One of our goals of attending this forum is to be here and make more students enrolled in. And we can also learn from the forum what people are expecting our university to do.
Three and a half thousand Chinese students are now studying in Massey University now. Most of them are majored in business, languages, economics and art. Chinese students are quite hard-working. They have very fluent English and are very keen to explore knowledge and educational experiences. I think Chinese students are geniuses.
We try to equip Chinese students with many chances. Their motive to learning and expectations are quite different from ours. So the students should understand what they are coming for. And we really help them with our experience in New Zealand. They are being willing to meet people, fully enjoy joining the clubs and value their educational experience. They always try to challenge particular lessons so they become familiar with the white people’s talk and they like to ask questions. As long as our students are open to possibilities, I think they will benefit from the education.
There are many models of cooperation between universities in China and New Zealand. I think what works is that people have long relationship with each other, then we know what each university is looking for, because we need to trust each other. And it is always good to look at the good relationships in the past rather than to try to force new relationships.
Graham Baldwin
Vice-Chancellor/Vice-President,
University of Central Lancashire, the UK
My purpose of attending China Study Abroad Forum is to learn the different approaches our partners undertake to international activities.
We probably have about 1200 students from China studying in the UK. Their favorite majors are business, engineering, languages, and art and design.
Our cooperation with Chinese universities goes back to over 25 years ago and we have some very long-standing and successful partnerships. We tried to be very strategic in our approach so we work with universities in Beijing, Shanghai and other parts of China.
We are always keen to look for new opportunities to help enhance students’ experience. We will also be very careful to make sure that we maintain high-quality partnerships, so we will be enhancing the programs we got rather than developing new programs.
We’d like to see more of our students coming over to China to study. We got them coming over for a short period this time now. We would like to see a more balanced exchange of the students between the UK and China, because we both recognize it would be a great experience for UK students to come here. That’s one area that we really want to develop further.
When cooperating with Chinese universities, I think the key is to make sure that you got clear understanding with your partners. We’ve been very lucky because we have a long-established relationship so we know our partners very well. If there is any challenge in the place, we think we can deal with them by having a conversation and coming here for a regular meeting. So we are in China on a regular basis. Probably almost every other month we will be here to meet our partners and get real opportunity to resolve any challenge that takes place.
Caroline McMillen
Vice-Chancellor and President
The University of Newcastle, Australia
This is my first time attending the China Study Abroad Forum and I have really enjoyed it. The forum is a very good opportunity for me to understand China’s priorities in education and policies on overseas study.
We have about 2800 Chinese students studying at the University of Newcastle. They are determined to succeed through hard work and through understanding the materials, so they are good students who spend a lot of time reading and thinking about the course material. However, as with all students, sometimes when they meet new people and experience a different culture, they can be a bit shy and lack some confidence, so we offer different ways to help them practice their English and to better understand the differences among all the other nationalities on our campus. The University of Newcastle also offers various programs to support their learning of the English language and to feel more comfortable speaking and working in English. At the University of Newcastle, we encourage students to ask questions, think critically and to become good problem solvers. Gradually, with time and support, our students become more confident.
In China, the University of Newcastle has a range of partnerships with universities such as with Harbin Medical University, East China University of Science and Technology, Central China Normal University, and Beijing Institute of Technology, among many others. We are committed to further developing our strong relationships with these universities for the long term, and to building a range of new positive relationships to ensure we’re learning from China and understanding its wonderful culture and traditions. Our focus is on making sure our partners know about the areas where we perform strongly on the world stage and about our reputation. We provide students with excellent education and research opportunities, independently of whether they study with us at the University of Newcastle or with our partner universities in China. We provide students with the opportunity to work with industry and business through integrated learning opportunities, because we consider that it is very important to offer this experience for our international and Australian students.
Jane Ohlmeyer
Vice-President for Global Relations,
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
I find the forum is incredibly well-organized. It’s asking various questions and bringing together some very interesting universities from across the world and exposing people to a very interesting range of opportunity. It’s a very pleasant experience for me. I really appreciate the chance to meet people as well as the chance to talk about Ireland. So I go to universities to invite presidents to travel to Ireland and build relationships with us. That’s my job and the forum allows us to build relationships with some respectful Chinese university presidents.
Other than the United States and Canada, China has the largest group of students in our university. There are probably about 400 Chinese students. They tend to be excellent and well-prepared, and I’m sure they’ll be very successful in the future. Many of them will come back to China and work in Chinese universities or companies. And others will stay in Ireland and work in Ireland.
We work with university peer in Beijing (eg. Peking University, Tsinghua University), in Shanghai(eg. Fudan University, Tongji University) and in Hong Kong (eg. Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Technology). So we don’t have a lot of collaboration but they are very strategic and of very high quality.
When UK makes it more difficult for international students to study there, Ireland makes it easier. So Ireland is a very attractive English-speaking country in the Eurozone. I think for students who want an experience in Eurozone, Ireland would be a practical option. I also think Ireland has the advantage because this country is very safe. I think safety is very important. It is a very friendly and welcoming country.
