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.
- 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 http://www.uniurb.it – the link is on the left-hand side of the page under “Relazioni Internazionali”.
- 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]
- Look at the university web-sites.
- Identify the area of study that interests you.
- Contact the relevant professors in that discipline to ask about their programmes.
- 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.
http://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.
http://www.stmarys.ca
Saint Mary’s University, Halifax Nova Scotia: small university, very good with international students: specialties include business and socio-anthropology.
http://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.
http://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.
http://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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