Embarking on a trip to study abroad? Pre-departure meetings can help you shed your inhibitions and prepare you for the experience the unknown holds.
After having steadfastly tried for admissions in universities abroad for over a year and having succeeded, now it is time for students to get ready for departure. Advice and suggestions on which airline to fly, what to pack and where to stay will come in from all quarters. Invariably, students do get confused at the last moment and get desperate too.
Pre-departure briefings are valuable source of information for students going abroad. Such briefings provide them with required information and also clarify certain country-specific doubts they may have. Travel, accommodation, food, weather, clothing, packing, banking, medical facility, insurance, local transport and academic culture are the areas where students have plenty of questions during such sessions.
“At the pre-departure meetings students generally get their doubts pertaining to practical, cultural and academic information cleared. Students going abroad for higher education should attend such orientation meetings and educate themselves and be fully prepared for a whole new experience. ”, says Sudha Sudeep, of Study in Holland, Chennai.
“These days students going to universities overseas are very well-informed. Thanks to social networking sites and blogs, students network well. Even before they left India, a group of students I met recently, made their Christmas vacation travel plan via Facebook with five other students from India, going to Germany,” says Padmavathi Chandramouli of German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Chennai.
While much of the general information is available online, students flock to these pre-departure meeting with the goal of networking.
“Networking is a must when you study in a foreign country. Apart from providing you an opportunity to travel to another city or another country to meet up with friends, you can find an opportunity to do internships in another university. A good networking has immense benefits,” says Naveen Chopra, of The Chopras, an education consultancy. Meeting alumni and interacting with other students who have secured admissions in various other universities is exciting for students going abroad.
“We rope in Indian students currently studying in Holland and on a vacation in India, to address the students. Alumni are also invited to share their experience,” says Ms. Sudeep. Helping students understand the cultural differences seems to be the major task at pre-departure briefings. “For any successful collaboration — be it in an educational context or business, inter-cultural knowledge is absolutely imperative. Culture being the software of the mind, if people are running on different cultural coding, let alone successful collaboration, the venture could even fail,” says Sreemathi Ramnath, founder and principal consultant, Immer Besser, a cross-cultural management consultancy.
For students travelling to France for higher education, a strong cultural orientation will be of great help to enjoy their stay there. “We brief them about classroom experience, student-teacher interaction, homework and assignments and also on examination and evaluation. For one batch of students, we organised a dinner wherein they learnt table manners and food habits of the French,” Joan Thangaraj of Campus France.
Pre-departure briefings also bring up various problems faced by Indian students. Usually, Indian students are concerned about their academic competence in a foreign university set-up. It is understood that Indian students are strong in theory but need to improve a lot in areas of application. “We communicate drawbacks if any and also what is expected of them by the universities and prepare the students adequately, so that they enjoy their campus life without any stress, says Ms. Chandramouli. “Academic culture must be understood by Indians and they must learn to adhere to the rules and regulations of the university,” says Ms. Thangaraj.
Students are advised not to confine their interaction only with Indian students, but to interact with local students and those from other countries. These experiences go a long way in building international network and a strong career as well. “ “Be aware, tolerate and adapt to the new culture. Only then can students gel with the mutli-cultural population and that is necessary for a global career,” says Ms. Sudeep.
Cultural understating is a skill. Familiarity with the local customs and cultural context, and speaking the language can make the stay in a foreign country a pleasant experience.
These apart, Indian students can effectively plan the role of a cultural ambassador and inspire other international students to visit India as a tourist or do their internships in one of the Indian universities. Today inter-cultural competence has been singled out as the chief ingredient of international success.
As Ms. Ramnath says, “Investing in this learning makes eminent sense as it would minimise the losses through failed projects and maximises the collaboration potential.”