(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) The Warsaw University of Technology (WUT) in Poland has issued a response to allegations of poor quality courses, lack of English language teaching, and improper accommodation, from Omani scholarship students currently attending the institution.
Muscat Daily had published in an article on January 7 that the Ministry of Higher Education is looking into the allegations levelled by 30 students.
A senior official, responding to Muscat Daily via e-mail, said, ''First of all, I would like to reply to students' complaints about the medium of instruction and cases of using Polish by the lecturer ¨C we have investigated this case and found out that apart from rare cases of using other language than English (e.g. giving a Polish equivalent of technical terminology to Polish students), all lectures are conducted only in English.
''We understand that even such above mentioned situations may be irritating for the international students, we will see to it that this does not happen again. However, we would also like to point your attention to the fact, that our teachers cannot be viewed as native speakers and cannot be referred to as language teachers. They are world-class experts in their domains, and English is just a medium of passing their knowledge to the students.
''On our behalf we would also like to inform you that Omani students have not reported their complaints to the university directly. At the faculties they are studying, our coordinators organise personal meetings for the new students within the so-called Orientation Weeks, during which they can come and share their remarks or present possible complaints. They had never done so, that is why we assumed there were no problems.''
The official added, ''As far as the level of teaching is concerned, we absolutely realise that the students may present a lower level of scientific subjects, such as maths, physics or chemistry. For such students we offer complimentary classes once a week in maths and physics. Unfortunately, students did not show too much interest in them, although they had been informed about this opportunity.
''Another issue which you have mentioned is the problem with accommodation options. WUT owns 12 dormitories and all of these dormitories are co-educational, which means that both girls and boys can live there, not in the same rooms of course, but on the same floors for instance. The bathrooms and other facilities are also separated for girls and boys. It has always been this way and we have had foreign students for many years and all students accepted this fact. Besides, during the preparatory course year as well as for the first months of this academic year, the Omani female students have stayed in rented apartments, very luxurious and affordable with their high scholarships. The male students have been granted rooms in our best dormitory, they stayed there last year and this year they also decided to move to private flats.
''At the university we are open to discussion and improvements in cooperation with our students and foreign educational institutions. We want to make studying at WUT as fruitful and pleasant for our students as possible and make them graduate with good quality degrees and memories. This is our priority and main goal. We are very well aware of the difficulties our international students face at the beginning of their lives in Poland, starting from culture shock, communication difficulties, studying sciences subjects or even being merely homesick. But we try to make it as easy for them as possible. Omani students have also been here for one year prior to their studies and they should be more or less accustomed to university life, but we are still here to help th
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