“I’m Sumiah, I’m Egyptian-American studying BA Middle Eastern Studies.
I had no idea what I wanted to study at university, but I ended up at a talk at the Institute of Islamic Studies at the Exeter open day. I had a chat with some student ambassadors who studied at the Institute about their programmes and it sounded perfect. For someone like me, who is quite indecisive and has lots of different interests, I really liked how the degree programmes were multi-disciplinary – I could study literature, I could attend a politics class, I could take an archaeology class, and that was really exciting.
When I visited, I really liked the vibe. There was this really strong, warm community feeling that I didn’t feel when visiting other universities, and academically it looked the best. I always thought I would go to a city university rather than a campus based one, but actually it’s been great having our own dedicated space and community. I really fell in love with all that.
I was nervous about the move to university, the day-to-day routine, how basic things would work, I wasn’t sure what to expect at all. But then moving into university accommodation with all the other first years, I realised, no-one knows what’s going on, and you all learn together.
The university did a really good job at placing me with people I would get on with in halls, I still live with the people I lived with in first year, and we’re all planning on doing a masters together at Exeter next year. I’ve made some of my best friends here.
I really love my degree and the department. Relative to other departments at the University, we’re quite small, but we like that as it adds to the community feel, and we have a purpose built institute which is quite rare for Middle Eastern Studies’ departments. At the Institute we have coffee mornings every week with all the lecturers and everyone is invited so you can get to know people better.
In my first week at University, I wanted to talk to someone about an essay question, but instead of approaching my seminar leader or the relevant academic, I accidently skipped them and showed up at the door of the module convenor. Even though she was the wrong person and my question wasn’t really related to her specialism, she was so lovely and supportive and gave me really helpful information. I remember that conversation so clearly because we were talking about women and Islamic feminism and topics that I had been really excited to study, and that was the moment where I was like “wow, I’m a university student, this is real.”
I think it’s a very safe, open atmosphere, so you can really be yourself. Everyone says university is so big, none of your lecturers will know your name, or how best you learn, but that’s really not the case in the Institute.
Even though I was In England before university, I’ve still had to engage with international support. They’re really helpful with visas and paperwork and even if you think you think you’ll adjust fine, they are really useful. International student support comes from so many different places, as well as the official university support team there’s a lot of societies, like ones for different nationalities and cultures, and the committees are all really aware of people feeling alone or isolated so offer a great support system. There’s always someone to reach out to.”
