22/04/2021
Hello everyone,
My name is Cuttbert Watong, a foreign student in the Faculty of Languages and Humanities (LW) running for Student Council 2021/2022. I am and have been a student representative at the faculty for two years now. I like sport but also cooking and socializing. I have a team made of both national and international students. When hang out and mostly talk about some of the changes that have to be done at the VUB, get some coffee and make use of the student restaurant often when at VUB. However, as foreign student, sometimes we get overlooked. So, I am here to represent the international community on campus that wants to have a voice about issues that affect their lives. I understand this is generally the case, but I wish to give it some more attention.
These issues are:
-Course overload of courses that have a low number of credits. This, of course, does not only affect internationals but all the students and the chance to voice concern for anyone and look for ways to enhance the communication to make student satisfaction better is a goal of mine.
- Financial support. Especially students from abroad who are limited concerning work opportunities and who spent a lot of money on the courses are often struggling. This is also in my personal experience. More student support is needed. With that, in times in which it is not easy to just request more money alternative means need to be discovered that might ease the pressure many students face. Better support finding accommodation, better support finding internships here, better, and reliable psychological support, ease of costs through cooking together and more are also on my plan of action.
-In my observation, there is a split between the local and international community; I often feel this split is evident in VUB because most locals don’t want to hang out with internationals. From findings, some students volunteer before they could connect. I rather think this should be one community. I must strengthen this link and, but not limited to the promotion of multi-culturalism. This can be achieved through social (physical or digital) activities (in line with the COVID-19 measures which we hope will leave us soon) among faculties and departments.
-Job search and placement. A lot of international students graduate and wish to work at the University or have a similar job elsewhere. Unfortunately, they do not have the opportunities handy. Consequently, I intend to work in close collaboration with the centre for research and to bring more job offers to the students and create more jobs at the level of the student council. If possible, the university can create more jobs for our graduating students, this is also a goal I anticipate achieving.
Please create some time to cast your votes on me. Each student can vote up to 20 times.
Thank you in advance.
Below is the voting link but this is only possible from the 26th of April to the 1st of May 2021.
b.ac.be/cas/login?service=http%3A%2F%2Fask.vub.ac.be%2Flimesurvey-netid%2Findex.php%3Fr%3Dsurvey%2Findex%26sid%3D202102%26lang%3Den-se
