Uni looks to further China expansion
Students from China visited the latest facilities at the University and met many of its near 1,000 Chinese undergraduates and postgraduates
Wed, 08 Oct 2014 14:00:00 BST
The University’s China Office staff visit Huddersfield – many for the first time
HUDDERSFIELD is the first choice overseas university for rapidly growing numbers of Chinese students, and the team that is helping to make this happen has just paid a special visit to the UK.
They visited the latest facilities at the University and met many of its near 1,000 Chinese undergraduates and postgraduates. The visiting party was headed by Peter Chen, a Huddersfield alumnus who has worked with the University since 2010. In that time he has helped launch the University of Huddersfield’s offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
The three offices employ a total of eight staff, and seven came on the special visit to Huddersfield. The busy two-week programme included senior strategy meetings with Professor Dave Taylor, who is Pro Vice-Chancellor (International), Director of International Development Andrew Mandebura and Head of International Partnerships Tony Wong as well as senior management teams from all the faculties.
Training sessions were also held within the operations team in the International Office, as well as meetings with colleagues from Marketing, Student Learning Support, Accommodations and the University’s 3M Buckley Innovation Centre.
Most popular overseas university
Peter Chen came to Huddersfield in 2007 to study for a Masters in Human Resource Development. Before this he had studied for a Bachelor’s degree at Beijing Huijia College, taking one of the courses that the University of Huddersfield delivers in several Chinese universities and colleges.
While he was still studying in Huddersfield, Mr Chen expressed an interest to his tutor Lyn Hall in working for the University on his return to China. After Lyn’s introduction and talks with Tony Wong, who was in charge of the International Partnerships development, Peter started working closely with Tony and the International Office under the strategic support from Professor Dave Taylor. Peter was appointed Chief Representative in 2012 when the Beijing Office was opened by the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bob Cryan.
Mr Chen has explored many strategies to spread the word about Huddersfield throughout his vast country. For example, he harnessed the power of the social networks named Wechat and Weibo, which have been described as the Chinese version of Facebook and Twitter.
The University’s Weibo account rapidly gained almost 40,000 followers, making it the fastest growing of its type. It has massively raised awareness of Huddersfield among potential Chinese students and led to it being voted the most popular overseas university. Mr Chen and his team are backed up at the University of Huddersfield itself by a team that includes International Marketing Officer Alan Tobi plus Mr Wong, who confirms that China is a key market for student recruitment and one that is still growing.
New overseas outlets
Meanwhile, the success of the Beijing office means that it is the model for the University of Huddersfield’s two other new overseas outlets – in Nigeria and Vietnam.
Mr Chen said that he and his colleagues – many of them first-time visitors to Huddersfield – were highly impressed by the University’s new facilities, including the Student Central building, which opened at the start of 2014.
Chinese students chose Huddersfield, he added, because of the course programmes and the quality of the teaching. Key subject areas are business-related, but courses such as engineering and computer science, art and design and education are becoming increasingly popular. Mr Wong added it is the strategic aim for the China Office to promote the comprehensive range of excellent courses offered by all our seven schools.
