil for farming. I understand all of that comes from the lack of education of the more poor percentage of the population, so I guess there’s also the wealth disparity between the really rich population and the more unfortunate ones. Definitely, I would love to help provide more jobs for the upcoming generations to do better, to educate themselves better in terms of the environment, but also corruption is still a huge issue in Indonesia. The company that I make one day would definitely stand for teaching better values in how you manage yourself when you’re given responsibility in a certain position of power.
THE UNIVERSITY
I saw that Cardiff business school is a public value school, which completely fits with my whole, ‘I’d love to do something, give back to the community” kind of aspect, but also they’ve definitely invested a lot in the university, but also ranking wise it was doing really well. In the end I decided that I felt Cardiff was suited for me with it being international. Cardiff is a city but it’s not overpopulated like London, it’s student friendly, it’s one of the cheaper student cities as well, so that’s really great.
Cardiff business school has a public value approach, which means they do not focus solely on teaching business as a way to earn profit, but also to give back towards the community. That really is where the trend in the business industry is, where we’re trying to head towards not focusing solely on the bottom line of making a profit, but also to contribute to our community and do as much good as we can.
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