Ekaterina Zavalina, a 4th year student from the Faculty of International Relations, programme “International Regional Studies”, completed a semester at Hong Kong Shue Yan University, China, as part of the academic mobility programme. Ekaterina studied 5 disciplines: “Business organisation and management”, “Second language acquisition”, “Introduction to law”, “Integrated marketing strategies and planning”, and “Cultures in the contemporary world”.
Each discipline contained a similar set of tasks which had to be completed during the semester: an individual project, a group presentation, a test, and a final essay (or an exam). The classes were organised in such a way so that students had the opportunity to communicate with the teacher. During the classes, Ekaterina also had to interact with other students and complete various follow-up tasks.
“It is interesting that in some subjects, for example “Business organisation and management” and “Cultures in the contemporary world”, to prepare a group presentation you had to conduct research and a comprehensive analysis, which was not an easy task, but I really liked it. I used the knowledge which I had gained when studying the courses on the theory of international relations and research methodology and the skills of economic analysis which I had developed at my home department. I learned to create sociological surveys with due account of the cultural characteristics of different countries, to conduct linguistic analysis, and much more. Classes in cultural studies developed my skills of critical analysis of texts and gave me an idea of how diverse modern social problems are: beauty, health, and food culture and other issues of concern for the society,” said Ekaterina Zavalina.
The 4th year student from the Faculty of International Relations also noted that the semester which she spent in Hong Kong as part of the academic mobility programme is a valuable experience that provided her not only with knowledge, but also with a lot of positive emotions. She was actively engaged in many extracurricular activities organised by the international department of the university.
“The events were really exciting and brought all the international students together”, said Ekaterina.
The student also had the opportunity to attend a course in basic Cantonese, which helped her to learn more about the culture of Hong Kong, and to make new friends.
At the end of the semester, Ekaterina went on a trip to China and visited such cities as Macao, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Beijing. Ekaterina Zavalina emphasised that these six months of living and studying in China contributed both to her professional and personal development.
