This is the first question I ask my students when they come back to Dubai and visit us in the office. I dont ask them how are their studies or how were their teachers, or if they passed or not, as all of these will be answered if I knew how they did life-wise.
An international student needs to know that he has a home to go back to, not to dread, he needs to know that he can have nice food, not a muggy kidney beans pie, he needs to know if he can wash his cloths in the same building he is living in, rather than carry them to the closest launderett, he needs to know if the gym is close by, if there is a prayor room on campus, and if its easy to find the location to Qibla. He wants to know if the supermarket is not very far from were he lives, and he can get his linen and day to day cloths fom a shop that is not that expensive. He wants to have friends to visit and he needs to know if the local doctor is ready to see him even if he only has the flu. Also if he is feeling down he wouldn't be pushed aside but someone will counsel him and help him in his delemma, he also needs to have his finances sorted, or helped find a job, or to find a bank that will not place a lot of charges on him.
Whether we like or not, the university life represents only a third of a students' life, and the two third is spent around the unviersity, so we must focus to make it easy for him. If not then we cannot blame him for not passing.
I wonder if a professor had asked a student on the reasons of not doing an assignment well? maybe he had a flood in his room, or his refrigerator was not working and the can of milk was bad, so he got food poison. If a professor finds out more about a student, maybe he can be his best research assistant. Not all students are lazy, some of them are damn good! some of them are very creative and some of them are going to be our next Steve Jobs, or Einstein. Think about it universities! you can have the researchers who will put you on the top 200 best universities in the world. All you need is to look after them.
An international student needs to know that he has a home to go back to, not to dread, he needs to know that he can have nice food, not a muggy kidney beans pie, he needs to know if he can wash his cloths in the same building he is living in, rather than carry them to the closest launderett, he needs to know if the gym is close by, if there is a prayor room on campus, and if its easy to find the location to Qibla. He wants to know if the supermarket is not very far from were he lives, and he can get his linen and day to day cloths fom a shop that is not that expensive. He wants to have friends to visit and he needs to know if the local doctor is ready to see him even if he only has the flu. Also if he is feeling down he wouldn't be pushed aside but someone will counsel him and help him in his delemma, he also needs to have his finances sorted, or helped find a job, or to find a bank that will not place a lot of charges on him.
Whether we like or not, the university life represents only a third of a students' life, and the two third is spent around the unviersity, so we must focus to make it easy for him. If not then we cannot blame him for not passing.
I wonder if a professor had asked a student on the reasons of not doing an assignment well? maybe he had a flood in his room, or his refrigerator was not working and the can of milk was bad, so he got food poison. If a professor finds out more about a student, maybe he can be his best research assistant. Not all students are lazy, some of them are damn good! some of them are very creative and some of them are going to be our next Steve Jobs, or Einstein. Think about it universities! you can have the researchers who will put you on the top 200 best universities in the world. All you need is to look after them.
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