Summer in Birmingham

All exams are finally over for students, graduation ceremonies are taking place in Town Hall and we can finally enjoy beautiful summer weather in Birmingham. Academic year is not, however, over for everyone as Master's students are still working hard on their dissertation and PhD students carry on with their research.

The weather is amazing at the moment, so it is nice to have a break and relax at Victoria Square where M&S have organised Simply Food Pop-up Park and people can enjoy their lunch there listening to live music.

Hope everyone is having a good summer so far and good luck to those submitting their dissertation at the and of August!!!

Skype Campaign

Another interesting activity we take part in as International Student Ambassadors is called Skype compaign. A lot of international students have conditional offers before they join Aston and we are still waiting for their response. Quite a few of them find it challenging to make a decision as to which univeristy it would be better for them to join. Especially if people have never been to the UK before, they might experience some difficulties making such important decisions in their lives.

The main purpose of this activity is to try and help all international students to answer questions they might have regarding all aspects of life in Birmingham, studying at Aston and about this country in general. We have a list of people who still hold offers and we call them ourselves and explain that we are there for them to help with anything  It is particularly useful that it is being coducted by us, students, as we have experienced this life abroad ourselves and believe that we can actually give them a valuable advise before they join us in September.

Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon is one of the most picturesque and beautiful towns in West Midlands, located only 25 miles away from Birmingham.

Even though it is not as big as Birmingham, there are a lot of things you can do: enjoy walks by the river, visit parks and gardens, see birthplace of William Shakespeare. There is a famous theatre, called "the Swan" which organises different performances throughout a year based on various novels and plays.

You can spend a nice relaxing day and evening there with friends and family and definitely worth visiting especially on a nice sunny summer day!

Virtual Open Day

Another event which took place last week organized by an International Office was virtual open day and international ambassadors were there to help taking part in it.

It is always recommended to visit any university before applying there as students need to see whether they like the environment, general atmosphere of the university, etc. However, for some international students it is too far away to travel; therefore a virtual open day was organized during which we tried to demonstrate every aspect of Aston university lifestyle, introduce perspective students to our community and help them in every possible way to make a right decision for them.

Various online sessions and presentations took place for two days and students from all over the world were able to choose which session they wanted to attend online, i.e. they could join for the whole day or just connect for a specific presentation. International ambassadors helped running webinar sessions where we had to prepare a short presentation about our experience at Aston University and life in Birmingham. We really hope that potential students found it useful as we were extremely happy to be able to share our experience with other students and try to answer some of their questions in advance.

Student Panel Volunteers

Last week I took part in the recruitment process, which was a completely new experience for me and I think I learnt a lot just from one day!

International Office at Aston was looking for a person for the role of international students adviser and has asked a few students to volunteer and help during this process. This job is quite challenging as given a job description it was clear that a person employed would have to be quite experienced in different areas, including work with students, being able to give a valuable advice regarding visa, organisation of various events for students, etc. As first part of their interview process, the candidates had to answer a few questions on the student panel as it gave an opportunity for employers to receive feedback from students.

There were three students in total on the student panel, including me and two other students at Aston. All of us were coming from different countries and backgrounds, studying various subjects at different levels - so I thought it was quite a good presentation of students at our university. We were given a few general questions to ask candidates and the main objective for us was to provide feedback regarding each candidate. The most important task for us was not to concentrate on the answer they were giving, but try and form an opinion based on how approachable and friendly they were as their daily job will be working closely with students and helping them quite a lot.

There were five candidates in total and it was an interesting experience to see how people present themselves in the recruitment process. They were all candidates with great work experience and skills so I thought it was useful for us to learn something new from them. Of course it was extremely difficult to provide feedback as every single candidate was suitable for this job.

Even though this step was not crucial in an interview decision making, but providing this opportunity for us to take part in it shows how important and valuable students' opinion is for Aston!

Easter Break

The second term has already come to an end and we have three weeks of official holidays at University to which all students were looking forward to. It is a well deserved break for everyone! This term has been particularly challenging in terms of studying and work for all students at Aston as this year is coming to an end soon and most exams will be taking place this summer. It is always nice to go back home to enjoy time with friends and family after a hard work during term time.

Hopefully everyone is having a good time and getting ready for the final term at Aston which starts next Monday!

Research Seminars

Research seminars are short academic events being organised at Aston Business School. There are a few academic groups and each group holds its own seminars couple of times a month. They usually take place during lunchtime and academics from different business schools present their research work. Presentations last for about half an hour after which everyone can join the discussion. 

A few weeks before a seminar is organised we receive an email with detailed description of the planned event, i.e. name of the presenter, title of the seminar and paper abstract; therefore we have time to decide whether this particular topic would be relevant for our research and prepare for it. Of course we are able to attend any seminar we are interested in, it does not have to be related to our research theme. 

It is extremely useful for PhD students as we get an opportunity to express our thoughts in a friendly academic environment and discuss our ideas with other fellow students as well as lecturers. It is also helpful to get ideas for our own research.