Journey of a Muslim

Lancaster is known as a very peaceful place, located in the north west area in UK, making it famous with its countryside view and environment. Having a university in the country side area means its a very good environment to study; an added value of Lancaster university is that it's a compact uni so everything is within walking distance and easy for everybody to enjoy all the facilities provided by the university. Lancaster is also ranked as the safest city in the UK, not just ranked in the paper, but it really is true! We can also feel the safe environment here. It's a very cute little British town.

Currently ranked as a top 10 UK university and in the top 125 universities in the world, Lancaster University is becoming one of the main choice for students to go to. We have good facilities, healthy environment and warm society to accompany you along your journey here.


Facilities



As a college university, we do have accommodations available for students. The transportation here is also satisfying, with rapid bus services and a train service in town . We have male and female prayer rooms in the university, taken care of by the Muslim Society here. Prayer mosque is provided by Lancaster University for muslims and even Jumaah Prayer is held every week in that particular mosque. Don't worry about resources, since we have a nice library, equipped with computers and other essential study and learning kit, sufficient for all. For all active sporty people out there, there is a new sports center, due to open very soon. You can swim, play basketball or netball, badminton, tennis etc. Lancaster is very well known for the beautiful and calm scenery, even inside the university. Such a conducive environment for students to study.



A point to be made, Lancaster university has very modern architecture and many facilities are there, trying to make a perfect student life for everybody. Lancaster uni is very much helpful for students and also librarians there are kind and nice to students. It also provides many facilities for student to enjoy with. If u do not really like the study environment in library, there is a very contemporary place to study known as Learning Zone. There, u can peacefully study without bothering to keep silent, u can eat and having as many discussion as u want. also provided here, u can book a room to make discussion or presentation. laptops and ipads are here to be borrowed by you. so u do not have to bring your own laptop everytime. :)


Course

Lancaster University's Management School is a triple-accredited, world-ranked management school, consistently among the UK's top five. Thus, most Malaysians here are future-accountants, economists and doing business-related field of study. But there are also Biology, Mathematics and Physic's students here. There are approximately 250 Malaysians in Lancaster University, from undergraduates and postgraduates, doing various courses and research. Lancaster university is also one of the favourite university for Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) where there are number of students taking mathematics, physics and biology whose sponsor is MOE.


Accommodation

Usually, first years would want to try to live in the hall provided. It is much easier to manage since the payments are all inclusive, and you will travel a shorter distance to go to class. However, due to increasing in the rate of rents and payments, it is advisable for you to contact any of us here, to search for a house available for you. Just be in a group of 3 to 6 people, and we will try to find a good house for you insyaAllah. It will be much money-saving than living in the hall. But for those who want to develop their survival and social skills, the hall might be a better choice.

Many Malaysian undergraduates choose to live off campus since it gives a cheaper living option, more comfortable accommodation, homely and many more. However if living off campus, students have to travel to university by bus for about 10-15 minutes. but this is not something to be worried as well since there are frequent buses operate everyday.


Life as a Muslim
Life as a muslim here is such a wonderful experience. we can easily and freely practice our religion here without oppression. People here are very nice friendly; the result of being a little British town and a countryside area alhamdulillah. As stated earlier, the university provides a special room for Muslims to pray in University and it is very comfortable, huge and homely.

As mentioned before, we have quite a good and active Muslim Society. In fact, we do have a Malaysian Muslim Society as well. We have Lancaster University Muslim SOCiety (LUMSOC), Hal EhwaL Wanita (HELWA) for Malaysian girls and women, and Majlis Ilmu for the boys and men. There are a lot of activities held by these societies. Islamic talks, Awareness Week, Hafazan and Tafseer Class, Arabic Language Class and many more. We also have gathering among us Malaysians once in two weeks usually, to share thoughts and views on any islamic issue. HELWA and Majlis Ilmu are also responsible in celebrating Eid Ul Fitri and Eid Ul Adha.


Halal Food

Malaysian are famous with our delicious and creative food. Getting halal food is not really hard here. At the university itself, there are two halal fast food restaurants and at Lancaster town, various fast food stalls are there for you. :) The nearest shop for raw halal meat is at Preston( about 15minutes by train), however, undergraduate students are lucky as we have many postgraduates student whom always travel to Preston to buy the raw meat. So, we can just kindly ask them for help; it's is a tradition that'going on for ages.

Food meanwhile is not a big problem in Lancaster since Malaysian are likely to gain their weight here. isn't it a proven fact? ^_^. Oriental food is aslo easy to find as there are two oriental shops at Lancaster town where one of them is owned by Malaysian Chinese, famous as 'kedai uncle wong'. We can go to those places by bus or train. There are also two oriental food store in town for those who are craving for Malaysian food or other Asian dishes. They do sell Kicap Kipas Udang, Sos Cili Maggi, dried chillies, DURIAN......



Malaysian Community

The Malaysian community at Lancaster University is just a small one in terms of number compared to other uni, since the university iself is a small one. So, it is easy to know each other and we are very close, like a big happy family. Lancaster University Malaysian Student Society (LUMSS) represents us, Malaysians in the university and is also active in organizing programmes for Malaysians. Besides that, there is also HELWA, a sub-society under LUMMS specially for women in Lancaster.


What to Prepare

Going abroad will definitely give headaches for each and everyone of us in dealing with what to prepare. As far as I'm concerned, there is nothing much to bring here because shoes, clothes, jackets and other things are easy to find, and might be more appropriate since we are in a four seasons country. However for muslimah, appropriate shirt like long shirts are certainly cheaper in Malaysia. I myself do not prefer stationary like pencils and erasers here, so i do bring some of them from Malaysia. Also many might prefer to bring instant food, paste, and rempah ratus from Malaysia ^_^

Bring with you an open heart and open mind here. Then you will find your life in Lancaster a hard one for you not to remember. Do not hesitate to ask us anything, we are here to help in any way we can, insyaAllah.


Contact Person

Name :Nor Izzati Alzolmin
Email : zatie2307@gmail.com
YM : zatie_phega
Skype : zatie06
UK hp no : +447561261483

Contact details for brother will be updated later