Radio România Internațional

Tag: foreign student

  • Hadi Faour of Israel

    Hadi Faour of Israel

    Instead of a university from Tel Aviv or Haifa, Hadi Faour he chose the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacology in Oradea, in north-western Romania. Hadi is enchanted with Romania, a country, which, he says, is very well known in Israel.



    Hadi Faour: “Many people from my country actually come to Romania to study medicine; a family friend suggested to me that I go to Romania and see how it is. I came to Romania, I tried in many universities and I got accepted into a few and after a while I picked to study in Oradea. It was a little hard of course coming to a new country but I met many people like me coming from different countries and studying medicine so that made it easier. And Romanians were welcoming and that helped me a lot, actually.”



    One of the reasons frequently cited by young people from abroad who come to study in Romania are the fees, which can be much lower than in the West. Also, Romania has a good tradition when it comes to medicine.



    Hadi Faour tells us about the differences between the education system in Romania and that in Israel: “At first, when I thought about studying medicine I also thought about studying in my country but in my country we had an age limit which was 21 and when I started I was 20. Also, we have fewer places in the country for studying medicine.”



    Since he arrived in Romania six years ago, Hadi Faour has had a lot of contact with Romanians and is impressed with the people he has met here. Hadi Faour: “They are very welcoming and the country is beautiful. There are many places to see. I visited many places as well: Brasov, Bucharest, Cluj, Timisoara, Arad, Maramures. Every time I visit a city I see something new, something different than in other cities. If I had the chance to visit a place one more time I would definitely visit the Carpathian Mountains and Maramures. It was a great experience for me studying here and getting to know people and getting involved actually in activities in society. We have organised a foreign students organisation here in Oradea, we have organised a cultural festival which was attended by over 1,000 locals from Oradea.”



    Hadi Faour has some advice for all those who are considering choosing Romania for their studies: “I suggest people to come to study in Romania because it’s known for teaching medicine. It’s a great country with very kind people.”

  • Houda Bechar

    Houda Bechar


    Houda Bechar comes from Casablanca, Morocco. She is 21 and she came to Timisoara in 2010, when she was 17 and she had just taken her baccalaureate exam. She decided to go to med school and she is now finishing her fourth year of study at the “Victor Babes University in Timisoara. She would have liked to study in Morocco, but came to Romania, to join her brother who had already been living here for two years.



    Houda Bechar: “My first year was amazing, because … well, I didnt travel a lot. Everything was new, so I didnt even feel the time. It was just as if I had closed my eyes and when I opened them I was at the end of the year. Because for me, everything was so new, the city centre, Bega, the University, the parks, everything was so nice here.



    We asked Houda what she liked best in Romania so far: “Maybe Christmas, yes. In my country, we dont celebrate Christmas. We have vacation days, Christmas vacation, but we dont celebrate Christmas. So it was kind of cool when we had the tree downtown and also the fireworks for the New Year. Its also good that its a religious thing, because it brings people back to religion. So its good that they have this.



    She found it easy to integrate in Romania, particularly in the academic community. Generally speaking, the Romanian society does not seem to her very different from the Moroccan one, because there are many similarities in terms of behavior: “In the first year that you get to the University, there are so many people, coming from so many other countries, and Romanian people in general are nice people. I cannot think now of one Romanian that was bad or mean to me. I mean, you meet people who do want to socialize with you, who dont want to go out with you. But its ok, because after a while you have a group, and you belong to a certain group or you belong with certain people who are very cool, and who have different religions, different backgrounds, a different social or economic statute. Its not so hard to integrate in the society here, neither with the international students nor with the Romanian people.



    What does Houda think about the Romanian education system?



    Houda Bechar: “So you have the professors, who are good. They are not just some people who come there and just want to teach. They are good professors. You have the lecture and then after they will give you links, or even some of them who have the books they will even give you the books. If theyre in electronic format, or if theyre not already provided in the library. But most of the time its already there in the library. For the newer books, our professors give us the electronic format or give us links so that we can find what we need. I know that in Morocco they do exactly the same, but not for the English system, for example, but in the French system. Then, when you have the labs, you also have your assistant whos there teaching you.



    As for the relationship between teachers and students, Houda sees it as quite fair: “A professor is a doctor or a surgeon, for example, he has other things to do as well. But when hes in the class he explains things and every time at the end of the class he always asks whether we have any questions for him, so that he could explain. From a professional point of view, if you just ask a professor, you get the answer. Maybe some professors dont like a specific student, but this is personal, its not professional. I havent seen professors showing it. I havent felt it, really, like a professor whos putting pressure on a student because hes coming from here or his skin colour is this…



    During her first year in Romania Houda did not travel much, but later she started to explore the country, and she liked it a lot. She has visited Bucharest, among other places: “Baile Herculane is a really nice place. And Cluj Napoca, which is very beautiful. Bucharest, but I didnt like it. Bucharest reminded me of my city, the city where I was born and raised. Its a big city, there are too many people. In Timisoara its more calm, you have the Square and you have places where you can just go and sit and see people. In Bucharest everyone is just so pressed, especially in the central part, where I was most of the time, because I had things to do there. Everybody is just running, theres too much traffic, too much noise… But it is a beautiful city, if you go there during New Year, for example, as I did, there were fireworks, it was amazing. And we were watching them from a balcony, with some friends… That was really beautiful. But to go there and to live there – no. Id rather stay in Timisoara, or go to a small, calm city somewhere else.



    Houda Bechar likes extreme sports, she used to practice aikido, and her favourite spot in Timisoara is the Childrens Park on the banks of River Bega.

  • Chinyere Onwubiko, a student with the “Victor Babes” University

    Chinyere Onwubiko, a student with the “Victor Babes” University

    Chinyere Onwubiko is 26 years old and she was born in a city in southeastern Nigeria. She is now in the 3rd year at the “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Timisoara (in the west).



    She will next tell us why she decided to study abroad: “I could have studied at home. I have always dreamt of being a doctor. After graduating from high school I wanted to leave the country, because I had grown tired of it. I like adventure and Romania was not my first choice. But I was curios to see what living in Romania was like and then I decided to stay for good”.



    But how did she come to study in Timisoara: “It’s an equally interesting and amusing story. When I wanted to choose a faculty from Romania, I went through an entire list of names. I associated the name “Victor Babes” with the English word “babes”. And I like babies, I love them and I would like to specialize in pediatrics. I was happy to find a school having the name “babes” in its title and I decided to go here. When I arrived in Romania I spent several weeks in Bucharest and people wondered why I preferred a faculty in Timisoara instead of one in the capital city. I answered that I wanted to study in Timisoara because there I was going to work with children. But once in Timisoara I discovered there were no children at the Victor Babes faculty. (She laughs). That’s how I chose to study in Timisoara. And I like it. It is a small and nice city, unlike Bucharest, which is big and crowded, something I actually don’t like. I don’t like to spend much time in crowded cities in my own country either. I like Timisoara. It feels like home”.



    After only 3 years in Romania, Chinyere speaks Romanian very well, although she admits she found it hard to learn the pronunciation of words, the vocabulary and grammar. As to the medical terminology, she prefers using the Latin and Greek terms.



    Chinyere Onwubiko: “Learning the language was the most difficult thing for me. When I arrived in Romania I didn’t know a word in Romanian but I had a very good, nice and efficient teacher. And she made all students in my group work hard. But it was not easy at all, and it’s still not easy”.



    Chinyere says she feels at home in Banat, where people are kind, friendly and openhearted. Asked what she enjoys the most in Timisoara she gave a surprising answer: “It may sound strange but I like the weather. I like cold weather. I was the happiest person in the world when I saw snow for the first time. I think it’s wonderful! I went out and took some pictures and then sent them home. I read about snow in books, I saw it on TV, in newspapers…but never in reality, until I came to Romania. Seeing snow for the first time was an unforgettable experience. I was in Straja where I took skiing lessons. I used to fall all the time at first, but I guess this is the most beautiful thing I have done since I came to Romania. I didn’t know there are such wonderful places in Romania. I had the chance to go on top of the city and get a bird’s eye view from there. Of course, I took many pictures and sent them home.”



    Chinyere left behind in Nigeria her parents and 6 siblings, and she thinks she is the family’s only adventurer. But she enjoys her parents’ support and encouragement and she says she couldn’t do without them.



    After finishing general medicine studies, Chinyere Onwubiko intends to return home in Nigeria: “It’s in Nigeria that I want to live and work. In Romania, in Timisoara, for instance, you have all you need. You have all kinds of physicians with various specializations. That is not the case in my country. That’s why I want to return home. My heart is still in Nigeria. I cannot tell why. I want to go back there and help people”.