‘I’m a 32-year-old woman from Iraq and I want to cancel the misconceptions about refugees.’

Nibras Jasim is far from ordinary. 

Despite that the Western Sydney University student had to overcome significant challenges and disadvantage on her journey to higher education, she has made the Golden Key Society, the Dean’s Merit List, received an Academic Prize for outstanding academic performance, completed three internships and to top it all off, a certificate of achievement from the Great Irish Famine Commemoration Committee.

And in 2016, Nibras, 32, touched down in Sydney, Australia and made herself a new home after fleeing war in her hometown of Kirkuk, Iraq. 

Watch: Myth busting facts about refugees. Post continues after video. 

But as soon as she touched down, she was keen to get a new degree – on her own terms. 

Before Nibras arrived in Australia, she was a software engineer in Iraq. 

Unfortunately, in her home country, Nibras did not have the opportunity to personally pick what she wanted to study.

"Engineering was not my choice," she shares. "We didn't get to choose what we studied. And you're compared against every 12th grader in your country who is trying to compete for very limited degrees."

"My dream to study was so big," she tells Mamamia. "I've always been a high achiever."

So, when Nibras arrived in Australia, she wanted to pick a degree that was an area of passion for her.

Nibras began studying a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) at Western Sydney University in 2019 and while the experience has been one of the most difficult challenges she's undergone, she’s excelled in her course, given back to her community, and is on the path to becoming a registered psychologist.

"You'll get stuck," she explains. "And Western Sydney University will have someone you can ask for help. From lecturers to tutors, who are so helpful. Every single question I had was answered, and they were so proactive in helping me solve my issues."

When Nibras' course is complete, she plans to focus on her strong interest in trauma-related disorders, drawing on her own unique experience as a refugee fleeing war. 

When she came to Australia, the Western Sydney University student had already been stuck in Jordan for two years, waiting for answers and a new home. 

The waiting game was "full of uncertainties," says Nibras. 

"We didn't know how long we were going to live in Jordan. We didn't expect anything," she went on to explain. "I mean we expect trials in our life – but we didn't expect it to be that hard. You can't even begin to imagine it."

Nibras Jasim at the Great Irish Famine Commemoration Committee. Image: Supplied.

On top of the fact Nibras was waiting to find a new country to call home, she didn't know which country it would be.

"The worst-case scenario in your head is the actual reality for a refugee," she explains. "You can't imagine it. No work, no rights, no income. And we didn't know what we didn't know... It was a huge uncertainty."

The displacement was a grief Nibras worked through when she landed in Australia – but a new place with a different way of life represented both challenges and opportunities for her. 

She was only just in the beginning stage of learning English, with Arabic being her mother tongue, so she worked hard to improve her English. 

"When you're forced into displacement, there are all these uncertainties in grief and all these traumatic events happening to you in the process," she recalls to Mamamia. "And the last thing I wanted to focus on was learning a new language or how to talk appropriately and put a sentence in a grammatical way but I persevered."

While it's been six years since Nibras settled in Western Sydney, she says she is still making a home for herself. 

"It feels like [my life as a refugee] happened to another person," she shares. "I don't want to relive it honestly. And I made a good decision to move here but there's still that sense of grief. It's still there even after all these years." 

"I am trying every day to make this home, like the big garden and house I used to have, but it doesn't look like a home quite yet."

When Nibras began studying at Western Sydney University and completed her first assessment ever and got her grade back, she panicked. 

While she achieved a top score, she was under the impression it was a bad grade. 

"My lecturer had to tell me it was an excellent score," she recalls, laughing. "It's all been a huge learning experience."

In the 2022 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, Western Sydney University has been ranked number one in the world, due to its commitment to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. It was ranked against 1,406 other universities from 106 countries and regions. 

Nibras Jasim after joining the Golden Key Society. Image: 

So it would come as little surprise that Nibras discovered the institution through her own community.

"I studied a couple of courses in TAFE, in the Liverpool area and everyone kept mentioning Western Sydney University a lot," she shares. "And I knew it was a culturally diverse and supportive University. One of its twelve campuses is close to my home too."

Nibras joined a vibrant community of 45,000 students from over 170 nationalities at the University, which has a proud history of opening up educational opportunities for people across the region.

She is grateful to call Australia her new home and in five years, those living on Australian soil might be lucky enough to have her as their very own clinical psychologist. 

And her journey to get there was deeply supported by Western Sydney University. 

"It's a really positive experience and it might be a place to study like any other study but you are supported every step of the way," Nibras says. "They make adjustments for individual students – whether you are a disabled person or have learning difficulties or do not speak English as a first language. 

"They accommodate for you. They meet your needs. They look after you. And I've felt supported right from the beginning."

Western Sydney University is ranked the #1 university in the world by the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2022. Find your unlimited here.

Feature Image: Supplied.