International

Nicki Schiessel Harvey [00:00:02] So I'm here today with Hong Xiao, who is the leader of a construction project management, Solomon Adjei, who is the course leader for undergraduate construction, and you will also teach on the postgraduate course. So what we wanted to talk about today was what's it like being a student on these on the construction project management course?

Hong Xiao [00:00:26] Because I'm the programme leader, so I'm the first to contact that when they come to the BCU for the study. I think the most are most often they will be a little bit comprehensive because a lot of our students are international students. When they come to a new country, a new way of doing teaching and learning is quite terrifying. It's not easy. So I think that is a lot of students doing the study to talk about this kind of transition. It's not easy. Yeah.

Nicki Schiessel Harvey [00:01:10] And what's your opinion, Solomon, because you also came to the U.K. as an overseas student once a long time ago?

Solomon Adjei [00:01:17] Yeah, that was some years ago. I did. And I think yeah, that is true. This whole transition thing mentioned, there's this cultural difference that what we call the culture shock, you would always get it and it takes some time to actually assimilate and get, you know, OK, this is how different it is here compared to where I'm coming from. So I think the key to succeeding, especially as an international student, is being able to quickly understand the differences and trying to align yourself properly and just trying to make sure you get the system here so you can fit into the system, because if you don't do that, I came from Ghana so many years ago, I came to do PhD, so I realised that the way teaching and learning works is very different. So I had to make sure I understood the system here, so I'll be able to do my best in and with the correct resources available it was something you can do. But I think the most important thing is letting people know that it is not the same. You need to understand the system. So that makes a big difference.

Hong Xiao [00:02:20] And also, you see from where I'm from, I'm from China. You can see I'm not where I got a lot of students from Asia, like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and also in this kind of eastern culture you're supposed to respect your professors and your tutors. You don't challenge them. And this is a very, very different from what we do in the U.K. We encourage the students to voice their opinions. They should be able to challenge and disagree with a tutor, and this is very difficult for many students when they first come because they wouldn't realise this is a now allowed or even encouraged. They just keep quiet. If you keep it quiet, you have a lot of ideas or opinions, but if you don't share how you can understand other people. So that's the challenge. I totally understand.

Nicki Schiessel Harvey [00:03:17] And what are your top tips for overcoming that, that transition barrier?

Hong Xiao [00:03:27] And I will always emphasise you need to communicate, so you need to communicate with the tutors and also you probably at the beginning, that will be very difficult, then make some friends on the course from other countries, not only just to stick to the people from the same country. You can talk to the other students from other countries. You start to better express yourself and then you will become more confident, and then, yeah, you will start.

Solomon Adjei [00:04:06] Yeah, that's what I say. That is true what Hong is saying because on the MSc CPM course, I happen to supervise a lot of students who are international students. And from the first meeting you realise that they've come to the meeting thinking you just going to tell them exactly what to do. But then I just tried to make them understand it's not just about you receiving from the lecturer alone, like I can only guide you, you're as best as what you want to put in. So just understanding that you have a lot to input as well is just coming to receive, receive, receive is not just input a lot. If you understand, you need to make an input. The more you study on your own to make inputs, the better it is for you. So for my especially my supervision students, the masters and projects we set for the student, that a few of them have done very well. I mean, very, very well, got distinctions, and were the people who were able to understand actually someone is not just going to tell me, do this, do that and do that. He's going to ask me, what have you done? What do you think of it? What do you think you should go? So it makes a big difference. And this is quite different from some of the educational systems that come from where you are told what to do.

Nicki Schiessel Harvey [00:05:22] And I think this is reflected in our assessment approaches as well, because in in many places you are assessed by exams. So it's a matter of read and then repeat in the exam. But we don't have exams here, do we Hong?

Hong Xiao [00:05:36] No, no. So all the assessment is based on coursework and also the coursework you will know the task in week one and then you have, what, 12 or 13 weeks to do that. And also at the Master's level we don't want you to just describe things or repeat what we teach you in the class, you need to do more extra reading, do more extra research. And also critical thinking is extremely important. You need to understand why something happens, what's the reason behind and also how we can do things better. So you need to answer two basic questions. Why and how, if you can't understand, explain very well why. So, for example, in construction, we still have a lot of health and safety problems and people don't do waste management. So why, why does this happen? And that's how we can do things better. So, for example, how we can reduce or eliminate health and safety accident or because we still have people, money, people get injured, get killed on site, why and how we can do things better? So you need to be more critical to not just accept what other people tell you.

Nicki Schiessel Harvey [00:06:55] And that's a lot of that is about choosing what to read and finding the right things, I always ask my students, I, I do the why, the how and the so what? So why, so what does this mean? If I make a recommendation? It's so, so so what? Why am I doing this?

Hong Xiao [00:07:19] Because the university subscribe to a lot of academic journals, these are all free so every academic year in the first class I always introduce how to find those materials for free. And before, you know, we couldn't find the material. And the problem now is too much work to choose from. Yeah. So that's not a problem we've got loads. So I assure you, you've got thousands, tens of thousands of jornal people to read and is all free and so that's not a problem at all.

Nicki Schiessel Harvey [00:07:57] But that can be overwhelming.

Hong Xiao [00:07:59] Yes.

Nicki Schiessel Harvey [00:08:00] So Solomon, how would you when you're talking to your students, how do you advise finding the right kind of reading the things that are relevant to the modules that you teach?

Solomon Adjei [00:08:09] OK, so for my students, as with every module, we have the land and resources which we provide where they get a link on a moodle that says this is your reading list online. So I always tell them this is your reading list, that it is not exhaustive. Check the key topics please, so let's say if you want to find material on let's say Google Scholar or any other database. So ask yourself, is this material that people are referencing a lot, Google Scholar would always tell you the reference count and all of that. So if it is something that nobody references it means that it is not that good, you don't just go ahead and take anything at all. So I tell them make sure it's something that has been peer reviewed. Make sure the quality of what you're picking is very good. If it's books, just check the author, the index, check the feedback on said books before you just pick them. Let's say for my module we do law and most often they have to use places like Westlaw to find cases and all of that. Students would want to do work and just cite law teacher dot com. I told them, well, law teacher dot come is just something basic that at postgraduate level we don't want you to be citing that. Give us something that is very critical because as Hong said we want you to do critical writing. So you have to read things that have been critically evaluated before you present it. So we always tell them it's not every material you can just cite, make sure you check for something that is good to cite and it provides some good information for you.

Hong Xiao [00:09:33] And also you need to learn speed-reading, you can't just read the word by word that would take a lot of time. You need to learn how to do the speed-reading, I do teach that. And another one is that every time when you read anything, you need to take notes, you need to build up the database. Otherwise, you will forget. Do not rely on your memory. You need to take notes. Yeah. So where does that come from, what's the key points from the paper and then, later on, you can use otherwise and if you do not take notes to keep a record that you will forget. Yeah, or the effort will be wasted.

Nicki Schiessel Harvey [00:10:12] And we have a really good Centre for Academic Success where you can make weekly tutorials with the staff there and they can help build up those skills. Now we do a lot of work which is about teamwork, working on projects.

Hong Xiao [00:10:31] Oh, well, I do understand the majority of students, they don't like group work because it's a group work is very challenging. Yeah, some people do not participate and they do not contribute enough or you will have a dispute or disagreement amongst the group. But I just always just start to tell the students you need to consider in the future when you work as a project manager in the industry, you can't choose who you want to work with, who you don't want to work with. You don't have the luxury to choose. So you have to learn to work with people even if you don't like them. You don't have a different way of thinking and you need to learn now. And so you are preparing yourself to face the reality in practise. So if you have that kind of mentality, then you'll have a different approach. You will keep positive. Yeah. And you always you can make any mistakes as a student. But if I work in the work situation, if you make a mistake, that would have some consequences. Yeah. So you have to keep positive. Yeah. Treat this as a learning opportunity.

Nicki Schiessel Harvey [00:11:49] And as an international student, it's sometimes it's scary to be open to making those mistakes. It depends on the education culture you've come from, but it's that's what we're here for, is to make those mistakes and learn from each other. And I've been an international student myself outside the UK, and that point you made about working across, working, making friends from other countries is so relevant that I still have friends from 30 years ago that I made when studying overseas and now professionally, we communicate across the world about things that are of interest to us. So I do like that point.

Hong Xiao [00:12:36] Well, I have a good example a couple of years ago, I got a student and he did his dissertation on the risk management for large scale renovation project, and he used the ongoing project in Birmingham city centre, as a case study. And one week before he submitted his dissertation, he went to a job interview. And during the interview, they asked what kind of research you did for your for your dissertation, and he presented his findings, and this is what I did. And he got the job on the spot.

Nicki Schiessel Harvey [00:13:19] So have you got other examples Solomon? I know that you do a lot of work with industry.

Solomon Adjei [00:13:23] Yes. So we do a lot of work with industry. And the good thing is when we have students who are very results oriented, who really put in a lot of effort, the industry partners do recognise it. So a few students have had job offers, just from presentations they're doing or people come to say, OK, well, I like the student who did that. Are they working at the moment? If not, can we employ them, you know. So it's about you being willing to put yourself out there, you know, take every opportunity, put your best in everything you do. And so there's a lot of stories. Even one of my Master's students, I'm sure Hong knows about, he did his Master's research on some civil engineering projects in Nigeria. And he actually did put in a lot of effort. And I think he actually won one of the student awards. And when he finished, he went back to Nigeria. After three weeks, he sent me an email saying, well, guess what? I'm employed now in the civil engineering sector and I'm heading some projects. He was very happy about that. He said, well, everything I learnt that I've already put into practise. So that's always opportunity there. So long as a student you put in your best, you definitely get recognised somehow and you get the opportunity to put yourself. So, you know, there's a lot of success stories from working with industry, from students doing their best in getting recognised. So yeah.

Nicki Schiessel Harvey [00:14:39] I think that's good, and I see that again and again with where if you you get over your fear and you throw yourself, I'd say when you when you join a course, if you throw yourself into it, do some things that terrify you and you will get you'll get loads of benefit from you because you don't know how much you're capable of until you try that. And what you say about studying in Birmingham is fantastic because it is a city, especially for the built environment and construction, which is constantly being rebuilt, reinvented and we have so many projects around us.

Hong Xiao [00:15:22] There are so many office buildings, residential buildings, commercial buildings everywhere, so I think that this is a fantastic opportunity in Birmingham, to many of the students, other disciplines this kind of construction is an interruption. But for the students in the construction disciplines, that's just the golden opportunity here.

Solomon Adjei [00:15:48] And I would say if you just look outside the office, HS2 is ongoing, if you just walk into the city centre so many projects and Nicki helped me last year on one of my projects where the students were working with one of the industry leaders to bid for a project right in the city centre. So the location makes it very ideal. As Nicki would alwats say, we have a living lab. So the city is our living lab, so we're able to get anywhere, projects going on and we get like now I've already negotiated next year a project we're going to use for one of our modules with one of our industry partners who's actually doing a project in the city centre. So we always get that opportunity and that's a good fit with our location. It gives us that advantage to to have live projects.

Nicki Schiessel Harvey [00:16:30] And I think it's when you get those opportunities, it's a really good opportunity to live and work and study in another country anyway, but to be able to go in and get involved in some of these projects, the opportunities that you can take back.

Hong Xiao [00:16:51] Well, I think that these I always say to my students, this course is very challenging, very demanding, but in the end it's is very rewarding. Yeah, in the past, many students say through this course, it totally changed my way of thinking, changed my way how I view the construction and the industry. So I think that's a great compliment I can get from my students. And finally, I think if you need to realise this is a difficult journey, but how much you put in, how much you will get out so in the end, you will be richly rewarded.

Nicki Schiessel Harvey [00:17:32] I think that's a lovely note to end on. Thank you both very much.

Solomon Adjei [00:17:35] Thank you Nicki for having us. OK.