Hello. I’m Charan Peta. In the first year of undergraduate degree studying BSc Accounting and Finance. After having experience of running my family business for few years, I decided to get back to school. This decision naturally follows considering my experience, areas of interest and ultimate professional ambition, which is to be an entrepreneur. I am confident that the International education and cosmopolitan exposure will not only be helpful in building my strengths and skills but also helping me identify a potential business idea.
I’m so glad Surrey was my firm choice because it offers a placement training year where I can get real time work experience. Surrey has support ranging from financial to personal and an unending list of excellent features. It has the academic achievement of being in the top 10 universities in the UK by The Guardian and also has the reputation of being in the top 10 for student satisfaction.
The University has vast cultural diversity with about 145 nationalities represented, providing cross-cultural exposure. It also has an Indian Students Association (ISA) where we meet up and celebrate “Indianness”. We celebrated Diwali recently which made me miss home a bit less. Sadly, I ended up dropping half the societies I initially signed up for due to sheer lack of time.
Education in the UK is more precise than in India. On all courses we are expected to do independent study which usually involves working on our own (or sometimes working in a small group with other students). Independent study is helping me develop skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving.
About my course, some of the modules I have, like Business Mathematics which is about sales forecasting and financial analysis, are really interesting and I don’t actually mind working on them. Nevertheless there are others like Financial Accounting, which I find slightly more difficult and thus have to put in more than the usual amount of time to catch up. Luckily, the tutors are extremely helpful and the drop-in sessions every week make it easier to manage.
I believe I have made the best decision of my life and looking forward for the most eventful four years to come at the University of Surrey.
