Integration Day
Informal conversations over coffee and delicacies from different parts of the world, an opportunity to get to know each other and exchange experiences - the Integration Day for people associated with the Doctoral School of the Silesian University of Technology took place for the first time in the student club Spirala. The PhD students also chose their representative to represent them and help them in solving current issues.
The meeting was organized on the initiative of people from abroad, who already constitute nearly one third of all PhD students of the Silesian University of Technology. During their doctoral studies and research work, they do not have many opportunities to meet other PhD students from Poland or other countries of the world.
– To be honest, we often don’t even have the opportunity to meet people who work in the same laboratory – said Muhammad Fawad, a PhD student from Pakistan, who has been involved in the integration of people from abroad for years and is the initiator of the meeting. – We want to create such a platform for exchanging ideas, a place where we can meet, I am convinced that such events will be organized on regular basis, because there is such a need.
Integration Day is an informal meeting during which participants could get to know each other, exchange experiences, and talk with lecturers and the Rector of the Silesian University of Technology, who also took part in the event.
– Among the people who we accepted to the Doctoral School a year ago, as many as half come from abroad – said Prof. Dr Hab. Eng. Bożena Skołud, director of the Doctoral School of the Silesian University of Technology – They often feel isolated, I think that integration and closer cooperation, including scientific cooperation, will bring benefits to everyone. It will facilitate assimilation in a new environment, another country or even a continent, and on the other hand, it will allow Poles to join the substantive work, publications that they can implement together – added the professor.
PhD students from abroad do not have their representative in the structure of the University Council of PhD students, whose meetings are held in Polish. Therefore, during the integration meeting, they chose their representative, who will take care of the interests of people from abroad and communication between foreigners and university authorities. Hamza Mumtaz, a PhD student from Pakistan, became the chairman of International PhD Student Council.
–The idea behind the idea of choosing a student and PhD student advisor from abroad stems from the need to create a kind of platform for exchanging thoughts, needs, problems or doubts that people from abroad have and passing them on to the university authorities – said Hamza Mumtaz. – I want us to meet every month, so we have the opportunity to meet people, make friends, exchange experiences related to science, as well as the opportunity to discuss and share the problems we face. It is easier to find solutions together.
– It is a very good idea to meet, to establish relations, with this in mind we are organizing a conference in Ustroń next month, where there will also be an opportunity to talk of research and less important issues, to get to know each other – emphasized Krystian Szewczyński, chairman of The University Self-Government Council of the Doctoral Students.
The meeting took place in a pleasant and friendly atmosphere, and the specialties and sweets prepared especially for this occasion by PhD students from abroad certainly also contributed to the good mood of the participants.
