The 2015 campus Open Day was successfully held on Saturday 13th June. More than 400 students, parents and representatives from high schools and enterprises with ties to SBC visited the campus and took in the top, international academic atmosphere and diverse campus culture.
The annual SBC Open Day has become an effective platform for SBC to interact with the public with updates on the recent teaching and research achievements within the college. The event is also designed to give prospective students and parents a first-hand experience of the “Britishness” of SBC and the international teaching and learning at the college.
At the Welcome Ceremony in the morning, Professor John Wilson, Principal and CEO of SBC, extended a warm welcome to all visiting guests, students and parents. As the new Principal who took up the role in May, Professor Wilson shared with the audience about why he chose SBC. He said that in addition to the fantastic location of the campus, the city of Shanghai and the positioning of SBC as a genuine international university college, he said that the most important reasons for him to choose SBC were its excellent reputation and its huge potential, through its international environment and network of UK universities, to make an even greater contribution to the personal development of each individual student.
Members of the SBC senior academic team then gave students and their parents a full picture of British teaching methods and recent research achievements. Following the sharing of campus experience by two current students of SBC, Dr Raymond Ro talked about his life experience and the importance of finding one’s passion and dream.
Key Elements for British Education: Independent Learning, Finding Your Potential and Be Innovative
As an education institution which has stood at the forefront of bringing top-level British degree education to China, SBC offers a student-centric form of educational experience, encouraging students to be independent learners, excel themselves and be innovative. At the Open Day event, students and parents were given the opportunity to have discussions with SBC staff, students and graduates and to learn for themselves how a British learning environment can be created on an international campus. In addition, demonstration lectures and seminars gave visiting students and parents an opportunity to acquire further knowledge of each degree programme offered at SBC and the unique British style of teaching. This is particularly important for those students who proceed to the partner universities in England as their familiarity with British teaching methods helps them to adjust successfully as they continue their studies abroad.
An Exhibition of Campus Culture: Diversity and Excitement
The exhibition of campus culture at this year’s event was formed of two parts – music and sports, which drew lots of visitors. The Rainbow Chamber Orchestra, consisting of SBC students and students from Shanghai Conservatory of Music, provided a performance of world-famous pieces by Mozart and Joe Hisaishi in the SBC Library building. On the sports ground, the visiting students, led by Andy Ritchie and Shaun Caldwell, two members of the SBC academic team, were invited to join the games and learnt more about the history, rules and celebrities in British Soccer and Rugby. In addition to this, in front of SBC Teaching Building, the Student Union Presidential Election also attracted plenty of visitors as they had the opportunity to vote for their favourite candidates.
Careers Service and Development: from Students to Working Professionals
The SBC Careers Service and Development team is committed to enhancing students’ employability skills and competency by offering a systematic competency package, ultimately facilitating SBC students’ rise to career success. At the Open Day, various careers service and development sessions were offered. For example, a session on career awareness named “The Me Tree” has helped students to discover who they truly are through self-analysis and parental feedback. After the session, students were able to identify possible career options by going through their family members’ career choices.
SBC Ambassadors: We Are Young
To give a full picture of the recent development of SBC, there were lots of fresh features at the Open Day this year, especially for SBC Ambassadors, who provided various services to visitors such as consulting and interpreting. The team consisted of current SBC students and graduates who proved to be the highlight of the whole day with their incredible cross-cultural communication skills and friendly and welcoming approach.
At the conclusion of the whole event, many visiting students and parents expressed the view that they had acquired a more rounded picture of British educational resources, teaching features and the advantages of studying at SBC by all the interactive events, academic and cultural experience activities. They also mentioned that they saw the potential and possibility of having a fulfilling and wonderful study life at SBC in the four years ahead.
