Each month, Armidale Express Extra will share the experience of an international student.
My name is Sabina Adhikari. I am from the beautiful country Nepal which is famous for Mount Everest and also known as the birthplace of Lord Buddha.
My father is a businessman and my mother a housewife, and I have a brother who is 12 years old commencing 9th standard study.
I am 24 years old and married. I travelled to Australia with my husband in search of a better education and future for us.
It is a very hard decision to leave parents and home town, but in order to achieve something we have to sacrifice something. My parents are far away from me physically, but their blessing and well wishes are with me all the time.
I have got a supporting husband by my side and with his help, I can achieve the world.
I am currently enrolled in an academic English course and a student of nursing. I have successfully completed B.Sc Nursing course from Bangalore, India.
I am an ambitious person and want to achieve the success that I have dreamed of. As a child I used to hear stories about Florence Nightingale and her selfless services which inspired me to be a nurse.
In my country, the health facilities are not as advanced as here in Australia. People of my country are still unaware of basic hygienic matters because of which they suffer from various treatable communicable diseases and die.
Even today, a woman dies giving birth to a baby during delivery because of poor health practices. In many places, there are no proper means of transportation that connects people to health centres.
I want to make a difference in their life by educating them and helping them get basic knowledge regarding health and how to maintain it. I can only do so by gaining education myself first, so I came to Australia to continue my Masters degree course.
There are various universities in my country that conduct Masters degree programs, but I want to be awarded with a Masters degree that is internationally recognisable and acceptable.
While browsing for study options over the internet, there were various options like India, UK, USA, Canada and so on. As I have recently completed my Bachelor degree course from India, I found that some of the education systems are fully based on theory and lack ideas about practical knowledge.
Nursing is a profession in which we know more by seeing and doing ourselves rather than by reading. Australia seemed to be the right destination for my Masters course as it matched my economic portfolio and I found a course of interest here as well.
Australia is the country with the third highest number of international students. As the education costs are quite affordable and because of its cultural diversity, more and more Nepalese students are choosing Australia as their higher study destination.
Suitable climatic condition, affordable living and study costs are the factors that attract international students from various developing countries.
UNE is a top-ranked university in Australia providing education to national as well as international students. The variety of courses offered in the field of health and science and the university location attracted me towards this university.
My desire is to complete a Masters degree course from this university with good grades and I want to return back to my home town and help the organisations that are involved in providing health services to needy people of rural areas.
