Students engage with ambassadors through UniSey talk |23 February 2023

A student asking her question

Students from the University of Seychelles (UniSey), professional centres and various schools on Mahé yesterday had the opportunity to enquire about study, scholarship and exchange programme opportunities available to Seychellois students in various countries, and topics related to their study programmes.

This was through the first Ambassador’s talk organised by the university, which saw the participation of seven ambassadors, charge d’affaires and high commissioners currently serving and representing their respective countries in Seychelles.

During the session they provided information about the different ways in which Seychelles benefits from diplomatic relations, as well as the diplomats themselves.

Aside from the responsibility and role of diplomats, the aim was for students to have the chance to interact with them on matters related to their respective study fields, and the opportunities which currently exist through the bilateral relations between Seychelles and such countries.

Among those participating in yesterday’s talk were: Ambassador of the Sovereign Order of Malta Alessandra Azais, Ambassador of the Russian Federation Artem Kozhin, High Commissioner of Sri Lanka Srimal Wickremasinghe, Ambassador of Cuba Martha Hernández Caneiro, High Commissioner of India Karthik Pande, and Charge d’Affaires for Libya Adam Tarbah and Charge d’Affaires for China Mu Jianfeng.

Director of marketing and communications at the UniSey, Dolivette Chang-Ko, explained that the university intends to add the talk to its calendar of activities, to be held annually from this year.

“We were targeting different areas, and the schools decided on the questions they wanted to ask, but it was diverse, and not just based on scholarships. There was a bit about internship, exposure, engagement, outreach programmes. We also heard questions about sustainability and Information Communication Technologies (ICT),” she noted.

“We are really satisfied with the first edition. Turnout was really good and we would like to thank the Ministry of Education to get the students engaged. I think it is a means to help the students to develop in their learning, so they can go back to their respective schools and share such information with their colleagues to prompt them to think about what they want to do eventually, their career paths and the opportunities at their disposition,” Ms Chang-Ko noted.

Advanced Fisheries Certificate students of the Seychelles Maritime Academy (SMA) Rico Labrosse was particularly interested in the opportunities for furthering his studies in the aquaculture and blue economy sectors.

“I am particularly interested in the grants and scholarships available, especially those which are fully-funded,” he said.

Similarly, Marius Edmond, who is currently in his second year of the Advanced Diploma Tourism and Tour guiding, found the talk to be interesting and interactive.

“I think these events should be held more regularly, since a lot of students seem to have some confusion over the opportunities available to them,” he said.

“However, today, there was no talk about tourism, one of the biggest sectors in Seychelles, and I think the topics which are important to Seychelles must also be addressed in future editions,” he added.

Text & photos by Laura Pillay