Mariya Baier

MA International Studies (Environment)

“I fell in love with this beautiful city with its great atmosphere of student life. Oxford is an excellent place to study and to live! This is a small and cosy city with very friendly people and wonderful architecture. I have no words to express atmosphere of this city. It is full of students from all over the world who are highly committed to studying and development”

Mariya did a Public Relations degree in Russia, and then came to Oxford to improve her English.

I fell in love with this beautiful city with its great atmosphere of student life. Oxford is an excellent place to study and to live! This is a small and cosy city with very friendly people and wonderful architecture. I have no words to express atmosphere of this city. It is full of students from all over the world who are highly committed to studying and development. At the same time students are very communicative people and enjoy spending great time with each other in a great range of traditional English pubs and cafés.

Reading contemporary international relations, globalization and geopolitics as part of my Public Relations degree in Moscow awakened my strong interest in the increasing globalization of the public space. Regarding myself as a global citizen I wanted to continue to expand my previous studies and to develop intellectually and professionally in this area.

One of the main reasons why I chose to do International Studies at Oxford Brookes was the variety of optional modules offered. In the second semester students are given the opportunity to choose a pathway and an additional module from the wide list of extremely interesting modules. This allows you to concentrate on topics of particular interest in-depth. This course perfectly combines theoretical material with practical issues of international politics.

There are several libraries in Oxford available for everyone, but most importantly Brookes’ students can use the Bodleian library where you can find very rare and even exclusive books and other resources.

I really do believe that my International Studies degree will help me in the future. I have gained wide knowledge about interstate relations and many useful skills that helped me widen my scope. I would like to start my career with doing an internship in an international non-governmental organisation such as Oxfam or Greenpeace. I think this experience would help me put the knowledge acquired at university into practice.

This course gives the opportunity to develop a wide range of very important skills. Among them are: understanding how to apply theoretical perspectives and concepts to issues of social and public politics, analysis, evaluation and reporting empirical information rather than just describing it.

Being a member of Brookes Dance Society brought diversity into my student life and filled it with many dramatic events such as socials, dance shows and participation in charity.

I would highly recommend British education for students from Russia as it is very different from Russian educational system. Here I have learnt how to think critically and analyse everything we read and hear. The British educational system also demands more self-study and time-management.