The Last Stand

I have barely hours before my final exams. Not surprising is the fact that I have very little motivation to read my half baked notes and ill prepared handouts. I realise that this exams are the crown of 5 years of effort to get a good degree. I realise that there are alot of people who would wish they were in my shoes, if only for the fact that they seek a degree, or that they seek a good degree in a prestigious course like Electrical / Computer Engineering.
As I prepare to write these exams, my mind is flooded by mixed emotions.
I am happy because this will mark the end of a phase of my life I have been working on for the past six years plus, minus the time i spent anticipating it.
I am happy because moving on will afford me the opportunity to invest my energies in pursuing my new set of goals without having to worry about skipping classes and all. it basically strikes off a big item on my priority list.
I am happy because I will be able to look back on the last couple of years and regard them as successful, as far as a first degree is concerned. But at the same time, I am saddened because there are so many people that I would have loved to be able to share this moment with me, some have been taken away by death, some have been taken away by choices they made, and choices I made, some are physically with me but incapable of sharing and understanding what i feel as a hausa man understanding ibo. I am saddened because I am not proud of the quality of education that I have gotten over the past 5 years. I am saddened because there is a great gap between where I am academically and where I wanted to be. Still I am challenged. I am challenged because I realise that the little I have achieved in the past six years, I had to take from a system that was always ready to sell me short. I am challenged because the dark side of humanity, the evil side of man is as present as it has been in the history of life. This means that I cannot rest on my oars to be a better person both for myself and for the people that sorround me. I am humbled because I see the future as a great leaning mountain ahead of me, and I dare not think I can make it on my own. I am humbled because I realise that my honours degree supposedly a testament to how much i know, will remain a gnawing pointer to how little I do know.
However, I am not saddened, because I believe, and I hope and I dare to declare that Baba God in heaven ‘no dey sleep’. And that He that began a great work in my life and in the life of my colleagues will bring it to a fruitous climax.
I bear these thoughts in my mind as I prepare for the last stand!

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The need for continuity

Well, hello the whichlevel community. Over the past few weeks I have become increasingly engaged in ‘life as i know it’ which has made posting to this blog rather irregular. I realise that all such projects often encounter a period of lag. What I also know is that the long term success of any endeavour can only be guaranteed by consistent and committed action. In my mind I decided to go over the last few months of whichlevel with the purpose of charting a course into the future. one thing that is particularly important to me is the issue of continuity. I would like to see young african students who are interested in becoming contributors to this blog. This is a challenge I am throwing at all visitors to this blog. Where can I find these individuals that are willing to share of themselves – their experiences, their knowledge for the benefit of a generation?

Four Steps to Studying Abroad by Dr. Peter Cullen

I stumbled into my inbox this evening to find a very interesting and encouraging e-mail from Dr. Peter Cullen. Just at a time that much of the traffic on this blog was shy of sharing. I must thank Dr. Cullen for stopping by and leaving pearls of wisdom. It is pretty self explanatory – read on.

Hello! This looks like a fantastic blog!

I tried to leave this message as a comment, but it was discarded, it seems, so I’m sending it to you as an e-mail.

I am Peter Cullen – an instructor in English Language and Culture for Business at the University of Uribno, Italy. I remember my professor of Economics at Dalhousie University in Canada was Nigerian, and he lost patience with us so often! He was very good though.
I have received a couple of e-mails of interest in studying abroad from people who linked to my blog from yours. That is good. I will do anything in my power to help. The first thing I can do is give some basic guidelines for people looking to study abroad – with a bit of particular reference to Italy.

1. The current academic situation in Italy is difficult – so most of our services are oriented to helping Italians study abroad.  That said, we do have about 300 international students each year, mostly from the European Community supported Erasmus academic integration programme.  The web-site for the office in charge of international students at the University of Urbino may be found at www.uniurb.it – the link is on the left-hand side of the page under “Relazioni Internazionali”.

2. If Nigerian students are interested in coming to study in Italy, they will find two things difficult:
   a) a good level of Italian language is imperative;
   b) Italy is not an administratively easy country, and has only recently become a destination country for newcomer settlement (at least in modern times!) This means that it may be more difficult for non-Europeans to integrate socially, although Italian people themselves are quite helpful and warm. My suggestion is that students who are interested specifically in Italian subjects should consider studying in an Italian university (including economics, biology, environmental sciences, etc. – if the student’s interest is specific to this country or the Mediterranean).

I will be honest. It is easier and probably qualitatively better, considering the whole picture, for Nigerian students to look at American or Canadian universities. I am Canadian and immediately promote Canadian universities, particularly at the undergraduate level. That said, I am not necessarily right. American universities are also very good.
[The Following are the steps to follow]

1. Look at the university web-sites.
2. Identify the area of study that interests you.
3. Contact the relevant professors in that discipline to ask about their programmes.
4. Contact the university’s International Students Office – they will be able to assist you in application, visas, scholarships, etc. with specific reference to their university.
   

The web-sites are very good, it is their job to provide information.
Much of this identification and application work can be done by the individual student. North Americans tend to be individually motivated, and our services are designed to provide a great deal of information to the individual who asks for it, but are not necessarily designed to help you directly to find that information. Use the internet as much as humanly possible!
Here are some links to some good universities in Canada.

www.dal.ca  
Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia: largest university in Atlantic Canada, offers a wide variety of programmes at the undergraduate and graduate level. Oceanography and marine biology are very good, as is engineering, business, medicine and law.

www.stmarys.ca  
Saint Mary’s University, Halifax Nova Scotia: small university, very good with international students: specialties include business and socio-anthropology.

www.mcgill.ca  
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec. Large university in the largest city in Quebec (one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Canada – beautiful and interesting, even if winters are very cold!) McGill offers excellent science programmes as well as communications (Marshall McCluhan was a prof. there) and humanities.

www.utoronto.ca 
University of Toronto, Toronto Ontario.  U of T is Canada’s premier university. It is the biggest in the biggest city in Canada (although the capital city is Ottawa!)  It is very good in humanities as well as sciences and technology.  We work with people in their language programmes and one of our students is doing a doctorate there now.  Like McGill, it offers many programmes at a very high level and is immediately recognised internationally.

www.ubc.ca 
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia.  UBC is another university oriented towards social sciences and natural sciences. It is Canada’s pacific coast university – so it is also specialised in marine sciences. That said, it is also close to the Rocky Mountains and has good environmental sciences programmes. Vancouver is relatively wealthy city with a relatively mild climate during both summer and winter.

So, there are also many other universities to choose from. These are only a very few. North America contains about 4500 universities and colleges. Do hunt around on internet as much as you can and DO contact the international offices at these universities for information!

For students who are directly interested in studying Italian topics do not hesitate to contact me at peterlcullen2[at]yahoo[dot]it.  I am not in a position of power, nor influence here, and I am only one person, but I have been a graduate student and professor in Italy and will help in any way I reasonably can.

It would be very interesting to have an exchange with a Nigerian university – our language and culture for business students could certainly benefit!

All the best to everyone – and good luck!

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Chevening Scholarship for Post Graduate Studies

The Chevening Scholarship program (Post Graduate Only) is currently running. Check the British Council Website for more information. Submissions close in September. I have been trying to get information to build up my post on scholarships, but a lot of the information cannot be confirmed. The best bet is to give chips of advice as valid information comes.

I have recieved several emails from persons seeking scholarships for undergraduate study and the like. The truth is that I do not have any godfather that leaks info to me. Any information that is posted on this site is shared with me by friends or blogs etc. If anyone has information, please feel free to post it up here so that others can benefit. If new information about scholarships does not pop up often on this blog, it is only because I have not gotten any new information. Besides, there are countless sites that are up specifically for the purpose of giving information about scholarships.

Anyway, The British Council are an important source of information on scholarships for Nigerians planning to study abroad. You can get information about currently running programs from there as well as links to other organisations. As information trickles in, I assure you, this blog community will be served.

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