Sticking together - Friends before we met

One of the great things about University is the friendships you make along the way. Here we meet just some of the students who are friends for life thanks to LJMU.

Meghana Vale and Rebecca Ratan

Friends before we met

Launched for home students in 2019, the CampusConnect app has already worked wonders for international students, answering their questions and helping them to make connections with their peers as soon as they receive an offer from LJMU. Here we talk to best friends Meghana and Rebecca who met up through the app.

Travelling to the UK to study was a massive move for students Meghana Navale and Rebecca Ratan. The two girls who live almost six hours apart in India had little experience of overseas travel and were feeling quite nervous about the prospect.

Meghana had studied Biotechnology Engineering at undergraduate level whilst Rebecca had graduated in Pharmacy but it was the draw of LJMU’s Cosmetic Science programme that fired their interest in studying abroad.

“When we received our offer letters there was an invitation code for the CampusConnect app,” recalls Meghana. “You can join various groups on the app and I joined the accommodation group and one about travelling together. I was keen to find someone to share my journey to the UK.”

“It was quite unusual to have access to an app like that,” remarks Rebecca. “Very few of our friends going to other universities were offered anything like it so they were very jealous.”

“We found each other on the app, exchanged numbers and started texting,” smiles Meghana. “I had already booked my accommodation by that stage so we couldn’t stay in the same place but we decided to travel together.”

Taking local flights to a central point in India, Meghana and Rebecca met at the airport for the first time. “We got along immediately,” laughs Rebecca. “We had 13.5 hours to get to know each other so by the time we arrived in Liverpool we were the best of friends.”

So, how did it feel to arrive in Liverpool? “You are always worried when you go somewhere new that you won’t know what to do when you arrive,” explains Meghana. “The second we came out of arrivals though we saw someone with a card with our names on, they helped us with our luggage and took us straight to our accommodation. It was at that point we knew we would be OK here.”

The girls arrived a week before enrolment so spent time getting to know the city and building their friendship. “We took a city tour, went to exhibitions, went shopping. It was great fun,” says Rebecca. “We came to realise our personalities complement each other really well. Meghana is always calm whilst I get a little stressed at times so we are really good for each other.”

The girls are loving studying together and making more new friends. “We like working with different people and have made lots of new connections,” says Meghana. “The staff on the course are brilliant and always there to help you and make you believe in yourself.”

So what does the future hold for these two best friends? “We will certainly be friends for life,” beams Rebecca. “We have plans to visit each other when we are back home and I have asked Meghana to be my bridesmaid when I get married.”

“It is lovely to have a new best friend,” adds Meghana. “I never thought I would be so close to someone I met so recently. Thanks to Rebecca though I feel a close connection to home and that has made a massive difference to me. I guess we have the CampusConnect App to thank for that.”

This article originally appeared in the LJMU PG magazine MasterPlan
View source on LJMU website here