To fully understand the condition of overseas graduate students including their life and study in Xiamen University and improve the internationalization of graduate education, on the afternoon of Oct. 19, the graduate school invited 19 overseas graduate students and PhD candidates from 9 schools to have coffee and to share their true feelings of studying and living in XMU. Students who joined in the coffee talk are from schools such as College of Humanities, School of Journalism and Communication, School of Law, School of Economics, School of Management, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, School of Information Science and Engineering, Institute for Financial and Accounting Studies and Research School for Southeast Asian Studies, etc. Their countries cover Columbia, Mexico, Spain, South Korea, Philippines, Pakistan and Ghana, etc. Dr. Tao Tao, executive dean of the graduate school hosted this event in vivid and humorous English. Xue Chenglong, vice director of office of academic affairs, Fan Lijuan, vice director of office of postgraduate degrees and program also attended the meeting.
The overseas students engaged in a lively discussion, and talked about their life and study in XMU. They all complimented the beautiful environment and sound infrastructure of XMU and showed appreciation to their opportunities to study in XMU. They also come up with some suggestions and thoughts on building a better international education environment. Korean doctoral student from the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering suggested that the places of different courses could be closer because commuting between Siming Campus and Xiang’an campus on the same day was not very convenient. Constantin James Go, a Philippine PhD student from Research School for Southeast Asian Studies said that he obtained both his bachelor’s and Master’s degree at Xiamen University and is right now pursuing his PhD degree. He is very much attached to Xiamen university and hoped that the tutors could provide more guidance on the graduate degree thesis to overseas graduate students so that they can graduate on schedule. Bangladeshi PhD student Mohammad Maruf from School of Economics said that he hoped the research school could limit the number of required courses in every semester and control the process of teaching to help overseas students understand professional knowledge better. Shaila Akter Saky, a Bangladeshi graduate student from college of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering spoke about the lack of communication with his Chinese classmates because of the language barrier. He hoped he could have more communication with Chinese friends, study and make progress together.
The overseas graduate students also expected that XMU could increase Chinese training courses proportionally to help them improve their Chinese proficiency. Meanwhile, they hoped the university can improve the quality and quantity of bilingual files and documents so that they could understand the various rules and information better. They also expressed their expectations for more of this kind of event where they can exchange thoughts and solve problems.
In the event, the leaders engaged in animated conversation with overseas students and listened to their appeals and advice and answered patiently to their questions. They encouraged the students to increase communication with tutors and Chinese students and fit in the environment soon.
At present, there are 644 overseas graduate students from 98 countries studying 108 majors in XMU, accounting for 4.1% of the total graduate students.
