Following Cardiff University’s #WeAreInternational campaign, members of their students’ union plea for more support in place for overseas students.
Cardiff University Student’s Union officer claims that more could be done to support foreign students, despite the recent #WeAreInternational campaign led by the Vice Chancellor last month.
Following the university’s involvement in the national campaign, which involved lighting up Main Building with the slogan and launching a free online course about language translation, it is believed that international students can still often feel marginalised.
“The University needs to get to ground level, meaning there needs to be a solid system that does not separate international students from national students,” said the Students’ Union’s Black and Ethnic Minority Campaign Officer, Nancy Turnbull.
The campaign ran for six days, during which students were encouraged to get involved using the social media hashtag, helping to raise awareness of the movement.
Although a step in the right direction, Ms Turnball believes that campaigns such as this need to be more student led.
“[We should] allow the campaign to be driven by international students. It will take some time, but it is achievable. In addition, this should be an all year thing.”
Ms Turnball should have a fellow Part-time Officer representing international students in the Students’ Union, however this role is still pending due to a lack of candidates during the main Union elections in February of this year.
Cardiff University Malaysian Society said that some of their members were not aware of the campaign.
“Perhaps [in the future] more should be done on promotion for the campaign.”
Any comments on the success of the campaign, or suggestions for future improvement should be sent to: SUPresident@cardiff.ac.uk