 DCU welcomes students from over 110 countries, including Shepard Machea from Zimbabwe. But how he got to DCU is a tale more fraught than most. On the run from his home, Shepard sought asylum in Ireland and is staying in a direct provision centre in Port Leish. I was under persecution from the ruling party. I was being forced to protect the activities that they do in like forcing people to join the party and forcing people to go and attack other people like the opposition parties and those that are not interested in joining the party. So I refused. I'm not a politician myself and I'm not interested in politics. So the things like when I refused, I then became an enemy to them. And they kept trying to force me and I kept refusing until I became a target and they started persecution me. And they were beating me up and they took me several times and they tortured me until one day I just like got a chance to keep out of the country. That's how I ended up in Ireland. After studying in Port Leish College for a year, he applied through the CIO to go to university but didn't have the money. Luckily, the University of Sanctuary programme helped him out. I applied through the CIO and when I made my application I actually put DCU on top. This is where I wanted to study. For some reason I don't know but I've just heard some people like making very good recommendations about DCU. Then well, I didn't have money to go to university. All of a sudden we got a reception here. They put a link saying that DCU were offering scholarships so I applied and in God I was accepted. DCU took on 15 students through the programme which has been a major success in its first year. We had a very successful colloquium at the start of September. We're running again or many projects every week for two hours when we bring in people from Moznik. We're doing a storytelling project for DCU students. There's a few things going on like this and it's been really good energy. Shepard now plans to work in IT after graduation and his education is helping him to build a better life. I've learnt a lot of things. I've been in school now close to six months, five months, six months. But I've actually learnt a lot of things to be honest with you and though I'm studying online it's a very, very tough thing to do. It's very challenging. It comes with a lot of challenges. It comes with a lot of discipline. I'm studying online. I'm studying on my own. I'm spending a lot of time like reading and to be honest it has done a lot of good. It made a lot of changes in my life in terms of like how far I can push myself.