Today, no one can deny the fact that UPM is becoming one of the greatest international hubs of higher education for many international students. Of course, UPM offers international students with diverse higher education programs with excellent quality. The modern infrastructure in UPM in terms of its accommodation, facilities and communication systems, all enable us to experience a lifestyle that is comfortable, affordable, and conducive to excellent learning.

Let me clarify my views from my own experience. From my experience as an international postgraduate in UPM, I can say that pursuing my PhD in UPM has given me a great change and a turning point in my life on several levels, academically, culturally and professionally.

On the academic level, I have had the chance not only to gain valuable knowledge because of the quality of education I am receiving in UPM, the training workshops and the courses. All these have played a role in enhancing my academic skills and abilities towards research orientation. They have also made my research path clearer and my academic goal achievable.

On the cultural level, the study atmosphere and environment of UPM are amazing and enjoyable. It is an encouraging environment where I have met peers and colleagues from different parts of the world who turned out to be my friends now. So such friendships and cross-cultural contacts have exposed me to diverse cultures. The exposure to such different cultures has helped me to expand not only my relationships but also to have some perspective and understanding of their cultures and spread the culture of peace and tolerance.

When it comes to the contribution of UPM to my professional and practical aspect of life, I was one of the lucky students who was elected for the President of UPM International student’s association (UPMISA) for the year 2018/2019. This particular experience will be always remembered with great gratefulness and gratitude to everyone I worked with. I should also thank all those who have made my experience a successful one and motivated me to enhance my analytical, communication and leadership skills. I still remember vividly walking into the election hall with all the strange faces whom I now consider as my family. It has been a great year indeed; one that is full of many ups and downs but at the end of this journey, I can proudly say that it was all worth it. UPMISA went through tremendous successes and some setbacks as can be observed by any association but I am proud to say that our successes drowned the failures. It has been my great pleasure and privilege to lead this association and to serve you all. I have met people from different cultures, religions and backgrounds; people who have taught me that our differences don’t matter and that all of our work with the same goal and that is to bring our antique university to soaring heights.

Gaining valuable knowledge and learning about the diverse cultures of the world helped me a lot in enriching myself with skills and experience. It is good to graduate from UPM with the right mix of academic excellence and employment-related skills that will flourish in our chosen careers in the future. There are no words, that can express how sincerely grateful I am for the privilege of working with you all. I strongly believe that this is the turning point in our life, and we will be the turning points for our nations as leaders.

So, I can’t ask for a better study environment than this.

Finally, I would like to conclude with M Angelou’s words: "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”.

I hope I was up to the level of your expectations and was able to make you all feel good.

With Love, & Warmest Regards to everyone in our beloved university.

Musheer Abdulwahid Al-Jaberi, 
PhD Yemeni student at Faculty of Medicine and Health Science

Date of Input: 07/08/2019 | Updated: 14/10/2019 | azimin