Week 1: Introduction

Introduction of myself

Hi, I am Aishath Waheeda. I am from Maldives. Maldives is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a chain of 1900 coral islands.

This is my first semester in UNSW. I received Australia Awards Scholarship to do Master of Education (Higher Education) Program from this university.

I have been teaching Chemistry for secondary school students for six years. I did my bachelors in Education while working as a resource teacher.

As for my personal life, I am married and have two daughters. My husband and my elder daughter (2 years) are in my country while I am here with my 3 months old baby. I am staying in Kensington with my sister.

Reason for enrolling  in this course

As a teacher I felt that there are so many issues in our education system that stems from  teacher training institutions in my country. My main aim of taking this course is to learn more about ways to enhance the higher education system, particularly teacher training institutions in Maldives. I am very much interested in improving the education system of my country and I believe I can help a lot if I can learn more about this field. I want to know more about the contemporary issues and challenges in this field and ways to tackle them through use of theoretical principles and conceptual models. With the knowledge and practice I gain from this course, I will be able to help by applying this knowledge to identify and resolve the problems in the higher education system in my country.

What I hope to gain from this course

Firstly, I look forward to learn about the role of technology in higher education systems. It is one of my goals to enhance the higher education of my country by enhancing the programs with the help of technological advancement so that the educational needs can be open to a wider population, especially for the students who cannot travel (due to financial, work and family concerns) to the capital city where all the higher education institutions are based. I would like to know about the use of  online learning methods in this area.

In addition, I hope to gain the knowledge, skills and practice on ways to enhance the quality of higher education systems. This include ways to maintain and measure the standard of higher education programs and courses. I wish to learn more about curriculum and pedagogical designs, and how infrastructure and management practices affect higher education institutions.

I am also very interested to know about the issues in higher education that I may not be aware. It is my utmost interest to do research on the contemporary challenges faced to higher education systems and how to tackle such challenges.