Ana Umpierre Rivera, MA in Global Media and Transnational Communications student, recounts her first few months at Goldsmiths as an international student.

Year on year, Goldsmiths welcomes students from more than 140 countries.

Being an international student in the UK can be overwhelming, but is a great experience that you should make the best of. As a postgraduate Media and Communications student, I felt my introductory courses were captivating and diverse. The first few weeks of class at Goldsmiths were positively intense because of the many activities planned for Welcome Week. In addition, I was getting to know my modules.

You will constantly be reminded by your parents that you came here to study. But you also have to give yourself time to enjoy the experience.

It can be tough for a student to get to know their course, but the lecturers at Goldsmiths are always open to questions and available via email or personal appointment. The university also offers non-assessed academic writing skills courses, as well as assistance in understanding difficult academic texts.

You will constantly be reminded by your parents (or even yourself) that you came here to study. But you also have to give yourself time to enjoy the experience, and profit from all the activities the university and the city have to offer. You should check the bulletin boards constantly for interesting conferences, lectures and workshops. You can enjoy these activities with friends that you will make on your programme or on any additional courses that you take.

The topic covered on my programme are very current. This will give me a greater understanding of different matters, which will be useful in the job market.

One of the greatest assets of Goldsmiths is that often, your class will be composed of other international students. For me, this is one of the greatest assets of my programme; I have been able to interact with people from China, Russia, Germany, Mexico, Africa and Switzerland. This allows you to gain perspective of different issues from another world view, learn new languages and traditions and share information about your own country.

A good thing about my programme is that the topics covered are very current. This means that the theory is illustrated with a lot of issues going on in the world; especially within political and cultural realms. This is really helpful, because it will allow me to have a greater understanding of different matters which will be useful when I enter the job market. I believe this will give me more advantages since I am developing skills to analyse issues in ways that people outside academia might not have thought about.

The Professor Stuart Hall Building, home to the Department of Media and Communications, is a thriving part of the campus.

In the end, the most important thing is to enjoy all the adventures, the knowledge and the people you meet. The truth is that not everybody has the opportunity to have this experience and we should definitely treasure it.