Student ServicesNews
Welcoming International Schools on campus
The University hosted several campus visits by school teachers, school counsellors and students from schools in Norway, China, and India in October. The visits were organised by the International Office in conjunction with the Higher Education Advice Team.
Norway
The visits started off at the beginning of October with students from the International School in Stavanger, Norway’s fourth largest city. The 15 students and 3 teachers were on a comprehensive university tour of the UK, taking in 10 institutions in 5 days. The group was shown around campus by one of our student ambassadors, and given an introductory talk about the University of Bath by Jo Power, the International Office’s country manager for Norway.
China
Next up was China, with a delegation of Headteachers and Education Bureau Directors from the Yueyang East Somerset Partnership. The visitors had expressed a particular interest in Engineering, and were shown around several workshops by Gary Hawley. The Director of the East Somerset Partnership, Adrian Ash at Strode College, is a Bath alumnus in Modern Languages. The partnership with Yuenang in Hunan Province started up in 2011 and has since been hailed as “a model partnership” by the British Council.
More information about the East Somerset Partnership can be found here.
India
Over to India, or rather, India over to us! Aspire, one of our agents in India, organised a visit of 5 Delhi-based schools’ counsellors to Bath. The delegates each represented different schools, including three IB schools.
Zoe Whittle, the International Office’s country manager for India, and Doris Bechstein from the Higher Education Advice Team in Admissions, put together a half-day programme for the visitors, show-casing faculties and departments. Reminiscent of July’s HE Advisers’ Conference taster sessions, the programme alternated between academic talks (Management and Economics) and more practical demonstrations (Engineering and Biology). The visitors were able to find out about Student Support from Nicola Peacock and about Admissions from Lee Hennessy and had a chance to catch up with some of their students over lunch.
Sally Clift, Chris Bannister and Stef Kynaston, a student ambassador and school visitors from Delhi admiring the F1 car in Engineering.
Treasure Hunt for Yew Wah students from Shanghai
The final October visit from abroad was a group of Chinese students from an International School in Shanghai. Each year Yew Wah Shanghai Changning sends several groups of 25-28 students preparing for the IGCSE and A-levels to the UK. This visit was the first of 5 hosted by the University of Bath in 2012/13.
The International Office, the Higher Education Advice Team and the English Language Centre work together to make the programme as informative and enjoyable as possible. The half-day visit includes a short talk introducing the University of Bath, but the highlight for the 16-year old visitors appears to the Treasure Hunt with Jonathan Stubbs from the ELC. Small groups of our Chinese visitors roam the campus with student ambassadors, and try to complete a Treasure Hunt task. The winning team takes away a small price at the end, and everyone involved usually knows a great deal more about the campus than a regular campus tour can provide.