[Anisha] Hi I'm Anisha I'm from India.
[Luna] Hi I'm Luna and I'm from Nepal.
[Arla] My name is Arla and I'm from the Philippines.
[Suyash] Hi my name is Suyash, I'm from India.
[Arla] Today we are answering questions from future students about what it's like to study here at UTS.
[Anisha] When the plane touched down in Sydney, what was going through your mind?
[Arla] I was excited and nervous at the same time because, like I said, it's my first time to be away from my family, to be completely on my own. But it was also like, going to be an exciting adventure for me to learn.
[Luna] I was kind of scared because it was a new country for me, so I had like a thoughts going on, like how will I speak to people and how will I actually interact with the people, and I don't have like a good language, like English language. How will I actually manage to be, like you know, be in the community over here and study? So I had that all the fears going on.
[Arla] Did you find it easy to settle in to Sydney?
[Suyash] When I came to Australia, I went to one of my relations place to stay. I came to orientation week and there were different seminars going on. So it was really easy for me to settle down at UTS and in Sydney. I actually am a very extroverted person, so I met a lot of friends and I travelled across Sydney with my friends and this way it was really easy for me to settle.
[Anisha] It was hard for me initially because the curriculum back in our home countries and over here is different, so um, you get to a whole different approach of how to do things. But then, there's a lot of help available. Um, there's so many journals and articles you can read about, um you know, doing it and there's also UTS Helps, which initially helps you with like they help you with assignments. So yeah, I mean there has been help to get through the hurdles.
[Suyash] How does UTS help newly arrived international students? What do you think?
[Luna] If you're travelling alone in the in Sydney from your home country you can actually tell UTS beforehand to pick you up, if you get, like so they can help you out to find accommodation and how to use the transportation.
[Arla] I do remember a big like welcome for international students, wherein they would just basically, like you know, tell you about what it's like in Sydney and um, give you the chance to meet, uh, to meet with like the other, um, international students. And like some of my friends now, um, I actually met them on that day and we've been, like, really good friends ever since then.
[Luna] Why did you choose to study at UTS?
[Suyash] State of the art facility, the state of the art library, this support which is available at UTS is top notch. I chose UTS because of its various clubs, societies, its support, it's UTS Careers helps you to get along with your professional life. As well as, there's like UTS Indian Society and ActivateUTS, which helps you during your personal life, it helps you a lot.
[Arla] Aside from like the actual like commute going to school, it's also like the things that are, like, available near the school. So, like there's a mall right in front of us, um and if you want to go to the beach, you just have to walk to Central Station, take another train and then you're there. So like.
[Anisha] Really accessible.
[Arla] Everything is here. Oh! And like of course, the food options here are also really great. Like you know, for example, spice alley, it's just right in front of us as well. So yeah, you will never get bored here, really.
[Arla] What's your number one advice for new international students?
[Anisha] Oh.
[Arla] Have an open mind. There are some things that are, like different here from, from like you know, back in your home. So you just have to be like open to like learning and um adapting to things really.
[Luna] Just explore the university, explore Sydney or wherever you go just explore them. Because you will like learn lots of different things when you explore, as well as you'll be making new like different friends, you'll have friends from different backgrounds. Also you when you actually come here in Sydney, I actually suggest international students to network. And in Sydney, as well as at UTS you have lots of networking events where you can network with different people. That's how I got to network with lots of new friends, not only at UTS but across the Sydney. That actually helped me a lot.
[Arla] Thank you so much. We really hope that this was helpful for you and don't forget to be brave.
[Luna] Just follow your dreams and believe in yourself and just hope for, always hope for a better future ahead.
[Anisha] And if you have any more questions, go online and reach out to the community. We're all here to help you and we hope to see you soon here at UTS.
[Suyash] See ya.
[Luna] See ya.
