IGS

My deepest apologies for being an abscent blogger again. I blame exams! I've got another one today and then a week-long respite until the last one.

Elsewhere...I had an appointment with an international student advisor yesterday to discuss my contract/visa/legally in this country situation. Quite frankly. the whole process is a bit bizarre. I am currently in exams for my second and final semester of classes. The way the system is set-up, I received a 'postgraduate certificate' when I passed the first semesters exams. If I pass these (fingers crossed!), I will receive a postgraduate diploma and be allowed to proceed on to write my dissertation. If my dissertation is successful, I will receive a master's of science degree. While I will know in approximately a month whether I have qualified for a diploma, I will not really know about the full degree status until December or January. I keep telling everyone that the dissertation is due in September, and it is, but it is technically a draft. The powers that be will then pour over it and ask us to change things, and the final draft is due in December. But as the effective due date is September, this is when everyone starts working.

Okay, back to the topic at hand. To qualify for my government sponsored 12-month international graduate scheme visa, which recently replaced the science and engineering graduate scheme (SEGS), I simply need to have a certificate, diploma, OR full master's. Basically, this little caveat is going to make my life a lot simpler. If the scheme required me to proove I had my master's, I would not be able to get the visa until January or so, but if they are cool with diploma, I should be able to receive it prior to starting work in September. The advisor told me just to check with my personal tutor (who's stats test will push the limits of sanity next week) to see if he would be cool with writing a letter at the start of September saying that I have qualified for a diploma and the master's is still in progress. If he is indeed cool with this plan, I could then sign my employment contract with relative, ummmmm, piece of mind. The lady told me that I would 'definitely' qualify under the scheme. So I suppose that's one thing to sort of cross off the list for now.

And it looks like I'll be visiting at the end of June/start of July! More on this later...