Division International Studies

On Friday, 20 November 2009, Ivaylo Gatev of the division of International Studies gave a 40 mins talk in front of about 200 students from Zhenhai High School in North Ningbo. The talk sought to explain what living and studying in the UK was all about, but also touched on subjects such as British humour, the 2012 London Olympics, and British cuisine. After the presentation, Ivaylo took questions from the audience on a wide range of topics, including the specificities of the UK educational system, the welfare system in Britain, and British people’s passion for football.

British cuisine as seen by Royal Mail: curry, sushi and 5-a-day

Global Governance graduate Du Ran with the Head of Division International Studies,wearing the UNNC MA gown: black gown, Edinburgh style black hood with light blue and carlett lining.

Saturday saw the first graduation ceremony for our MA Global Governance students. In black gowns with black hoods which are lined in light blue students received the congratulations of the President of UNNC, Professor Yang Fujiya and the Provost, Professor Roger Woods, as well as of their Head of Division, Dr. Catherine Goetze.
For some the professoral procession into the hall at the sound of Georg Friedrich Haendel’s Water Music seems like a peculiar form of carnival, for others it constitutes one of the most solemn moments of their lives. But where does this tradition of procession, congregation, and gowns come from? Read the rest of this entry »

On 12 November 2009 Dr. Sergey Radchenko joined the information session of the UNNC admissions office at the Zhejiang Forestry University, where he answered questions from students interested in the postgraduate programmes offered by the UNNC.

It is this time of the year again, when Chinese students all over the country are applying en masse to post-graduate studies in the UK. Requests for references pile up on the desks of teaching staff and email boxes are full with anxious emails “Dear Professor, did you write…”, “Dear Doctor… I would like to apply, can you kindly” and so on. Nervous students sit in the office hours, clinging to their folders in which they have neatly filed printouts from the webpages of the universities to which they want to apply. Yet, when asked what exactly they want to do, why they want to do a post-graduate degree and what they expect from post-graduate studies, students more often than not give you a blank look. Better job chances, the reputation of the universities, and the parents’ will are sometimes mentioned but overall, very often students do not seem to have very clear ideas of what they want to achieve with post-graduate studies. Even the question if they really need post-graduate studies remains unanswered. A couple of weeks ago I had a student in my office who had a wonderful plan of what she would like to do after her studies but as all her classmates were applying for post-graduate studies she felt that she needed to do so, too, even though this would not contribute anything to her original career plan. Read the rest of this entry »

The visit to Yinzhou High School in Ningbo took place on Friday, 30 October 2009 and was attended by 600 high school students. Staff members, May Tan-Mullins and Ivaylo Gatev, from the Division of International Studies spoke about the benefits of studying and living in the United Kingdom. Ivaylo’s presentation focused on the educational opportunities offered by the cities of London, Nottingham and Oxford. He described student life in these cities and spoke at length about their rich historical and architectural heritage. May discussed the cultural aspects of living in UK, including various festivals and its food culture. The presentations were followed by a Question and Answer session in which the two presenters responded to queries from the students on topics ranging from choice of UK university to ways of improving one’s English to foreigners’ experiences in China. The school visit was a great opportunity for Chinese high school students to get a feel for what it is like to live and study in Britain.