More foreigners to study in Cebu: consul

AFFORDABLE tuition, competent mentors and institutions that follow high standards are among the reasons foreign students choose to enroll in Cebu schools.

Foreign students from the University of San Carlos – Talamban Campus (USC-TC) said they find Cebuanos, especially their teachers and classmates, friendly.

But they said they will have to be more vigilant now following the mauling by police of Bennidict Penini, a student from Papua New Guinea, last Monday.

Lawyer Augusto Go, University of Cebu (UC) president, said he is negotiating with the Nigerian Government to send students to Cebu to take up naval architecture and marine engineering courses in Cebu.

“They are bullish on coming to Cebu because it is more affordable here,” he told Sun.Star Cebu in a phone interview.

Go said he met three weeks ago the father of the student from Papua New Guinea who was involved in a scuffle with policemen.

He said they discussed the situation in their country and that more students will enroll in Cebu.

“(The incident involving Penini) is a very isolated incident. It is the first time I heard about (something like that),” said Go. He said behaving properly is expected of all students, whether foreigner or Filipino.

He said UC has foreign students, ten of whom are Bangladeshi and some are Koreans.

In the USC-TC College of Architecture and Fine Arts (Cafa), Kenyans Elias Ductas Owiti Njiri and Clyde Wende, and Korean Jin Su Ha have no complaints about living and studying in Cebu.

They said they have friendly classmates and professors.

“My stay is very safe. I feel at home in school,” Njiri told Sun.Star Cebu.

But he said he also had to deal with some neighbors who would offer him drinks.

Although he does not drink alcohol, he sometimes obliges to avoid misunderstandings.

The 22-year-old and the youngest of six siblings plays football for the school’s team.

Another architecture student, 22-year-old Jin Su Ha, has been staying in Cebu for eight years. He studied in Bethany Christian School before enrolling at the USC-TC.

The fifth year student says he is comfortable with his Cebuano friends and professors in a university that has a “friendly and very open environment.”

The three students raised their concern about security after learning about the alleged mauling incident.

“I think it was a bit hostile. There was police brutality. Something like that might happen to you as well. It just means I have to be more vigilant. I know not everybody is bad and bad things happen everywhere. But we have to be vigilant,” said Wende.

Njiri said, “we should feel secure.”

UC has a program on “supervised fun” for their students, said Go.

“I don’t know with other schools, but our local students who are interred study and have supervised fun and are involved in swimming, basketball,” he said.

With the Nigerians, he said the students will have an orientation and will be given a handbook.