UniSey ready to welcome international students |29 January 2015

The University of Seychelles (UniSey) is set and ready to welcome its first batch of international students, marking yet another milestone in the institution’s short history.

An official launch for potential international students was held yesterday at the university’s Anse Royale campus.
This year, UniSey hopes to recruit its first batch of 50 students.

“Today, we launch a key element in our plans to attract international students to Seychelles, namely, our ability to provide good residential accommodation,” said UniSey’s vice-chancellor Denis Hardy.

Talking about why it is important for UniSey to attract international students, Professor Hardy said firstly they will bring different cultural experiences to the classes, which all students will value.

Secondly, with an increasing number of students on the university’s programmes, the institution will be able to offer more choices.

Thirdly international students paying their own fees will help to spread the costs of the university that are currently borne entirely by the Seychelles government.

Last but not least, additional students on campus and living locally will bring more revenue to shopkeepers and landlords alike.

Housing will be one main criteria in recruiting international students. In order to properly handle this aspect, the Registrar, Michel Denousse, had to take on the job of director of marketing. He introduced a new university brand and reviewed all marketing materials, including the website.
UniSey is also making good use of the social media to contact the international market.

“After proper analysis, this is the right time to venture into the international market. In our strategic plan, we had plans to open our university to the world. Right now, we have students from Europe, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and South Africa who are very interested in our environment courses. We wanted to establish ourselves properly and having the lecturers required in order to start recruiting international students. For this to be possible, we worked in close collaboration with the Seychelles Investment Board,” Mr Denousse explained.

Dr Justin Valentin, Dean of the Faculty of Law and Business, stressed on the fact that “to reassure the international recruits, an officer has been delegated to attend to their needs from the time they arrive on the campus till they leave. Our aim is to align UniSey to all universities across the world”.

The president of the student council, Bertrand Lucas, noted with excitement that “this initiative by UniSey will create a more diverse and vibrant university culture and experience that will help all of us through interaction with students from different social and cultural backgrounds”.

“Opening our university to international students is a strategic approach which will enable us to grow as individuals and as a prestigious academic institution in the Indian Ocean.  As a proud local student I look forward to sharing my experiences and creole culture with my future foreign classmates,” Lucas added.

The international students’ information booklet was made available on that day. The estimated living costs for an undergraduate student for 40 weeks is approximately US $9,033 and a one-year course costs between R91,000 and R150,000.