University of St Andrews, Scotland – Sushil Reddy

Hi all !

I am Sushil Reddy from the Energy Science and Engg dept. I have finished my third year and currently doing my Summer Internship at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, UK.

It has almost been a month here and I am loving this place.

I got this internship through the PT cell. The project profile topic was “Tape casting and screen printing novel SOFC architectures”. This internship profile was open only for the 3rd year energy dual degree students. The selection was around mid of February 2011. The stipend I am getting is 200 pounds per week. I had to pay for the acco and to and fro air travel from my pocket. Though I was glad about getting selected, I hardly knew at that time that I would have problems with my UK visa. I got a refusal letter a month after applying for the first time then I had to reapply and wait for another 5 weeks! But finally a relief after the infinite wait which delayed my intern by 3 weeks.

Here’s an important advice: Give yourself atleast 2 months before your internship starts, to apply for the UK visa. Suppose your internship starts on May 1st, you should apply for UK visa by maximum of March 1st. The visa processing time is minimum 1 month from the time you submit the visa application form with the documents till the time you receive your visa.

UK visa procedure:

There are various UK visa application forms available and their information on the website http://www.vfs-uk-in.com/ Read those carefully. They have some rules and regulations which keep on changing. So do check those out. I applied for the student visitor visa which is valid for max 6 months. Fill up the visa application form and submit the following documents to one of the VFS offices mentioned in the website.

Documents required are: (all original)

1. Offer letter from university clearly stating the project with the stipend/scholarship and the fact that they will be providing you the accommodation there for your internship period. Make sure that the offer letter does not have the word “work” anywhere.

2. Passport of course

3. 35 by 45 mm photographs.

4. Parents passports copy (as a proof that they are indian citizens)

5.  NOC from IITB and bonafide certificate

6. Bank statement +deposits showing funds and bank transactions done for the last 6 months ( preferrable more than 10 lakhs in your account as a proof that u will b able to sustain the to and fro travel and living expenses in the UK) – this point is very important -  ask the travel agent too about this.

7. Your residence proof in India( your home flat documents).

8. Form 16 income tax returns.

9. If you have done previous internships, u can attach those internship certificates.

10. The completed visa application form. (make sure u fill it with the guidance of an experinced travel agent)

Note: Please crosscheck the above info with a travel agent.

About my internship project:

The project work is mostly experimental and working in the lab with safety eye gear and lab coats. Safety is taken very seriously here. There are safety lectures, manuals and drills frequently.Now about my project. There is already some research going on in the university (school of chemistry to be precise) on a new proposed design of a fuel cell which is called as a SOFCroll made using tape casting and screen printing. The interesting thing about this new design is that it is supposedly more efficient and material savings hence the cost reduction. But there are disadvantages too that the design itself has to be exact for proper performance of the cell and also the crossover of the electrolyte and mixing of the hydrogen and oxygen gases lessening the output voltage. My work involves to find out ways to avoid the crossover and try to increase the output voltage and also test some already prepared fuel cells. It sounds quite interesting but I have to know a lot of stuff before I can be anywhere close to that .

Apart from the project:

The university in which I am currently interning is in a small town called St Andrews in Scotland. It is a university town with a population of a mere 15000. The fact that Prince William and Kate Middleton are the univ’s alumni makes it more interesting . The weather is bad here. It is infinitely cold here ! 10 degrees maxx and too windy. Though there are heaters everywhere, it is shivery ! The town is quite picturesque too much greenery, 2 beaches West sands and the East sands, A Castle and a Cathedral which add to the rich history of the town. The town has a rich golfing history with museums and golf shops everywhere. The town has a nice british stone feel to it. Roaming around the town, chilling at the beach, playing football and cricket with my labbies and weekend trips to nearby scenic landscapes and countryside is an absolute bliss!!

Other Info/Advice:

1. Interact with your labbies or the research group people you are working in. They are the ones who will usually guide and help you. They can be your good contacts for future.

2. Do not expect too much interaction with your professor. There are usually weekly group meetings in which you get an opportunity to talk to your prof.

3. Find out what else is going on in the Univ in general. Usually universities have their own student communities which are exciting and fun!

4. Be honest and try to complete the work assigned to you as soon as possible. Punctuality is not a problem in the university here. As long as you complete the work within the given time, there shouldnt be a problem.

5. Explore the place you are interning in. Roam around, try out local popular stuff, take photographs, meet random people and talk to them about anything, maybe about India they like to hear stories about India , especially the Britishers.

6. Have fun and do write blogs!

Overall it has been awesome time till now! Looking forward to the rest of the internship

Cya ! Njoy your summers ! \m/