My name is Romain and I was born and raised in Bordeaux, France. From an early age, I travelled quite a lot with my parents, and even though I was a only a kid, it made me realise that there was more than one way to think, eat, dress, and live. This made me curious to experience different cultures and different ways of life.
With this mindset, I took every chance I was given to go abroad during my bachelor’s and master’s studies: I spent four months in Sweden, then did a gap year in the US.
After years of abuse and neglect, at the age of 16 I left my parental home. Because of this, I thought I had lost any chances of ever attending university and making something of myself.
I was told by my social worker at the time that I was more likely to see the inside of a prison than a university, given my family situation. This could have broken all my motivation to work hard in school; however, it just fuelled my desire to be successful and prove these people wrong.
In a shock result, the Liberal-National Coalition has triumphed in the 2019 Australian elections. Early polls were predicting that the Labour party would pip the Coalition government to the post, but more voters ticked the Liberal-National box instead.
So what does this mean for students? What exactly have the Coalition government pledged to do for higher education over their tenure? Well not a lot actually.
They have pledged a few different funding pots to boost certain aspects of the higher education sector.
When I decided to do my PhD abroad in Hungary I had a clear idea in mind about my research plan. I started publishing papers even before getting into doctoral school, laying the foundations for my research topic. I published papers in well-indexed journals, exceeding the requirements of our doctoral school in the first four semesters of my PhD – after all, they say hard work pays off.
But sometimes too much hard work can be damaging. Somewhere in this journey, I lost myself in my research.
Having spent four years volunteering at a food bank in my home town of Birmingham, I was alarmed at the rapidly growing need for them.
What was once a small team, with a few shelves of baked beans and long-life milk, became a team of 20 to 30 volunteers hardly able to accommodate the increasing numbers of those in need.
As an international student from China studying in Japan, I try to experience as much as I can by getting involved in campus activities and doing an internship. This is what I get up to on a typical day as a chemistry student at Tohoku University in Sendai.
Breakfast – the beginning of a new day
I am struggling to remember a time when Brexit wasn’t a term that was flaunted daily and I’m sure many of you feel the same. It has now been nearly three years since the UK voted to leave the EU and it seems that we are no closer to leaving with a deal than we were back then.
To describe studying in Europe during the Brexit process as a bizarre experience would be an understatement. It’s a bit like trying to order a meal in a restaurant five minutes before closing.
Brexit has, however, served as an ice-breaker and an excuse to practice my German while I’m on my year abroad at the Free University of Berlin. Much of this year has been spent trying to be self-deprecating, laughing along with other students as the butt of the joke.
It was during the first term of Year 11 (aged 16) that I started to think more seriously about my future.
Every day most of us will embark on the same routine: wake, go to work, hit the gym, have dinner, go to bed, sleep and repeat. Why not share your education with those who could truly benefit from them?
My journey started when I volunteered for New Generation Consulting (NGC), a pro bono student consulting group.