By Helen Costello
Mexico Pre-sessional Manager
DCAD is currently delivering an eight-week pre-sessional programme in Mexico. A team of two co-ordinators, Dr Simon Ness and Emma Must, and six teachers have flown out to work at the two prestigious Mexican universities of Chihuahua (Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua) and Mexico City (Instituto Politecnico Nacional). Our programme should prepare approximately 80 students for postgraduate study at either Durham, Leeds or Queen Mary University, London.
The Mexican pre-sessional is the result of a collaboration between the International Offices at the three UK universities, the Mexican Science and Technology Council (Conacyt) and the Mexican National Bank, Citibanemex. Conacyt and Citibanemex sponsor science, technology and engineering students with strong academic profiles to undertake postgraduate studies linked to renewables. Grants are awarded so that these students return to Mexico and contribute to the future growth and expertise in renewable energy sources.
As can be imagined, there are challenges to running a programme at distance, we deal with multiple time zones, including a one-hour difference between the two Mexican sites, linguistical and cultural differences. Set up of the programme in unfamiliar contexts with few or no contacts often means taking risks, albeit calculated ones. One of the key changes we made this year was to send out a co-ordinator to each site a week in advance. They were able to organise the printing of our materials, 800-page spiral-bound manuals, two for each student. Large-scale printing can be difficult to achieve from the UK and so far, this has been key in reducing the stress levels of those involved!
The students on the programme come from backgrounds with low socio-economic status and we run our programme so that those who haven’t met the English language requirement of the sponsors can benefit from the same pre-sessional programme run in Durham by Louise Greener and her team. Running the programme in Mexico reduces the overall cost considerably so that students who wouldn’t otherwise be able can come to the UK to study. The programme is in its third year and the feedback from the departments has been incredibly upbeat about the contribution that the students make to the departments. We also find that these students exceed our expectations in terms of work ethic, attitude and ability; feedback from the teachers is overwhelmingly positive both about the students and the overall experience in Mexico.
DCAD Mexico Pre-sessional 2019