THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

Australia's leading international university

Pakistani PhD student, Adeel Razi, didn’t know much about Australia, but he did know cricket.

When the University medal winner from Karachi’s NED University of Engineering and Technology began looking around for his next academic challenge
abroad, the lure of a “cricket-playing nation” led him to the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney.

“I wanted to explore other areas and we are a cricketing nation, so I knew Australia from the cricket,” says the 29-year-old, smiling.

As it turned out Adeel was presented with three Australian choices; his University Medal in electrical engineering from NED and his Master degree from Germany won him offers of PhD scholarships in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

He chose UNSW, he says, because it was the best match for his research into multi-antennae systems for wireless communications. His work aims to increase the capacity and speed of wireless communication links, for fast downloads of heavy files like videos and better quality voice over internet connections, for example.

His work has been of such interest in Australia that Adeel has been able to give up his part-time job in as a technical trouble shooter in a call centre because of an additional “top up” scholarship from Australia’s prestigious CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation).

Adeel is enjoying living in Sydney where the growing Pakistani student community is well integrated into Australian life. An informal Pakistani student network mans a website offering new arrivals help with accommodation, issues like accessing halal food, or just meeting people who can answer their questions.

“Culture shock is something you used to worry about, but nowadays -- with the internet and the media -- students know what to expect and can all contact each other.”

Pakistani students, he says, also have little or no trouble finding well paid part-time work in Sydney to supplement living costs, largely because of their good English. They can expect to earn $15 to $25 an hour for the 20 hours a week they are permitted to work while on student visas.

For Adeel, Australia has not conformed to the Western stereotype of intolerance to Islam.

“I know people have fears of anti-Muslim bias in the West, but I haven’t had any experiences like that.

“If you are a practicing Muslim, your religious practice is not affected by living in Australia. We have a place to pray on campus and plenty of halal food outlets around the university,” he says.
 
Muslim students have been studying at UNSW since the first arrivals from Indonesia and Malaysia in the 1950s. Pakistani students have been on campus at UNSW for the past 20 years. Enrolments from Pakistan are growing, especially as more scholarships become available under the Australian Pakistan Scholarships program which is funding 500 university places for Pakistanis over 5 years.

“UNSW has long had appropriate facilities on campus for Muslim students and is popular among local Australian-born Muslim students,” says Simon Watson, from UNSW International.

A couple of decades ago, a handful of Muslim students made do with a quiet corner in the library to pray, under the curious eyes of local students. Today, Friday prayers at UNSW are attended by more than 400 students. With the university mosque overflowing, they’ve also commandeered a terrace over looking the tennis courts which is covered in mats by midday.

There is also an Islamic Society, regular talks and meetings and connections with Islamic groups across Sydney and on other campuses. Sydney’s Muslim community is growing too and the city boasts 25 mosques. Around UNSW, halal restaurants and butchers have sprung up to meet demand.

Adeel expects his PhD to take three and a half years to complete. He’s keen to take his knowledge back to Pakistan, where he hopes to nurture a home-grown Research and Development capability in telecommunications and pursue an academic career. 

“I can’t change everything, but I want to do my bit,” he says. Without a scholarship his middle class family would never have been able to afford this opportunity to study overseas, he says.

 “We have had a big boom in telecommunications in Pakistan, but it is mainly driven by global companies selling their products. I want to bring R and D and manufacturing into Pakistan, which would be much more beneficial to the economy than consumer spending,” he says.

For more information please go to:
www.unsw.edu.au

UNSW on youtube, Muslim life on campus:

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