CASERIA, ARCELLI A.

SUMMATIVE ASSESMENT_MIDYEAR

GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE

For the past few weeks we have been tackling the importance of
internationalization of universities, Reading articles and other case studies
about its importance to a student, the impact to the name and recognition
of the university and how it contributes to the country. Let me give you
some background of a common understanding when you hear the word
internalization. The purpose of it was “to cope with the global academic
environment” (Bernardo,2003: Altbach and Knight, 2007). As the world
continues to grow and so our curiosity, learning is a continuous process that
we can gain new lessons everyday from our daily life and so our way of
studying too, students should be more prepared to face their future career
and having different experiences of understanding other cultures, and being
capable of adapting or adjusting into new environment creates an edge to
other fellow students. After a few readings and discussions inside the room
we were tasked to interview an international student to get to know them
better, because like what saying says that “Experience is the best teacher
and the most reliable source”.

We had a chance to interview a former Tamaraw who is now residing

at Canada, her program here was Bachelor of Science in Nursing a four year
program but when she migrate into Canada specifically in the Burman
University she took an Early Childhood Education which is very different from
her previous program and surprisingly she only have to take it in two years
unlike here in our country it takes four years to take the program. Most of
her classmates there are international students too but she doesn't have any
fellowmen, thus most of her classmates are from different countries too that
decided to study there. Life as an international student was not that easy for
her, same as the other interviewed international students from other groups
they have similarities when it comes to barriers that they encounter during
their stay, although they would gain an edge over other students,but despite
of it they also had a hard time adjusting into a new environment far from
her home country. Not everyone has an opportunity to study abroad and is
capable of supporting their financial needs. Most international students are
working students ,to support their needs and to survive in other countries.

Aside from having an attractive resume, the positive side as an

international student was having a privilege of course to study abroad and
had a chance to encounter other cultures that could help in their studies.
Seeing the other perspectives from other nations could change our way of
thinking and help us to be more open to new ideas. According to the
Commission on higher education “a rapidly changing globalized world and be
mindful of global competitiveness’ (CHED,2012). It shows the importance of
internalization of a university and being a competitive student to sustain the
needs of the society and be future ready. Some of its advantages too is to
learn a new language that you can use in the future and to broaden your
vocabulary, having a deep connection with other nationalities and learning to
embrace their culture to get to know them better and who knows, they
might help you out to get a job in their hometown. And of course being the
best version of yourself, being independent, managing your own time and
budget, having self confidence in facing new people and trusting more to
yourself to be a responsible person.

Despite the good factors that they can gain for being an international
student they had to pass in a process that weak hearted people wouldn't
last. Being far from your hometown and your family, can create a huge
impact for you to adjust into a new environment or stepping out of your
comfort zone. Being dependent to your loved ones as you grow up won't
help you to grow and to be strong, yes they would support you as long as
they can to your goals and plans in life but along the process you only have
yourself and you are destined to meet a lot of people, and as an
international student you should be prepare to meet new and how to deal
with different nationalities from their language, ways and culture. Some
hindrances that an international student could face and based on the result
of the interview, we have observed that there are a lot of factors to consider
if you are planning to study abroad. First, you should have a firm and strong
mentality your willingness to graduate as an international student, it is not
easy to be far away from your people but if you are willing and focused on
your goals despite of the loneliness and challenges that you might encounter
along the process, it would be nothing if you have a strong trust to yourself.
Second, your social skills, you would encounter a lot of people with different
perspectives and culture, at first based on the result of the interview as we
had observed the interviewee said that the first days that she stepped on the
other land she was culture shocked because they have different ways that
was not practiced here, from how people do approach or make friends to
daily life routines the adjustment of different time zone, transportation, food
and lifestyle. Lastly, based on my observation most common problem was
lack of financial source, even though you receive as scholarship from the
university there are still a lot of expenses that you need to supply in order to
survive, knowing Canada it has a high cost of living and most of the students
that was interviewed are working students since they have enough time to
have a part time job because in other country they only require two to four
days of school and then the rest is rest day, since they have rest days they
use it to gain money. International students are not for weak hearted
people, if you have a goal in life, you need to have faith in yourself that you
can surpass these challenges with guidance from above.

Furthermore, being an international student creates a big role too in

the society and to their home country. It brings recognition to the
government especially if you gain awards but just being an international
student was like representing your own country, why? Simply because you
are capable of being the mirror of our culture because wherever we go we
are bringing with us the qualities and characteristics as a Filipino. And by
simply bringing it back to the community, sharing their learnings and
experiences could help anyone to spread an awareness of the benefits and
importance of being an international student.

And to sum it all up from the beginning at first i thought being an

international student is easy because you have the privilege to study abroad
to explore and expand your learnings and by having a nice resume to
present when seeking for job, but after we tackle it and had some insights
from the persons who are currently international students i had learned a lot
and my point of view has changed. It is not that easy. It takes a lot of
courage and faith, you should be physically ,mentally and emotionally stable,
because before you become successful you would encounter a lot of
challenges that would test your willingness to graduate. And representing
your own country was a big pressure, of course you are in an university
were in there are a lot of different nationalities and as i mentioned earlier we
are the one who reflects or represents our country, actually we could help
our country by simply showing who we are, sharing our traditions, culture
and beliefs, and no one knows the person that you are talking to might be a
politician someday and that could help our economy to have partnership with
their country. We don't know what is ahead of us. The important thing here
is that we are getting better each day and we should not miss an
opportunity because not everyone can have what we have, so it is better to
share and help each other. Actually we were a bit lucky because anywhere
you go there is always a fellow filipino that would gladly help her fellowmen
there are a lot of overseas filipino workers all over the world and here maybe
they can lessen the loneliness that they are experiencing. I suggest that the
government should help the qualified students to study abroad and sustain
their needs especially when it come to financial needs i think there a lot of
business owners who would be gladly to support qualified students
internationality because in the future the youth would be the one who will
replace them in the palace to rule the country or in the business world to
help our economy to grow, as our national hero said youth is the future of
the nation and i believe that it starts in learning and gaining new
experiences. And to our commission on higher education they should spread
the awareness of the importance of being an internationalized university not
just because of its benefits or the recognition that it could give to the
university but for the future of the students by giving them quality education
so they don't need to go in other country thus they would choose to study
here because we have a curriculum that creates an fully equipped students
and we would be the one who would attract more international students
from other countries. It always starts with small steps at the beginning and
we won't be who we are if we stop from learning.
REFERENCES

Altbach, P. G., & Knight, J. (2007). The internationalization of higher

education: Motivations and realities. Journal of studies in international
education, 11(3-4), 290-305.
http://www.uni-kassel.de/wz1/mahe/course/module6_3/01_altbach07.pdf

Bernardo (2003) in Tullao, T. S. (ed) Education & globalization (pp. 213-272)

Philippine APEC Study Center Network. Retrieved July, 2015 @
http://dirp4.pids.gov.ph/ris/books/pidsbk03-education.pdf

CHED (2012). Policy-standard to enhance quality assurance (QA) in

Philippine Higher Education through an Outcomes-based and typology-based
QA. Retrieved from
http://www.ched.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/CMO-No.46-s2012.pd
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