National lockdowns also highlighted the need and importance of socialisation and group activities. This period showed just how damaging isolation is to one’s mental health and how group activities are vital to mental health and well-being. To ensure that our students were well taken care of socially, especially after the two national lockdowns and self-isolation requirements, the UK Campus also organized a wide range of after-class activities and social events in order to provide students with a greater depth to their learning experience.
Group exercises and personal training
The pandemic also highlighted the importance of exercise to mental health and well-being. To ensure that our students were fit and healthy, the UK Campus arranged for a personal trainer to come to Campus twice a week to provide our students with personal training and group exercises. The personal trainer was well-trained and professional, and tailored every session to each of our students’ abilities, goals, and needs. Each training class lasted for 60 minutes and incorporated various exercises to improve core stability, strength, agility, and speed, which helped students to feel fitter and stronger in their daily lives. Some students, finding out just how useful it was to have such dedicated physical training, arranged to have 1-to-1 sessions with our personal
trainer.
Cotswolds Trip
Throughout the pandemic, as the national restrictions relaxed, the UK Campus arranged various extra-curricular activities for our students, such as a walking tour of Oxford, a day trip out in the Cotswolds, a Pizza and Quiz night, Chinese music seminar, a Halloween experience, a photo competition, Chinese New Year tea party, a formal dinner at some of the University of Oxford’s colleges, amongst many other activities. Our students appreciated the opportunities to see and experience the City of Oxford and the UK during these challenging times.
Strong Academic Support
In addition to welfare and well-being support, the UK Campus also ensured that the students were well supported academically. As many second year students were unable to travel to our Shenzhen Campus due to the closure of the Chinese border, the UK Campus incorporated many academic avenues to support their dissertation research and writing.
To assist their research, the UK Campus acquired the WIND and Statista databases, and also organized research methods’ workshops to help students with data analyses and to familiarise them with the acquired databases. To help in monitoring their dissertation progress, a weekly Dissertation Supervisory Meeting was also established, where students reported on their dissertation writing progress, and a Mock Dissertation Defence with members of the UK Campus faculty was organised for students to present their final research. These academic support initiatives were well-received by the students who felt that it boosted their research confidence and their ability to pass the dissertation defense successfully.
Students attend hybrid seminars
The pandemic also limited the students’ ability to interact and network with people from industry. However, to help mitigate the effects, the UK Campus organised various hybrid seminars with a myriad of different speakers from various businesses and industries. These seminars were very well received by students, because, both in-person and online, they were able to learn many new insights from industry professionals beyond their courses, and many developed their network with numerous businesses and practitioners.
Despite the pandemic being officially over in the UK, it is without doubt that the learning experience of the students at the UK Campus during this period will remain with them forever. Despite the unprecedented times and their impact, PHBS students – like students all over the world – have been able to continue their studies and learn important life lessons.
