Home Country: China
Course: BEng Materials Science and Engineering
Department: School of Metallurgy and Materials
"Birmingham is a multi-cultural city. People living in this city are from all over the world and we share each other’s culture together ."
Why did you apply to the University of Birmingham?
I was a student studying Materials Science and Engineering Technology in Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT). This university runs a long-term exchange project with University of Birmingham. Materials Science is an excellent subject in the University of Birmingham (it ranks within the Top 10 of UK Universities), and UOB have helped many of my senior students find a brighter future in their career path. That’s why I trust University of Birmingham and chose to study here.
What are the best points of your course?
The course has more of a focus on practical use, which can help to find a specific direction of career path that we are interested in.
What’s the best thing about studying at the University of Birmingham?
The service and facilities provided by the University are excellent and the faculties here are very helpful. Our personal tutor gives us a meet-up tutorial once a week, and he helps us a lot including problems we had in our studies, cultural shock, language barrier, guidance of future career and so on.
In addition, with the help of advanced facilities such as lecture recordings by Panopto, lecture managing online platform named Canvas, various resources provided by the library and the hardware support (e.g. Campus PC's, tables for group discussion, comfortable study places, etc), studying overseas in a different environment seems to be much easier than expected.
What’s your highlight of your time at the University?
The highlight of my life here is the time that I spent with my flatmates. I am living in a student accommodation named Pritchatts House that is as known as the Global community. Our flat is very big, and we have 18 people living together and we are from different countries and regions of the world (Britain, China, Ecuador, Romania, Kazakhstan, Canada, Hongkong, Taiwan, Nigeria). This multi-cultural circumstance does not stop us from interacting with each other, on the contrary, it helps us bond much closer.
What advice would you give to other international students?
Before you come to UK practise your English as much as possible! You can try to read some English textbooks that are related to your course and watch some British TV-series without any captions.
When you are in UK, don’t worry. Be brave and confident, just open your mind and embrace the difference. Don’t worry too much or be afraid of making mistakes. Native people here are always more than happy to teach you if you are willing to learn.
What do you like most about the city?
Birmingham is a multi-cultural city. the people living in this city are from all over the world and we share each other’s culture together. You will always find the mark of your country’s culture in this city.