Education writer James McEnaney speaks to Nour Ghadban, a Syrian academic now living and working in Scotland thanks to support from the Council for At-Risk Academics.
You’ve come to Scotland thanks to support from the Council for At-Risk Academics. Can you tell us a little bit about why you left your home?
I'm from Syria and I was a lecturer in a university in Syria, in the computer science department. My field is in AI, in areas like audio-visual speech recognition.
The situation in Syria has been challenging due to the war. As lecturers and professionals in Syria we were facing a lot of difficult situations and circumstance. The situation with the destruction of infrastructure has affected universities, with many facing closure or further damage. So I had feeling that I have to leave Syria because I was facing a lack of safety and a lack of resources that mean I can't complete my research, and it leads to an uncertain future.
How important was the support from CARA in helping you to get from Syria to Scotland?
When I was in Syria I contacted CARA and told them about my work and that I want a better future for me and my family. I want to be safe. I want to complete my research. And this is why I want to leave Syria.
CARA helped me to with interviews with universities where professors asked what I could do here and I explained my plan. So CARA helped me and supported me to find work here in the University of a Glasgow as a research fellow.
Is the support available to you just about finding you a job or is there further support once you arrive?
Yes, CARA support me in understanding how academic life works here in the UK. They support me with English and how to write a CV and find grants. We have a mentor from CARA and we can speak about anything that we face in life and they can help us to understand anything that what we don't understand because really it's different here from our countries. It's so important. And there are so many other things as well.
Read more:
Jenny Gilruth's plan for school behaviour is little more than empty PR
In-depth: What you need to know about learning styles
How the Scottish Government puts a positive spin on education stats
When did you actually arrive in Scotland and have you felt welcomed here?
I came here last August in 2022 and I feel that coming to the university means I really have an opportunity to excel in my field and to contribute to Scotland's academic landscape. In personal life I feel that people here are so friendly and very warm and open-minded. I feel accepted. I'm included. I'm so, so happy here in Scotland.
You said that your field is AI and speech recognition. Now that you can continue your research, can you tell us what you’re going to be working on?
My work isn't only focused on speech recognition that's audio-visual. The next step is that we'll take another sensor, like a radar, and we can recognise words if anyone speaks behind a wall or wearing a mask, so we will develop that. I have a contract that will start next March so we can apply AI here in healthcare applications.
Finally, if circumstances allow, do you plan to return to Syria, or would you rather stay in Scotland?
CARA support us to build an academic life here and then maybe come back to our countries, but when I feel that I'm so welcome here, and I can contribute to Scotland - I feel that I want to stay here. I have to stay here. For my children, we can live here in safety, and I can continue my work here. So yes, I want to stay here.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel