BBC Radio Scotland has featured interviews with students who recently completed a four-week Academic Training Programme with the Institute and Principal, Professor Malory Nye.
The “Ricky Ross” current affairs programme – broadcast on Sunday, March 14 – heard students from the UAE and Qatar praise the people of Dundee and Scotland for being “very friendly and welcoming” and interested to be offered different perceptions of the role of Arab women in the 21st century.
Among their highlights outlined in their lively discussion, the students said they enjoyed visits to the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh Castle, and a Dundee United football match, which was, they said, “a very nice experience.”
Shopping, too, had been a priority while hot chocolate, they revealed, was one thing they couldn’t get back home.
Professor Nye, in his interview with programme host, Ricky Ross, explained – in addition to the reasons for the establishment of the Institute in Dundee in 2001 – that more than 300 female students had now visited it to undertake educational programmes, such as the ATP.
Professor Nye said one of the aims of bringing people together had been to help them understand a little bit about living in the west.
“The students who come here are ambitious, well-motivated and highly intelligent,” the Principal said.
He stressed that the Institute’s educational role was to try to break down stereotypes and the idea that there is a “clash of civilisations” between Islam and the west.
The Professor described Dundee as a natural home for the Institute as it was an “education city” with fine universities with a quarter of its population comprising students during term-time.
The Institute, he added, had welcomed students from India, South-East Asia, Africa and Europe since it opened its doors.
Ricky Ross, himself a Dundonian, closed the discussion with a personal observation: “As always, Dundee well ahead of its time.”
