Chinese students in UK face challenges amid restrictions

Students from China at university in the United Kingdom are managing a different kind of academic year amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

With many campuses closed, students are learning remotely, social events that go with university life have been cancelled, and some international students have remained in their home countries logging into virtual classes.

He Xucheng, 19, from Tai'an in Shandong province, is a computer science student at the University of Warwick.

He said university life has changed compared to last year and online learning is "very different" to going to physical lectures and seminars.

"Live sessions are new to me, it provides a method for us to discuss questions with the lecturers, even anonymously," He said. "On the one hand it gives students more chance to interact with teachers, on the other hand, I feel like I have to put twice the time into study, and it has been relatively hard to catch up with each week's schedule."

He said the university has offered a lot of support for online learning, but he admitted feeling less motivated compared to last year and that working remotely has been a challenge.

"I have to schedule my daily timetable very well which has not been easy especially for someone like me who is not very good at scheduling and sticking to the plan," he said. "The university life is totally different during this pandemic. I couldn't study with my classmates from last year, nor communicate with them about the classes as often as others."

The 19-year-old said he is looking forward to going back to physical classes and lectures as he's not used to online learning and finds the scheduling of recorded and live lessons too chaotic.

Twenty-year-old Huang Jingyu from Shanghai is a second-year student studying accounting and finance at Warwick Business School.

She is doing online courses from China and welcomes remote learning.

For Huang, online courses have been "more convenient and useful" than she expected, enabling her to focus more on studies.

"I do not need to spend time on trivial things like walking to the classroom, cooking, shopping etc. These daily activities did help me cultivate independence in the past, but now I can put more effort into my studies and internship application without distraction," she said, adding that she can now spend more time with her family.

Zhou Shujie, also from Shanghai, said taking online courses is nothing new to her as she's done it before and sees many advantages with remote learning during the pandemic.

"I don't need to go to real lecture rooms at the risk of infection. Also, many online lessons can be recorded, which are beneficial for students to review knowledge," Zhou said. "In addition, online learning lets everyone share their opinions in the meeting chat. However, sometimes some technical problems will happen during online learning."

The 22-year-old Supply Chain Management student at the University of Warwick, said although she's not missing out on anything academically, she does miss the walks through campus and taking part in university activities.

But even though the students aren't in class or campus, organisations such as the university's Chinese Society has kept them virtually social.

Huang said: "We have a Chinese Society that organizes a lot of events and platforms for communication and entertainment."

She explained that classmates discuss academia as well as everyday issues on WeChat groups. This has also allowed her to meet up with others while she is in China, where restrictions have been relaxed compared to the UK.

"Although I cannot have many experiences based on campus this year, my university life is fulfilled by many opportunities and events provided by the school and societies," Huang said.

The changes due to the pandemic have not been easy for all the students, and there are still worries ahead.

"The biggest concern is definitely the current pandemic situation. The UK just announced the second lockdown and what will happen afterwards is still unknown," He said. "If the current situation won't get better and I have to study remotely, the second concern would be how can I find a balanced way to learn all the modules through this rough and unfamiliar learning style," he added.

Zhou said it's unfortunate she can't talk to friends and her tutors face to face and is unsure about career options.

"I don't know what the employment situation will be like after a year," she said.

Huang said while she's not worried that her studies will be affected, she does wonder what lies ahead.

"As for my future career, there are many opportunities in both China and the UK. I feel that concerns regarding career are mostly related to self, not the environment. The one I feel a bit upset about is that I may not have the chance to meet more foreign friends as online connection is weak for a friendship," Huang said.