On 27 October, the 8th International Postgraduate Education Information Fair was hosted in the new Sports Complex on campus. The bigger venue and better facilities allowed 42 higher education institutes from around the world to set up booths and welcome attending students from UIC and nearby universities. It is estimated that almost 2000 students and parents took advantage of this valuable opportunity to attend the fair and learn more about the universities they were interested in for postgraduate study. This fair was organised and arranged by the Four-Point Education Coordination Office.
The event formally began with a Year One student from the Division of Culture and Creativity (DCC), Han Minxuan, welcoming everyone before introducing the President of UIC, Prof Ng Chai-Fai. The president greeted attendees and praised the event, saying that “Development of international perspectives is one of the objectives of the UIC education. In the past few years, the number of graduates who have successfully engaged in postgraduate education has steadily increased and hit the 60% mark in 2017.” Gifts were then given to each attending university and institution.
Prof Ng Chai-Fai welcomes everyone
The International Postgraduate Education Information Fair is held by UIC annually, and has gained a high reputation among the students. This year, there were 11 new exhibitors, including the University of Manchester, University of Southern California as well as Washington State University. Many universities have expressed a huge interest in enrolling UIC students because English is used as the medium of instruction at UIC, which makes it easier for UIC students to adapt to the western education system. The higher educational institutes were advertising and exhibiting their masters and doctorate programmes, and provided students with useful suggestions about preparing their applications and choosing a major.
42 higher education institutes from around the world take part in the fair
Yue Peng, a Year 1 student, came to this fair to collect information about the programmes she is interested in as well as to learn which universities suited her best. “It is very helpful that we can communicate with the representatives of the universities face to face. Though I am still a year one student, this fair has given me a chance to think more about my future, and I believe I can make a better plan now.”
“Our school prepared a lot for this fair,” said Shi Zhouming, a volunteer at the fair. “The volunteers divided up the workload and cooperated with one another.” Visitors, especially who came from nearby schools, spoke highly of the volunteer services. “I think this event is a good chance for most students to learn more about their future.” said Zhao Junjian, a Year 1 Public Relations and Advertising student who worked at this year’s fair as a volunteer. “I like to volunteer; I have volunteered before in many activities in my home town. I also want to learn more even though I am only in year one. This fair is very meaningful as it provides a great deal of information so it makes me want to participate”.
Rob Batchelor, who works in the International recruitment office at the University of Kent, attended the fair for the first time. “We have had UIC students express an interest and apply for the University of Kent before, which was encouraging, but we have never attended a fair at UIC until now.” He also mentioned that the University of Kent has a specialist Actuarial Science programme that has gathered a lot of interest from UIC students due to its recognition across the professional industry.
Rob Batchelor from the University of Kent finds the fair to be very encourgaing
Xu Limin, a Year 3 Accounting student, when asked why she came to the fair said “Next year I will apply for postgraduate studies and I want to find out more information before I do that.”
Some universities give seminars
Xu Jiaen, Year 3 student of the Financial Mathematics programme, replied “We can find out details from the internet, but we really want to get the exact information from the universities itself, so it helps to talk with a person” when asked what she liked about the fair.
UIC is now offering postgraduate programmes
A huge change to this year’s fair is that UIC also had a booth to show their postgraduate programmes. Approved by the Ministry of Education, four research postgraduate programmes, including Statistics, Biology, Chemistry as well as Computer Science and Technology are being offered. Many students and teachers look forward to these postgraduate programmes.
Reporters: Li Dandan (IJ, Year 1), Samuel Burgess (MPRO)
Photographers: Ivy Liao (MPRO), Wu Wei (COMM, Year 1), Dou Qilin (IJ, Year 2)
Editors: Samantha Burns, Deen He (MPRO)
(from MPRO)
