Social Integration: International Student Voice

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Social Integration International Student Voice
Jyoti Bhardwaj, Taoxin Peng, Neil Urquhart and
Alison Varey School Of Computing
On the new student welcome day, they allocated me
to an Edinburgh family. Through that friendship,
I made other friends in Edinburgh, for example,
their daughter. We went to her University at St
Andrews. That was the first time I visited
another city in Scotland
When I came here I didnt know anyone but I try
my best to get some friends I joined the sports
centre and there I made many friends from
different countries
It took a while for my ears to get tuned to the
Scottish accentIm living with a Scottish
family, so that helped me a lot
I went to a Scottish dancing class several times,
and I worked for my local community centre for
several months.
More events should be organised to give the
international students an idea of how Scotland
is, possibly outings to different sights
I think Napier should organise International
students and local students to go on trips, to
the north of Scotland, for instance
I think the classroom is a good start to make
friendship, but we need to put more effort to
keep up the friendship.
I still remember when I first arrived, when the
lecturer spoke, I couldnt understand anything
I posted onto the Napier student website I
thought it was a fantastic opportunity to live
with a Scottish family and learn how to
integrate. Its been excellentI live in their
house, eat with them
There are so many Chinese students in my class I
try and improve my English by myself. One of my
friends introduced me to a web site that I logged
onto and left a message about language exchange
and I got many answers. I just selected two and
now they are my best friends. One Australian girl
and one Canadian man
I made my best friends during a job because we
have the same interests and we can sit down to
talk more and longer.
Im expecting to meet people from different
cultures and traditions and learn about their own
experiences of engineering
The student union has a lot of activities. I
would like to join them, but it clashed with my
course I just couldnt make it.
Ive started to use the internet to try to make
friends from the city to enlarge my circle of
friends
The classroom is the first place where I made
friends when I arrived in Edinburgh.
The International Office needs to arrange
seminars and regularly send emails to the
International Students
Im very confident and I asked the students their
name and say Hello, hi Im from that country,
Im doing that course in the library,
classroom, café, I just chat. Thats how Ive
made friends
The Students Association activities need more
variety, not only sports. They should encourage
students to set up their own societies
I tried to involve myself in tutorials but
sometimes I found it hard to express myself, but
I did get along with them very well
We should introduce the Scottish people to other
cultures so we can communicate with each other
In a mixed group we have different backgrounds
and cultures so we have a different way of
thinking .. we can have very creative new ideas
especially in brainstorming.
In my country I learnt about group working and
how groups work in a Western culture, but when I
came here things were different
Napier can organise some activities during term
time dedicated to International students at the
right time at the right price. Not just at
Craiglockhart but at Craighouse and Merchiston as
well
I think for the Student Union they should be at
least one post dedicated to International
students To represent the voice of students from
outside the UK and reflect their opinions
In a Masters level in less than one year you have
to learn 8 or 9 subjects so its difficult to
join the Union and International students, there
are lots of courseworks, exams, readings and
tutorials
With thanks to Guoli Zhang, Ali Sallam, Mengya
Wang, Tariq Ahmad, Yang Liu, Ke Sin Lee,
Elisabeth Omo-Dare, and Peter Lam
June 2006