Questions

What's your favourite heritage site from the sites you've studied or visited on the course?

We have a lot of outdoor classes every term, which take us to different heritage sites or museums around the area. I have attended at least 4 of them in one term.

My favourite one was Wroxeter Roman Town. When we arrived there, the site’s manager was very warmly welcoming us. The museum and the site were connected, so it was easy to go back and forth between the two areas. There was a large Roman bath site outside the museum, and the remains of a marketplace. There were usually signs with explanations and some games to help people understand the purpose of the sites better. They also provide a platform which can help you to enjoy a panoramic view of the entire site. The manager introduced the historical background and the purpose of the facilities in the site to us, so we could deeply understand how the Romans lived there and also learn some knowledge about heritage conservation. The staff also asked us some questions to discuss and think about.

Besides, the scene that impressed me most at that time was that we met a group of primary school students who came to visit and learn. Although it was raining, the staff dressed themselves up as people in the Roman period and used many props to attract the attention of the children and help them learn better. I think this arrangement is great, and the staff are very admirable. In fact, the site manager or CEO of every heritage site and museums we visited would give us very detailed explanations, but the scene of the Wroxeter Roman Town staff performing their duties diligently and entertaining the children in the rain outside still left the deepest impression on me.

Do you have a favourite module?

I would say that my favourite is Heritage Conservation Management. In this course, the professor often invited professionals from different institutions or museums to give lectures, which gave me the opportunity to directly access more advanced academic resources and learn about the current state of research in a particular field. I personally had some discussions with a professor invited to the course on the topic of heritage digitization, and I learned a lot from it.

What's your career goal and how is Birmingham helping you reach this?

I really want to work in a museum or a related institution. From the perspective of the professor personally, when everyone introduced themselves at the beginning of our semester, the professor said that he hoped to know more about us, so that they could guide our learning plan for each of our different goals. During the job search, if you don’t know anything, you can ask them. I used to be greatly helped by my professor in this way.

From the perspective of the modules, managers from different fields and different institutions explained and shared their work experience to us, which was of great help to my future work resources and goals. From the perspective of the university, the Work Experience Hub on campus will provide us with very rich recruitment and job search experience activities by email every week. Through these resources, I have successfully obtained a job so far.

I am very satisfied with the services of the University of Birmingham in terms of job-related services for students. In fact, before I came here, I heard that the employment rate of the University of Birmingham was among the highest. After I experienced it myself, I fully understood the reason why our university had such achievements.

What do you think is unique about the University of Birmingham?

I think the most unique thing is the environment of the whole university. Personally, I have never experienced such a comfortable environment before. It not only refers to the strong academic atmosphere here, but also includes other aspects.

The University of Birmingham is a very international institution. Students here come from all over the world. You can easily learn about cultures and make friends from different countries. The university will also provide students here with a variety of completely free or low-priced language courses, such as Chinese, Spanish and Arabic. The campus environment here is very good.

If I’m in a bad mood, I will choose to lay on the school lawn or take a walk in the garden of Winterbourne House. There are often various markets in the University of Birmingham, where you can see exquisite products from all over the world. Of course, there are also many rides such as Ferris wheels on campus, which are free for students. If you like music, the school will hold concerts, movie screenings and other activities regularly every week.

Of course, when it comes to the campus environment, it has to be mentioned that the University of Birmingham is the only university in the UK with an exclusive railway station. It only takes 7 minutes from the city centre to the campus, which is very convenient. In a word, the diversified construction of the university makes the overall campus environment very comfortable, which makes my boring study life quite rich, meaningful and dynamic.