Alumni
Ramnique Sandhu
Current student, Charles Sturt University Sydney
Ramnique is an international student from Punjab, India, who is completing a Bachelor of Information Technology in Cyber Security and Cloud Computing at Charles Sturt University Sydney. She is the Treasurer of the Student Representative Council, and she is also a Charles Sturt University Sydney employee, holding a casual role in Student Support and Retention.
Ramnique chose to study at the University’s Sydney campus as it offered significant access to research projects. Her advice to other international students who are deciding where to study, is to get in touch with the faculty and get to know the academics who will be your teachers.
“My favourite memory is when I initially started my position as Student Support for retention and academic purposes at CSU, and I started my employment at Navitas. That for me was not only a life changing opportunity, but I think that in itself has been an entire experience, because now I feel more included as a member of the family – not just as a student, but also staff.”
Transcript
I am Ramnique Sandhu and I am from Punjab, India, which is in the northern part of India. Punjab is called the land of five rivers and so from flying from that little city to Sydney, Australia, was a very big step.
I’m currently a student at Charles Sturt University Sydney, it’s my second year session 1 and I’m currently studying a Bachelor of Information Technology with a dual specialisation in Cyber Security and Cloud Computing.
Previously in India, I have actually never had a tech background, I did commerce with business, economics and mathematics, but then I wanted to just kind of commence into the FinTech world.
I did like a good three to four months of research, talking to agents, talking to everyone I knew outside, to understand where is it that I want to be, and what is it that I actually want to pursue.
I think the non-negotiables for me was to understand that whatever university I’m going to offers a very bright and significant area into research. I was previously from Commerce and I never had an IT background. Getting into any university without clearing an exam, or without clearing a certain set of requisites, was very difficult. But when Charles Sturt Sydney came around and I had a word with the academics, because of the results that I had in Grade 12, they were very happy to accommodate everything – given that I get the visa and everything else.
I think the best thing was getting in touch with the faculty that was already established there and getting to know the academics. For them to understand that I want to do research whilst working in the industry was incredible.
The entire community at CSU Sydney guided me through every single step of every single process I needed to do, in a way that I could understand and that I could comprehend – and it makes me feel that I was part of the community that I wanted to be in.
It just feels so surreal because I feel that just last year I got on the plane, and back then I was so hesitant and so nervous. Just walking into CSU, and then going in and campaigning for the post of the Treasurer for the Student Representative Council, and eventually being able to get it and then running again this year as well, is something I could have never thought I would be doing because I’m very, very reluctant and very introvert.
My favourite memory is 28th October 2024 when I initially started my position as Student Support for retention and academic purposes at CSU, and I started my employment at Navitas. That for me was not only a life changing opportunity, but I think that in itself has been an entire experience, because now I feel more included as a member of the family – not just as a student, but also staff.