Student life

I was recently invited to return to my old secondary school to talk with current students about what I’m doing with my life now.

The aim of the visit was to help Year 10 students (14-year-olds) make informed decisions about their education, careers and lives beyond school. Alumni from different generations and in various lines of work discussed their experiences: what they did while at school, what they did next, and how they got to where they are today.

“Volunteering at university has improved my well-being a lot and gives me a regular routine beyond studying and time to socialise with people I might not have met otherwise,” Kelly Wing, a linguistics student at the University of Cambridge, says about the benefits she gets from volunteering.

I began my first term at the Durham University International Study Centre (DUISC) in September 2017 as part of its first intake of students. I tried to research the DUISC before arriving, however, because it is a new institution, it was difficult to find information beyond their website. Although going blind into a new experience may make it more exciting, many prospective students might prefer to be more informed about an institution before attending.

Although Brussels isn’t commonly known as a popular university city, there is a lot that this small European capital can offer students.

Probably most famous for being the home of the European Union parliament, it is also known for its cobbled streets, chocolate, lace factories and, of course, the grand Market Square were one can sit and enjoy a coffee and admire the gilded buildings. 

I first visited the UK on a vacation as a curious and impressionable 15-year-old in 2013. The rich culture of London, the beautiful highlands of Scotland and the sunny beaches of Wales fascinated me. Having lived most of my life in the South Asian subcontinent and the Middle East, I was enthralled by the liberal ways of British life. I decided then that I wanted to pursue my university education in the UK.

What does it mean to be a feminist? That was the central question posed at the Harvard Women’s Leadership Conference last month. Founded in 1988, the annual conference invites female professionals to address female students at the university.  

Current students are twice as likely to have looked at academic rankings during the process of selecting a university compared with those who were students 25 years ago, research from the Association of University Directors of Estates (AUDE) has found. 

A survey carried out in December 2017 collected responses from 502 current students and 500 adults who had attended university about 25 years ago to track changes in requirements over time. 

China is rapidly becoming a major player in the higher education game if the 2018 Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings are anything to go by. A number of government initiatives and funding boosts have helped to secure China as an attractive destination for international students and this momentum doesn’t appear to be waning any time soon.

Universities urge students to develop a clear writing style and this quality is taken into consideration by markers. Yet the academic writing found in journals and books is often dense and wordy at best, and completely undecipherable at worst. As a political theory master’s student, I spend two-thirds of my time plodding through incomprehensible books and journal articles. Just last week, I came across such a complex sentence that I felt compelled to share it with the world.

Passport in hand, in awe of the towering buildings surrounding me, I joined the queue of De Montfort University students awaiting the main event of our trip to New York – a summit led by DMU to launch a new drive to support refugees around the world.

Although the “bomb cyclone” had stopped some of us from attending, those who had made it to New York entered the United Nations building with a sense of optimism – this was the UN and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us.