Foreign students of veterinary after completing the studies

Robert Karczmarczyk, Vice-Dean for International Relations of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine shows his satisfaction. All the students of the English division who completed their studies already have jobs.

– Eleven people started studies in Wrocław. Seven of them finished and have jobs. This is a real cause of satisfaction – says Doctor Kaczmarczy and adds: - one of the people found employment on a fish farm, another opened her own private veterinary practice, two will work with horses and the rest in clinics with small animals.

Veterinary medicine for foreign students – enrollment for paid studies has been conducted by the University of Environmental and Life Sciences in Wrocław since 2010 but just this year the whole group obtained a certificate of completion . Is is also a good time for summary and analysis, which is a success, what students coming to Wrocław could have learnt from Polish academic teachers, and what we could have learnt from them.

– the basic difficulty is verification of how they are prepared for the studies. We certainly check their final exam grades, but we also have students even from Nepal and such a verification is not automatic and simple. Placement interviews are also very important for us as they allow us to assess the candidates’ motivations, explains Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.

What are the students coming to study veterinary from abroad like? They are engaged and determined. As Doctor Karczmarczyk admits, they treat the agreement signed with the university very seriously. - It may sound like a joke but the difference may be seen in their attitude to classes. If any classes are canceled, because for example there is a conference, most students from Poland are happy about it, and those from the English division come and ask if there is going to be a new date for the classes – says vice-Dean for International Relations, who meets the foreign students at least twice a semester. He usually asks them what they like about the studies and what problems they have.

– And they say that the problem is still the same with people who can’t speak English in offices and they like the campus and the city. Here they have access to everything while in many academic centers the student life is moved to the suburbs of the metropolis. These are not empty words when the foreign students praise Wrocław for extraordinary monuments, fantastic cultural life and great places for rest – says Doctor Karczmarczyk adding that the role of tutor is to make sure that a boy or a girl who goes sometimes several thousand kilometers from their family homes for studies will not feel lost in the new reality and will be able to deal with maturity, which they need to achieve.

Ambition, a serious attitude to studying, and engagement is just one side of the coin. The other is the differences – seen for example in the case of mastering material. One of the weaknesses of such students, who are generally well prepared for these difficult studies, is … biophysics, which Polish students do not generally have problems with.

– at the beginning we did not know why our foreign students have problems with biophysics, but when we started checking and asking it turned out that they had physics for the last time when they were 14-16. Simply in those countries the packet required for taking up veterinary studies includes extended biology and chemistry – explains Doctor Karczmarczyk, adding that the differences are clearly visible in the first two years of studies when students have classes of histology, cell biology, chemistry or biochemistry. – however the differences are quite funny. The university has a regulation in the statute that its role is also up-bringing, so we bring them up. We explain that during classes they should not eat sandwiches or that during exams, due to respect for the examiner and themselves, they should not come in T-shirts, jeans and trainers. We help them when they want to rent a flat – because the agreement is usually in Polish and not in English.

The Vice-Dean also acknowledges that the Dean of the Veterinary Medicine has made an incredible contribution in helping foreign students – here every student may count on understanding and a good word, but also real help if it is needed.

– It pays off because these students are our best ambassadors. The name “Wrocław” is not self-explanatory in the world, but “The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine” is. And our graduates going back to their countries and immediately finding jobs are a live advertisement of how we teach and prepare them for independent and very reliable work – says Doctor Robert Karczmarczyk.

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