Graduating in Wales Summer 2011!

From Arts to Zoology, and from bachelor’s degree to PhD, thousands of international students are graduated from universities across Wales this summer.

After years of hard study, in many cases in a foreign language, students from all over the world are this week collecting the qualifications they hope will set them on the path to success.

At Cardiff University, the graduation ceremony was broadcast live from St David’s Hall to the city on the BBC big screen so that members of the public as well as friends and families of graduates could  watch the 2011 degree congregations as they happened.

All of the universities honour public figures alongside their graduates and this year at Bangor University, students joined the likes of Duffy, the singer, and Welsh rugby international Shane Williams as they collected their degrees.

New graduates at University of Glamorgan were applauded by the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor and academic staff, accompanied by musicians from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, as they were ceremoniously led out by the mace-bearer carrying the brass and chrome ornamental ceremonial
mace representing the authority of the University.

Ms Syeda  Sadiqha Kauser, from Bangalore India, graduated from Swansea Metropolitan University with an MBA in July 2011, said:
“My favourite memory is when I got the awesome chance to meet the First Minster of Wales; I was selected as the representative of Swansea Metropolitan University. It was a great feeling.

“While I was studying I was appointed an International Students Ambassador, which I enjoyed fully. I got the opportunity to meet different people from all around the world during the international student welcome programmes. I am also Vice President of the Indian Society at Swansea Metropolitan and a member of the MBA Students’ Society.

And Chi-Mao Wang, Taiwan, a PhD in Geography at Aberystwyth University, explained:
“I got two scholarships to study in Wales, an Aberystwyth International Post-graduate Research Studentship (AIPRS) from Aberystwyth University and one from the Rotary Club which encourages ambassadorial scholarship students to become involve in local society; this includes presentations in various Rotary Clubs whilst we are studying abroad. People in my school and all around here are so friendly and also living in student halls provided an excellent opportunity to make friends. It’s an excellent studying environment”.   

There are 10 universities recruiting international students into Wales as well as the Conservatoire, for Music & Drama,. Along with all UK universities and higher education institutions, they are part of a UK-wide quality assessment system which measures their research and teaching.

A number of the top research specialisations in the UK are based in universities in Wales including an award winning Film School, the leading Civil Engineering department, the leading Optometry & Vision Sciences department, the leading Architecture School, two of the top rated Psychology Schools, one of the leading International Politics departments, one of the top Materials Technology departments, three of the top Theology and Religious Studies schools and the top Accounting and Finance department in the UK (according to the most recent Research Assessment Exercise).  And the last RAE saw strong performances in Wales over a range of subjects from art and design to physics, with world-class achievement in a number of areas including civil engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, computer science and informatics, psychiatry and neuroscience, psychology, allied health professions, business and management, politics and international studies, town and country planning and Celtic studies.

Wales is also home to the all-Steinway Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, one of the largest and most progressive Library Schools in Britain, two Business Schools that achieved the sought-after Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) approval, a renowned Manufacturing Engineering Centre and a Government Charter Mark holding university.

In the film Why Wales? Current international students explain why they chose to come to Wales http://www.walesinternationalconsortium.com/students/Why_Wales_film.shtml