Penned Perfections

  Study Abroad and the Dichotomy of the Underprivileged Student: An Indian Perspective  Within the international mobility of students for study abroad, India contributes one of the largest number of students to overseas universities each year. Helping these students make informed choices is an equally large pool of study abroad agents and the staff from overseas universities for whom competing in an increasingly complex and dynamically changing Indian market place is both challenging, and necessary. In the recent years, the most nuanced terminology used by universities for their internationalization efforts and in their marketing and promotional activities are ‘inclusion and diversity’. The marketing messages of agents spell out high success rates for top admits, visa approvals and devising special counselling cells for the students aiming for Ivy Leagues and Oxbridge institutions. Yet do these inclusivity messages hold true for the entire pool of eligible and bright students, or

  The First Steps: Settling into your Overseas University You have packed your bags, taken the long haul flight and the bus ride to your university campus. You are excited and afraid at the same time. The huge campus of your foreign institution seems daunting, as do the unfamiliar faces and the languages you hear spoken but do not understand. Take heart. There are simple things you can do to transition safely into settling down. ·     1.  The first step that every student should do on arrival at   the campus is to meet with the student ambassadors, unless they are waiting on the gate to welcome the freshmen students. They are generally the senior students who have experienced their first years at college and can give you tips and insights for a safe and comfortable stay. ·     2.  A priority should be to register at the university international office if that is where all students are expected to report on arrival. You may have met the recruitment managers when they visited you