My name is Fatima Afzal and this is my story of how I became a female engineer in an international environment.
My experience began when I applied to a British petrochemical company for my industrial placement year, as part of my chemical engineering degree at Aston University. Immediately after accepting the offer I started working in one of the facilities in Malaysia. This provided me with a great platform to launch my engineering career.
Over the next week, prospective students from across the country and, indeed, across the world, are coming for interviews at the University of Oxford.
But what can you expect if you are coming for an interview?
Here, a selection of current students at Jesus College at the University of Oxford provide some top tips on how you can prepare.
Ayesha, first-year medicine student, from Blackburn
The London Business School has been number one for four years in a row.
This year’s ranking includes 95 universities in total, a slight increase from the 91 ranked last year.
The 2017 top 10 is essentially a reshuffling of the top 10 from 2016, with the first and second place positions remaining the same.
Switzerland and Spain are the most represented countries in the top 10, each with two universities present.
After years of study, late night cramming and deadlines, donning your graduation gown is a proud moment for any university student.
The hard work and sacrifice is over because you’ve got a degree and that guarantees you a well-paid job at the company of your dreams, right? If only it was that simple.
Before starting university, I had been estranged from my parents for nearly five years. However, I did not realise the “technical” term for my family situation until I began to fill out my student finance application.
Because of the situation I was in, applying for finance was difficult and involved sending off various letters and evidence about my living situation. This caused problems as the reasons for my estrangement were different for each parent – my father has never been in my life and my mother passed away when I was 14.
As a graduate of several programmes in the UK I know how much the academic environment can shape the way you feel and behave in those formative years.
My campus universities offered a placid pace of life and a sense of community, while the city counterparts, if isolating at times, offered adventure and diversity. Here I reflect on the different lifestyles I experienced at the two types of institution.
The past month has been a lot of work for me. It’s coming up to exam time and with that, of course, comes the inevitable stress, feeling like you never have enough time to do what you need, and for me, the consumption of many sugary sweets. Hey, your brain runs on glucose, right?
Last week, I headed back to my old university (the University of Reading) to talk to some students about some of the biggest issues that they face today.
I met with a panel of second- and third-year students, and we chatted about pretty much everything that comes under the umbrella of student life: accommodation, studying, socialising and finance.
I had been planning to write about something else this month – something more politically charged. But then I had a bad day, one packed with frustrations, where you feel like you can’t do anything and nothing much gets done. So I thought I’d write about that instead.
It was a cold, bright Wednesday morning. If this was a novel, it would have been a gloomy and bitter day, the perfect scene for failure and disappointment. Instead the day was fresh, the sky was blue, and crispy leaves were strewn about the pavements: it resembled the backdrop I would choose for a happier experience.
Newcastle University has been named the best university in the UK for overall student experience, according to the Annual Student Experience Awards from University Compare.
University Compare’s table is based on four key elements: institute and course, accommodation, employment prospects, and social life.