Supporting our past cohorts during the Coronavirus lockdown in China

Thank you to Xinhua Daily, the newspaper of the Jiangsu Committee of the Communist Party of China for their article about us! A longer version of this article published in Xinhua Daily in Chinese is available via their website – here

Our initiative was widely publicised in Jiangsu Province:

  • Nanjing University departmental website – here
  • The Jiangsu Broadcasting Corporation’s channels – here
  • The local government’s website – here

Self-reflection: Week of Chinese Culture

I work with the belief that students should document and reflect on their academic and extracurricular work. This vide reflects on the experiences of my students when organising the Week of Chinese Culture. During the first week of October 2019, our 2019 cohort of Nanjing University students showcased their work with us, held presentations, screenings of non-fictional and fictional short films aimed at increasing the awareness of the Chinese culture among the wider University community.

Week of Chinese Culture

This event marked the 70th anniversary of People’s Republic of China. Our University community was able to learn more about traditional instruments, painting, food, calligraphy, dances, dresses, paper cutting and much more. Our Nanjing journalism students were joined by members of the Chinese Society on campus who performed an original song, a dance and helped with demonstrations in this event.

Song “Nation”

Graduation Ceremony December 2019

Programme Director Damyan Kachulski opens the Award Ceremony for the visiting students from Nanjing University at the University of Stirling’s Crush Hall.

Address by Dayman Kachulski, Programme Director

Dear students,

I want to congratulate you on the successful completion of the journalism programme as part of the Nanjing Exchange Project 2019! I know my colleagues would echo my words in saying that you have a lot to be proud of because you have done an amazing job.

Your persistence has led you to complete all assignments successfully, publish numerous articles, produce, direct, shoot and edit excellent pieces of reportage, designed and 3D-print exceptional 3D objects, improve your employability opportunities and visit great media companies.  Your hard work has generated over 1100 unique visits on your website; you have done an excellent job and have made everybody proud!

Apart from your academic achievements, what I have been most impressed with is your ability to face all difficulties head on – you did not take them as challenges, but as opportunities to learn and improve yourselves! Never lose the passion with which you  work! It is your work ethic that will take you far!

Damyan Kachulski, Programme Director

Employability Exercise (Mock Interview Practice)

As part of the exchange programmes I run, Elaine Watson and I created a simulated job interview process for my Nanjing University Journalism exchange students whereby they respond to a job offer by sending their CVs which they would have had to write for classes. Then they would be shortlisted for an interview which was with the Master in Human Resource Management students. This exercise was part of the Employability component of the China exchange programmes on which Elaine Watson is the main tutor, and we also used the help of Lena Bauchop from the Careers and Employability Service. I was very happy that Lynn Whiteside from Stirling Management School joined us on the day and organised for the Master in Human Resource Management students to interview the journalism students. The most important aspect of it for me was the collaborative work between the academic faculties and the professional services which always results in higher student satisfaction, on the one hand; and the application of the skills the student learned in class in a real-life scenario, or as close to it as possible, on the other. For the students it was a great experience which not only made them practice their skills, but also made them think actively about their future career plans and how to get there. One of the students got a graduate internship with a big media corporation based on the CV he wrote for this class. One student who shared her thoughts about this experience said “We seldom understand how to apply what we learn in class in real life. Now we do!”.