Niladri Gupta Masters student in the European Union Erasmus Mundus funded GEM course

Hi, I'm Niladri Gupta and I studied Masters student in the European Union Erasmus Mundus funded GEM course within Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Southampton.

My first encounter with the world outside India was Geography at the University of Southampton. I was fascinated by the facilities. As an international student coming from a totally different social background I can still proudly feel that this is my University.

My first encounter with the world outside India was the city of Southampton, more specifically Geography at the University of Southampton.

I joined in 2006 as a Masters student in the European Union Erasmus Mundus funded GEM course. My four months stay gave me an opportunity to interact with staff members and to access the facilities of the University. I was fascinated by the computational and library facilities, sports centre and the Students' Union. Everything a student needs during their studies is available.

Being an international student I had an opinion before my arrival that the people in European universities were too professional and it would be difficult to interact with them.  However, the people in Geography changed my views; they were no doubt professional in their respective fields but they were very cordial and even in their busy schedule had time to listen. They made us feel at home and adjusting to this new environment was very smooth for me.

The University impressed me so much that I decided to carry out my PhD research here. On succeeding in getting an ORSAS scholarship, the department helped me with funds for a full scholarship to carry out my PhD. I am really thankful for this opportunity. As a postgraduate researcher I find the environment and people to be very supportive in reaching my future career goals.

Encouragement to attend conferences, workshops, research exchanges with other universities and networking is always there. Activities like internal and external seminars help me to get a first-hand knowledge about activities of other researchers in my field of study.

I feel that Geography is helping me to achieve my future career goal of being a researcher in my field of study. The training to think about problems and to try to solve them logically will enable me in future to be independent, unbiased researcher in the field of science.

As an international student coming from a totally different social background I can still proudly feel that this is my University.