Category: Independent Summer School

I attended a Literature Summer School at the University of Cambridge in July 2013.

Pre- Departure:

How would you apply for summer school?

I applied for the Literature Summer School at Cambridge University quite early in the year, though the applications only close in May. I would highly recommend this, because ideally you’d only start applying for visas and buying plane tickets and so on once you know that you’ve been accepted. Furthermore, they do not ask for any academic results, so you essentially get accepted on a first-come-first-serve basis, and they do charge a non-refundable application fee of R2000, so you want to increase your chances of getting in as much as possible. For all these reasons, I applied very early, I think in February or March. That being said, I know some people got accepted very close to the closing date, and of course these considerations apply to Cambridge, but I cannot say anything about other summer schools.

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I took part in the University of Exeter International Summer School 2013 from the 20^th of July to the 10^th of August.

How can I summarise a wonderful and exciting experience in a few pages… I will try to be brief, here goes. My preparations for the summer school began when I received a full scholarship to attend the University of Exeter Summer School. The scholarship included accommodation, two meals a day as well as the course fee. However, having got this, I still needed the money for the flight ticket and thanks to the International Office I was awarded the travel bursary.

I applied for my visa just 2 weeks before the day I was expected to leave and I would not advice anyone to do the same because I had to pay an extra R1000 for a faster processing time of my application. I was not sure if I was going to have my visa in time and it was a scary period for me. Luckily, after 4 working days my visa was out.

With everything in order, I was ready to start my adventure in England.

I arrived in London at the Heathrow Airport just after 6am because I had taken a direct flight from Cape Town to London which made my journey less stressful. After I arrived I had to wait for about 6hours at the airport to wait for the shuttle which was organised by University of Exeter which was supposed to take us to Travelodge Covent Garden which was where we stayed during our stay in London. At the airport, I met some of the people who were also attending the summer school and I remember a girl from China giving me a snack which was a tongue of a duck. And what a way it was to start the summer school.

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