Feature

Top US State Department Official Visits Dhaka

KATHLEEN KISTING ALAM, the Regional Educational Advising Coordinator for South Central Asia of the US Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs have recently made a short visit to Bangladesh. In a tête-à-tête interview with Mahdin Mahboob from Star Campus, she has talked about different issues relating to students going to US for their higher studies ranging from choosing the institution that would best suit you to the much talked about visa issues. The following are excerpts from that interview:

Star Campus (SC): What is the duration of your trip in Bangladesh and what are the key objectives that you plan to fulfil?

Kathleen Kisting Alam (KKA): It is exactly one working week and the office here has made a packed schedule for me during this time. This includes meeting principals and faculty members of the top schools, colleges and universities in Bangladesh, conducting seminars specially designed for students applying for undergraduate and graduate levels in US, assessing and helping the student counselling activities of the American Centre here and other related things.

My primary objective is to work with the educational advisors. I am here to listen, to look, to watch what challenges they are facing and how we can help them in some way -- with more necessary equipments, more books, more training and anything like that.

SC: What are the secondary and other objectives of the trip?

KKA: The secondary objective of course is to meet the educationists in the country to get a clear idea of the challenges students themselves face -- with the application process, and it is a complicated application process to the American higher education system. If we have a clear idea about the challenges students are facing, we can understand the resources we need to provide for the Student Advising Center.

SC: What other programs have you been conducting in South and Central Asia?

KKA: Central Asia is fairly new to me so there we are trying to understand the challenges students are facing in terms of the regional perspectives. But I have been working with South Asia since 1995 and here, the challenges students are facing are more country specific.

Right now, we are facing huge problems with private recruiters and private agents for admission into different institutions, and they aren't always ethical and are taking advantages of the challenges the students are facing. But in some other places we are trying to work with them to yield better results.

SC: Although Visas are not part of your responsibilities, I cannot help asking you one question. Students in Bangladesh tend to believe that after 9/11, students' visa applications are turned down by the American Embassy only because they are Muslims. Is this fact or fiction? Myth or reality?

KKA: It's completely a myth. Strangely enough, this myth is only popular in Bangladesh and Pakistan, not even in the gulf (which has a vast Muslim majority in almost all the countries)! I don't hear this story in the Middle East or even Afghanistan for that matter.

In the recent years, I have observed that a higher number of Bangladeshi students are now applying for higher studies in US and the good news is, the number of student visas being issued has also increased sharply over the last couple of years.

SC: How dependable are the ranking websites?

KKA: They are not quite dependable and students must do a good amount of research before choosing their institution. This is very different for grad and undergrad studies. For Grad school, you have to have a clear idea of what you are going to specialize and hence choose your institution accordingly. In Undergrad level, it is a transition from High School Education to the university level, a much more matured level.

SC: How does the American Centre exactly help the students planning to go the US for higher studies?

At this point of the interview, we also spoke with Arefin Jahan(AJ), the Student Advisor at the American Center, Dhaka.

AJ: We provide accurate and unbiased info about different institutions and the admission process for students planning to go to US for higher studies. We offer one-to-one advising -- which includes information on financial aid, on universities and the application process in general. Here, members can sit for free mock tests of the GRE, GMAT, SAT and TOEFL exams. The library and computers are also open to members and we have daily, monthly and annual membership opportunities.

We regularly hold seminars on the various aspects of higher study in US in our Dhaka office and also in different educational institutions in and outside Dhaka.