Category Archives: College

The Compass Project: a quick activity roundup

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Isabelle Habib, Access Manager for Birkbeck’s Compass Project, reflects on a busy and fruitful year for the students involved.  

The Compass Project is a flagship Birkbeck programme which supports sanctuary seekers into higher education. Each year, the Compass Project Sanctuary Scholarship  sponsors students from refugee and forced migrant backgrounds to do a degree programme at Birkbeck. As we come to the end of another successful year for the programme and its scholars, it’s a pleasure to look back and reflect on the various activities the students were involved in.  

Social trips  

Everyone deserves a break from their studies occasionally, so in the autumn and spring, Compass students attended a number of specially arranged social activities that ranged from visits to the British Museum to a trip to London’s famous Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes, just around the corner from Birkbeck. Here, some of the students had their first ever experience of bowling!  

 

End of year celebration on the Birkbeck terrace  

To celebrate the students’ achievements this year, Compass scholars and their mentors gathered in June for an end of year celebration. Meeting at the Terrace 5 restaurant, based at the top of Birkbeck’s Malet Street building, the group enjoyed food and drinks and were all congratulated with a certificate for their hard work this year. It was really inspiring to see all the students together in one place with their academic mentors, and to hear about their rich experiences at Birkbeck over the year.  

STAR activism and education 

Birkbeck’s Student Action for Refugees (STAR) group, which is made up of students on the Compass Project who volunteer their time to campaign for refugee rights to education, rounded off the year with a day of positive action during Refugee Week. Then, together with other STAR groups around the country, Birkbeck’s students met on 25 June in Torrington Square to raise awareness. Even in the face of rail disruptions, the event had a great turn out from engaged STAR activists. Students and volunteers gathered for a delicious picnic and shared their experiences of university.  

The group then created a banner featuring slogans such as ‘refugees are welcome’, which they walked from Bloomsbury down to the Home Office in Westminster. Along the way, they discussed and learnt more about the significance of London’s central buildings, their connection and relationship to colonialism, and the lasting impacts that this history has had on the attitude towards refugees and migrants in the UK today.  

As the Access Manager for the Compass Project at Birkbeck, which works so closely with refugees and migrants, it was a delight to see Birkbeck host this STAR event, and we look forward to seeing more from the student group this coming academic year. If any other student’s wish to get involved, contact the group through the SU website.  

Well done! 

Finally, the whole Compass Project team want to say well done to all the students on the compass scholarship, who have come to the end of their scholarship with us, and we wish them the best of luck in their future endeavours.  

More information:  

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Birkbeck School of Science Celebrated World Refugee Week 2022

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A recount of an important and community focused event held for World Refugee Week.  

A group of people in a conference room chatting animatedly

World Refugee Week honours the strength and courage of refugees and is held to cultivate compassion for others. This week, Birkbeck School of Science hosted an interactive event exploring the theme of ‘Healing,’ to celebrate global community, mutual care, resilience, and the human ability to rise above. 

The event enjoyed a full-house audience and started with a couple of short presentations to highlight some of the work going on to support refugees and forced migrants at Birkbeck. 

Stories and Supper is a refugee and migrant supper club project based in Walthamstow, East London which seeks to challenge the myths surrounding the migration ‘crisis’ and provide a welcome space for refugees living in London. Helen Taylor and Olivia Sheringham shared the journey of their project in an engaging presentation. 

Isabelle Habib then presented an outstanding success of Birkbeck’s very own Compass Project, while some students from the School of Science shared their learning journey and experiences. Staff from the School of Science attended the event and interacted with the students too. After the presentations, the community spirit continued over refreshments, where good food and stories were shared. 

Co-organisers of the event, Katherine Thompson and Sanjib Bhakta commented:  

“It was great to hear the success ‘Stories and Supper’ and ‘Compass’ projects and appreciate the enormous contribution that they are making to our diverse international community. We really hope the event leads to more support for refugees and hopefully new links at Birkbeck for such collaborative initiatives.”  

Hosts:
Katherine Thompson (AD Equalities, Diversities, and Inclusion) 
Sanjib Bhakta (AD Internationalisation and Partnerships)
School of Science 

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“I had great exposure to leading scholars”

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Cobus Van Rooyen has completed three courses at Birkbeck and has credited the College community with exposing him to a “vast amount of knowledge and experience”; and helping him to achieve chartered status. Today, he graduated with a PhD in Geography. This is his story.  

pic of Cobus Van Rooyen

Cobus Van Rooyen

I moved to the UK from Cape Town, South Africa in 2000 and considered undertaking further studies at a UK university. 

Given the fact that it’s very expensive to study full-time without an income, I was really happy to learn that Birkbeck offered part-time courses.  This allowed me to be employed while undertaking my studies.

The best part about studying was the fact that my peers were also in full-time employment and had a vast amount of knowledge and experience in our field of study to share.   

During my PhD research I also had great exposure to leading scholars and found much inspiration from their work.  The part-time PhD was immensely difficult but I am very grateful for my supervisor’s (Dr Joana Barros) support throughout this journey.  I definitely couldn’t have done it without her.  

Although the PhD process was less demanding than the MSc in terms of structure and short timeframes, it had its own challenges.   

Firstly, undertaking research in isolation is quite challenging and much self-motivation is required.  As a PhD researcher I also had to be very disciplined in how I planned my time to ensure I kept to the deadlines and targets I set for myself.     

I was offered a studentship for the first five years of my research. 

Beyond that, my research was also made quite affordable through the payment plan Birkbeck offers, whereby fees can be paid in instalments.  

While studying part-time, I was in full-time employment as a GIS consultant in multi-disciplinary engineering. 

Eventually, my studies helped me achieve chartership and I currently function as Fellow and Chartered Geographer (GIS) (obtained from the Royal Geographical Society) and Chartered Scientist (obtained from the UK Science Council). 

What was most memorable from my time at Birkbeck was the opportunities it presented me with.

I had the opportunity to present my research at the Association of American Geographers (AAG) conference in Las Vegas and also to visit MIT for advice on the urban simulation model I was developing.  I was also asked to co-author a textbook chapter with a professor from another university. 

I would like to encourage every person, thinking of studying at Birkbeck, to most certainly do so.

I am very relieved that I was able to complete my research successfully but I will really miss Birkbeck immensely.  Birkbeck contributed greatly to both my personal and career growth and I will always be grateful for the opportunity I had to further my studies there. 

Further information: 

Study Geography at Birkbeck
Read more about Birkbeck’s international student community
Find out more about studying for a PhD at Birkbeck
Research at Birkbeck 

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Overcoming an initial language barrier 

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Originally from Italy, Martina Innocenti chose to study an MSc in Childhood, Youth and International Development at Birkbeck because of the in-depth course content and the flexibility evening study afforded. From being incredibly worried that her language skills might hold her back academically, to winning multiple prizes for her dissertation, this is Martina’s story.  

pic of Martina Innocenti

Martina Innocenti

I kept saying to my tutor, ‘I’m not good enough to do a Master’s 

I moved to the UK one year before starting my Master’s. At the time, I couldn’t speak English well.  was taking language classes and working with early years children as Montessori early years educator. When I got accepted into Birkbeck, I was happy but I was also very worried about the language barrier, like I wasn’t good enough to do well in my studies because of it. I kept saying to my tutor, ‘I’m not good enough to do a Master’s – maybe mentally I’m ready to do it, but practically, I have this limitation.’ She encouraged me every step of the way, eventually suggesting that I convert to studying part-time rather than full-time, which made such a difference.  

Being a part-time student was amazing 

Being a part time student was amazing! It allowed me to continue working and gave me the vital time and space I needed to gain confidence in my English. I had time to really explore and deeply understand the specialist subjects I was learning about. It meant that I could actually enjoy the process of studying. 

My language proficiency did not represent my intellectual capability 

Now, when I consider that I was conducting evening interviews with youth in Peru, reviewing 50-page transcripts in Spanish then translating them to English and analysing data, all whilst working, it makes me feel quite proud. I was able to speak, work and think critically across two languages, neither of which were my native tongue, to gain very insightful data about something I’m passionate about. When I found out I won the Children, Youth and International Development prize for my dissertation, I couldn’t believe it! Then when I also won the Birkbeck Gender and Sexuality prize, I saw it as proof that my language proficiency did not represent my intellectual capability. 

I felt like a proper researcher! 

I’m so thankful that I had the opportunity to do my master’s over two years, and Birkbeck’s approach to structuring my course options was brilliant. I had room to grow at the pace I needed to become fully knowledgeable about my area of study and approach my dissertation with the attention, intensity and critical thinking it deserved. I felt like a proper researcher! Having a part-time structure to do all my literature reviews, data collection and analysis, and write the dissertation was empowering; I felt like I was able to give my best. 

It was all just a matter of confidence 

I realised through my Birkbeck journey that I’m a competent and multi-skilled professional, it was all just a matter of confidence. It took a while, and multiple strategies, to build this confidence. For instance, I made an effort to see my classmates in non-academic settings, so I could get more comfortable with listening to and speaking English. I also reached out for help whenever I could, asking my friends, housemates and tutors to review my writing style and feedback wherever possible. And I shared my thoughts and frustrations with my dissertation supervisor, who was a source of great inspiration and support. In the end, my determination combined with the support I got, meant that my dissertation was a uniquely valuable intersectional contribution to literature and research about Latin American working children.  

Further Information:

Find out more about studying MSc Children, Youth and International Development 

Find out more about being an International Student at Birkbeck  

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