Student Counsellor Raneem Nageeb speaks of the impact COVID-19 has had on students and the higher education landscape in recent podcast
Thursday, December 9, 2021: How are post-secondary students coping with pandemic life? Raneem Nageeb, Student Counsellor, Canadian University Dubai (CUD) recently participated in TheJamesCast podcast by James Piecowye, where she discussed the short and long-term implications of a COVID-19 environment for students alongside Orsi Urban, Manager of Career Services and Cooperative Education, Rochester Institute of Technology (Dubai).
Both Raneem and Orsi offered great insights in their informative and entertaining conversation, touching on how students have had a change in thought and mindset because of the altered higher education environment.
Raneem said: “There’s a lot of adapting…coming up with new ideas and new ways to do things. It’s thrilling as it starts a lot of conversations and Universities must now get creative to manage the current situation. We often don’t know what to anticipate when changes occur, because COVID-19 is new. We must make decisions based on what we know, what’s going on, what the regulations are, what the students are feeling. We need to be innovative in accommodating their needs and our approach to these situations play a big role.”
Speaking to the concept of mindset and growth, the conversation expanded on the idea that the COVID-19 era has enabled society to create the “future workplace”, one that will serve everyone better by becoming more equitable, more innovative, and more flexible with hybrid work modes.
Raneem continued: “A lot of my sessions ended up being virtual. Even now that we have returned to campus, some students still prefer to meet remotely via Zoom or Webex. A lot of tactics that we learned are still being used now too. When we shifted to online learning, professors provided recorded sessions of their lectures. Students found this to be beneficial because they can go back, rewatch them, and review if they missed out on something or need to hear it again to better grasp the information. This is still being implemented at CUD now, which has helped students to learn better.”
Their conversation also addressed the COVID-19 environment and how these instant changes led to increased opportunity for students, including more flexibility and choice.
As a result of these new demands, CUD has implemented a series of successful programs to prepare students for this new hybrid approach to higher education, such as improved student services and virtual access to resources.
TheJamesCast inspires great informative, educational, and entertaining conversations to distract listeners from the “day-to-day" by putting a smile their face. The podcast entitled “Catching Up with Orsi Urban & Raneem Nageeb” is available for listening here.
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