The 2014 SBC Undergraduate Open Day was successfully held on Sunday 15 June. Nearly 500 students and parents from all over China and abroad visited the campus. Our visitors were given the opportunity to witness the full range of campus facilities and have face-to-face dialogue with SBC foreign teachers about course information and teaching methods. Aside from this, visiting students and parents received a truly British campus experience by attending demo classes as well as a lecture on British education and culture.
The SBC Open Day is designed to give prospective students and their parents first-hand experience of the ‘Britishness’ of SBC and the British way of teaching and learning in an international campus environment. At the opening ceremony, introductory talks on academic subjects and degrees were given by Hannah Jones, Head of the EAP Centre, Anne Brady, Head of the Division of Business and Management, and Dr. Peter Claiden, Lecturer and Programme leader of Year 3 and Year 4 at the School of Engineering.
Professor Ian Gow OBE, Principal and CEO of the SBC extended his warmest greetings to visitors on behalf of the SBC team. Professor Gow said in his speech that the SBC offered students an international learning experience with high quality teaching, delivered by a highly qualified academic team. Thanks to the unique 1to N consortium model, Professor Gow said, students were offered a wide range of subjects and pathway choices at the SBC.
Mr. Tom Song, father of one of SBC‘s outstanding graduates, shared some thoughts about his son’s success at the ceremony. Mr. Song is the general manager of BOMAG (China) Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. His son, Song Chi is currently working at RAVO in the Netherlands after graduating from the college. Beyond this talk, plenty of well-known enterprises and institutions were invited to attend the Open Day.
SBC Year 4 engineering students made presentations on their graduation projects to all visiting students and parents, thereby giving a vivid display of the Engineering Knowledge they had acquired. Events Management students introduced events they organized through venue design models and pictures showing the various learning content and teaching methods in the Events Management Programme.
An important highlight of the Open Day event was the interpreting and other assistance provided by SBC Student Ambassadors. The linguistic skills and professionalism they showed earned the respect and admiration of Open Day visitors.
At the Library, SBC Student Societies displayed the internationalization and innovation of SBC students to all guests through an exhibition of activities and achievements of different student societies.
In addition, the SBC Careers and Development Department not only invited SBC’s corporate partners to communicate with visiting students and parents, but also invited several outstanding SBC graduates back to share their success stories.
2014’s Open Day event aimed to display the international nature, educational resources and recent progress of SBC. Nine demo seminars on various academic subjects, namely English for Academic Purposes (EAP), Mathematics, Events Management, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Business Management, were all very well received by prospective students and parents. In addition, special football and Rugby demo classes attracted many visitors. Visiting students and parents also had the chance to experience British culture through a fully equipped English afternoon-tea event.
Xu Yiling, a high school student from Ningbo Huamao Foreign Language School, said that he learned a lot from the Open Day and had acquired a more rounded picture of international education. Xu said that he hoped he would have opportunity to study at SBC in future.
