Blogs

In my latest blog for Times Higher Education, I have decided to do something a little different. I thought I’d take you around with me as I spend a day at Harvard University and show you my favourite study spot, which is just minutes from my dorm. I also spent one of my days during spring break (although you wouldn’t know it was “spring” break because of all the snow!) exploring an art gallery in Boston. We even got free entry because we are Harvard students.

The London Venture Crawl, held in March 2018, took 200 students from nine London universities to visit a number of businesses and entrepreneurial ventures to learn about what it takes to start a business.

Students came from a number of disciplines and the following universities:

“It has to be China – it’s got the language of the future, and I’d be fluent!”; “I was only thinking about Germany, but if I studied in the Netherlands where they have loads of courses in English, I could visit Germany any time”; “I just love the US – it’s the only place I would go to university”.

Tony Allen, BA in literature and history, University of East Anglia

“As a campus university, UEA’s facilities play a part in its strong cohesive feel. The students’ union building provides many services under one roof and seating for students to congregate. There are always students walking or jogging around the campus lake. Events like Derby Day and Pimp My Barrow create a university-wide buzz and fill up The Square – the historic campus centre – a great place to meet and relax in summer.”

I began my career in the private sector, having first obtained a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Copperbelt University in Zambia in 1995.

After graduation, my passion for children’s rights led me to work for an international development organisation, providing public services to rural communities in Zambia. The role involved advocating government to develop and implement public policies for children.

However, I wanted a more influential and direct role closer to where public policies were developed. 

I have been a student in England for more than a year and a half now, but I have to confess – I still feel quite overwhelmed, physically and mentally, when things do not go according to my expectations.

Even though the Dutch and Danish cultures are not that different from each other, settling in another country still takes more adjustment than one might think.

For me, starting my two-year master’s programme in another country felt quite different from going abroad on exchange during my undergraduate studies.

Prior to coming to Copenhagen for my master’s, I had undertaken a semester in Taiwan at the National Taiwan University. At that time, I was a bachelor’s student in the Netherlands – and that semester abroad was just a lot of fun. 

Going to the University of Oxford to pursue an MSc in higher education was the first time I had travelled outside Gaza for 14 years and the first time I had done it alone.

Universities are failing to meet the needs of commuter students across the UK even though the number of students choosing to live at home is increasing.

A study conducted by social mobility charity the Sutton Trust in February 2018 highlighted that about 55.8 per cent of students under the age of 20 attend a university less than 57 miles from home, while only one in 10 students attends a university more than 150 miles away.

In the wake of the documented rise in student mental health rates, and on University Mental Health Day, I wanted to discuss my own experience of depression as a student, as well as share my thoughts about what universities should be doing to tackle this potentially devastating illness.