On 29 February, Mr. Ji Cheng,the representative of Birmingham City University (BCU) came to our college to give a lecture to our students of 2013 Global Trade and 2013 Financial Services, with a well-prepared video introducing BCU’s Business School and the university’s facilities and courses.

BCU is a modern comprehensive university inthe UK, whose history can be traced back to the year 1843. Located in Birmingham, BCU has 25,000 students from 80 countries studying 300 courses at 6 colleges. Its courses are highly practical and innovative as a result of its emphasis on the students’ social practice abilities. BCU has 8 campuses and the downtown Birmingham campus with an investment of 2.6 billion RMB will be completed and opened to the students this September, and Business School students will have classes in the newly-built Curzon Building there this year.

BCU has sufficient learning and living resources, each campus having its own library with abundant collections of journals and professional books and well-equipped sports facilities. It providesguidance on such practical skills as report writing and a series of assessing, tutoring and consulting services tailored for international students. It promises accommodation for international students and provides various room types. As long as the students get unconditional offers, they can apply for on-campus or out-of-campus accommodation.

BCU Business School is ACCA’s best training institution (of the highest rating), CIM’s excellent training centre, and one of the few institutions offering courses in corporateauditingand consulting. It also offers professional certificate courses, e.g. ACCA, CIM and CIB.

Mr. Ji’s introduction inspired the students’ interest and they asked manyquestions about BCU, such as its admission requirements, the choices of language courses, the duration and format of the internal language test, the proportion of each degree class, tuition fee and life expenses, scholarshipapplication, numbers of ACCA’s exempt subjects, and the location of the Business School as well as the accommodation. All the questions were well answered by Mr.Ji.

BCU will hold an internal language test at our college on 28-29 March this year, and the scores could take the place of IELTS for candidates applying for BCU. What is more, the 8-week language session will be set up in our college this May. For students interested in BCU, it would be good news.