

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.
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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."